Dave TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Dave Tonight

Published: 30 August 2026

Dave is UKTV’s comedy and entertainment channel, and almost everything it broadcasts belongs to somebody else. The exception is Red Dwarf, which Dave revived in 2009 with the original cast and has been trading on ever since. UKTV became a wholly owned subsidiary of BBC Studios in 2021 and renamed the channel U&Dave in July 2024, when it pushed the whole portfolio under a single “U” brand. Nobody calls it that. Tonight, Monday 31 August 2026, Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico opens the evening at 6pm before Mortimer & Whitehouse’s Christmas fishing special gets its second showing of the day at 7pm. Would I Lie to You? swaps its usual format for an out-takes special at 8:20pm, then Jo Brand hosts Dave’s own extended edition of Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm — a different programme from BBC One’s version later on. QI XL repeats its earlier Victory episode at 10pm, and Taskmaster closes the night at 11pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Monday’s overnight hours open with Live at the Apollo at midnight (series 16, episode 2), followed by QI XL’s Victory episode at 1am — the same edition that repeats in tonight’s primetime slot, Sandi Toksvig’s panel chasing bragging rights over series 22’s fourteenth outing. Four episodes of Parks and Recreation run back to back from 2am before teleshopping takes over until 7am. Eddie Eats America opens the proper broadcast day, then two Top Gear outings carry the morning: a Nepal special followed by a series 12 episode.

Gavin and Stacey runs from 10:50am in broadcast order, six episodes of the first series carrying the channel to 2:40pm and reaching the episode built around the wedding. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing (2022) gets its first outing of the day straight after, a festive trip to Norway’s Arctic Circle screened in the last week of August, before Hairy Bikers’ Best of British and the opening episode of Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico fill the rest of the afternoon. The chef’s next stop, Monterey into San Diego, leads into this evening’s line-up at 6pm.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s what’s actually on Dave this evening, Monday 31 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico — Dave, 6pm

Rick Stein continues down the California coast for the second leg of his journey, from Monterey into San Diego (series 1, episode 2). He calls in at Olvera Street to trace the city’s Hispanic roots, then meets a sea urchin diver working the waters off San Diego — a quieter episode than the show’s usual restaurant-hopping.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing (2022) — Dave, 7pm

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s festive special gets a second outing tonight, having already aired mid-afternoon. It’s a genuinely seasonal episode to find in the schedule during the last week of August: the pair head into Norway’s Arctic Circle, fishing around the Vesterålen islands and the Lofoten archipelago and running into one of the region’s tidal maelstroms along the way.

Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits — Dave, 8:20pm

This edition swaps the usual format for out-takes, series 10 episode 9 gathering the moments that didn’t make the original broadcasts. Rob Brydon hosts as ever, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack in their regular team-captain chairs.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You — Dave, 9pm

Dave’s extended cut of the news quiz, series 68 episode 5, is hosted tonight by Jo Brand, one of the regular guest hosts on this version of the show. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton keep their usual team-captain seats, joined by comedian Nabil Abdulrashid and journalist Tom Peck. It’s a separate programme from BBC One’s Have I Got News for You later in the evening, which runs its own series with its own host and panel.

QI XL — Dave, 10pm

Tonight’s extended QI, titled Victory (series 22, episode 14), already had its first airing at 1am this morning. Sandi Toksvig chairs Rob Beckett, Daliso Chaponda, Lara Ricote and the show’s ever-present Alan Davies.

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

Spoony Neeson, series 5 episode 6, closes the night. Bob Mortimer makes the case for sausage meat as a serious culinary contender, and Sally Phillips returns to a challenge built around climbing inside a giant model womb — as strange as Taskmaster gets, which is saying something.

What kind of shows are on Dave

Panel shows and comedy institutions

This is the channel’s whole personality. Would I Lie to You?, QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster: two decades of British panel comedy, nearly all of it bought in from the BBC and Channel 4 rather than commissioned here. What Dave adds is the scheduling. Episodes come in blocks you can drop into at any point and leave whenever you like, which is a different way of watching television and, on a weeknight, not the worst one.

Sitcoms: archive and revivals

Red Dwarf is the one thing Dave can properly call its own. The channel brought it back in 2009, a decade after the BBC finished with it, and got Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn all to return. Dave’s daytime sitcom rotation runs deep too, with long-running BBC and Channel 4 comedies filling the hours between panel shows.

Factual entertainment and documentaries

A thinner strand of observational and scripted-reality shows fills the gaps: Highland Cops, Meet the Richardsons and similar, mostly parked in daytime. It’s ballast between the comedy blocks.

How to watch Dave

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Dave across the main UK television platforms:

Dave is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Channel numbers can vary slightly by region and set-top box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Dave streams live and on demand for free on U, UKTV’s streaming service, at u.co.uk and through the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV. U was called UKTV Play until the 2024 rebrand. You need a free account, and there are ad breaks, the same ones you’d sit through on a TV set.

Dave ja vu and sister channels

Dave ja vu is the timeshift channel, running the main schedule an hour behind under a pun that has somehow survived since the 2000s. It’s on Freeview 74, and coverage is patchier than the main signal because it shares broadcast capacity with local TV services in parts of the country. Where reception is thin, the U app is the better fallback for anything you’ve missed.

The rest of the family: U&Drama, U&Yesterday and U&W free to air, with U&Gold, U&Alibi and U&Eden behind pay-TV. All of them sit in the same app.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Dave on Freeview?

Dave is on Freeview channel 19, and Dave ja vu on 74.

What’s on Dave tonight?

Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico opens the evening at 6pm, followed by a second showing of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing (2022) at 7pm. Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits airs at 8:20pm, Jo Brand hosts Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm, QI XL repeats its Victory episode at 10pm, and Taskmaster rounds off the night at 11pm.

Who hosts QI and Would I Lie to You??

QI is hosted by Sandi Toksvig, with Alan Davies the permanent panellist since 2003. Would I Lie to You? is hosted by Rob Brydon, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains since the show began in 2007.

Can I watch Dave online for free?

Yes, free on U at u.co.uk or in the U app. You’ll need an account, and it’s ad-supported.

Verdict

Monday’s daytime leans heavily on repeats: six episodes of Gavin and Stacey’s first series, two showings of Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico, and a Christmas fishing special that airs twice before 8pm.

Primetime is honest about being a rerun-heavy night too. Nothing here is a genuine premiere — Would I Lie to You? is an out-takes compilation, QI XL repeats its own 1am showing, and Mortimer & Whitehouse gets its second outing of the day. The one thing worth setting a reminder for is Have I Got a Bit More News for You, where Jo Brand’s version of the panel earns its own space against its BBC One namesake later on. A comfortable, familiar Monday rather than an eventful one.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Drama TV Guide | Films on TV This Week