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

Published: 1 September 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, Wednesday 2 September 2026, Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico runs a genuine back-to-back pair at 5pm and 6pm — the 5pm edition is a repeat of the same episode Dave showed at 10:20am this morning. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing follows at 7pm, Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer fishing for perch on the Thames with Richard Herring, itself a repeat of the 2:20pm showing. Would I Lie to You? then runs two fresh series 11 episodes back to back at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, before QI XL takes the 9pm slot with Sandi Toksvig’s “North Norse” instalment — a repeat of Dave’s own 2am airing earlier the same day. Lorraine Kelly hosts Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 10pm, and Taskmaster closes the night at 11pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Wednesday 2 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Wednesday 2 September 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Wednesday’s overnight hours open with Mock the Week at midnight (series 17, episode 1), then two Would I Lie to You? repeats before QI XL’s “North Norse” instalment gets an early outing at 2am, hours ahead of its own primetime replay. A second Mock the Week and Parks and Recreation carry the schedule to 4am, when teleshopping takes over until Top Gear opens the proper broadcast day at 7:25am, followed by two episodes of Border Force: America’s Gatekeepers.

Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico gets an early daytime showing at 10:20am, then Yukon Gold and two Top Gear repeats fill the late morning and early afternoon. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has its own daytime showing at 2:20pm — the same episode that returns at 7pm — before Speed with Guy Martin and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British see out the afternoon. Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico then opens the early evening with a repeat of its 10:20am episode at 5pm, followed straight after by a new one at 6pm, leading into tonight’s line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 2 September 2026 — and the honest shape of it is that half of it has already been on today.

Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico — Dave, 5pm and 6pm

Rick Stein’s Road to Mexico opens the early evening with a genuine back-to-back pair, series 1 episodes 5 and 6. The 5pm edition, in which Rick samples Aztec cuisine in Mexico City before reaching Puebla for its mole sauce, is a repeat of the same episode Dave showed at 10:20am. The 6pm follow-up, taking him on to Oaxaca and the Chinantlan Mountains, is new to today’s schedule.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

At 7pm, Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer head to the Thames with terrier Ted in search of perch, and Richard Herring joins them once the rods are down (series 5, episode 4). It’s a repeat of the same episode Dave aired at 2:20pm this afternoon.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm and 8:20pm

Would I Lie to You? runs two fresh series 11 episodes back to back. The 7:40pm edition has Mark Bonnar, Sheila Hancock, Stephen Mangan and Anita Rani; the 8:20pm follow-up brings in James Acaster, Gabby Logan, Melvin Odoom and Fay Ripley. Both sit alongside regular team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack, hosted by Rob Brydon.

QI XL — Dave, 9pm

QI XL takes the 9pm slot with “North Norse” (series 14, episode 2), Sandi Toksvig talking all things Scandinavian with Lucy Beaumont, Jason Manford, Rhod Gilbert and Alan Davies. It’s the same episode Dave broadcast at 2am this morning.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You — Dave, 10pm

Lorraine Kelly hosts at 10pm, with Maisie Adam and Matt Chorley joining regular team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop (series 68, episode 7).

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

Taskmaster closes the night at 11pm with series 5, episode 8, as that run heads into its closing stretch.

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 early evening with a genuine double bill at 5pm and 6pm, the first a repeat of the day’s own 10:20am showing. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing takes the 7pm slot, also a repeat, of the same episode shown at 2:20pm. Would I Lie to You? then runs two fresh series 11 episodes back to back at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, before QI XL takes the 9pm slot with a repeat of its own 2am showing. Lorraine Kelly hosts Have I Got a Bit More News for You 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

Wednesday is the most repeat-heavy evening Dave has shown in a while, and it’s worth saying plainly: three of its seven primetime hours have already been on today. The 5pm Rick Stein repeats 10:20am, the 7pm Gone Fishing repeats 2:20pm, and the 9pm QI XL repeats 2am. None of that makes the schedule bad viewing, but anyone switching on at 9pm hoping for something new is getting Dave’s small hours instead.

What’s genuinely fresh: the 6pm Rick Stein, both Would I Lie to You? editions at 7:40pm and 8:20pm — two clean series 11 episodes back to back rather than a series handover — and the closing pair of Have I Got a Bit More News for You and Taskmaster. Lorraine Kelly’s turn hosting the news panel at 10pm is the best reason to stay in for the second half of the evening.

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