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

Published: 2 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, Thursday 3 September 2026, Rick Stein’s Secret France takes the 6pm slot before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing repeats at 7pm — the same Surrey Hills carp-and-barbel episode Dave showed at 2:20pm this afternoon. Would I Lie to You? then runs two series 11 episodes back to back at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, but out of order: episode nine first, then episode seven. Hit Point takes the 9pm slot with its fourth episode, unrelated to the genuine new series of Taskmaster launching the same hour on Channel 4. Have I Got a Bit More News for You runs at 10pm, and Dave’s own 11pm Taskmaster is an archive Champion of Champions rerun, not the new series. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Thursday 3 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Thursday 3 September 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Thursday’s overnight hours open with Mock the Week at midnight (series 17, episode 2), then two Would I Lie to You? repeats before QI XL takes its own early slot at 2am (series 14, episode 3). Richard Osman’s House of Games 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 its first 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 Surrey Hills 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 repeats once more at 5pm, before Rick Stein’s Secret France opens the early evening proper at 6pm, leading into tonight’s line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 3 September 2026.

Rick Stein’s Secret France — Dave, 6pm

Rick Stein’s Secret France closes out the early evening at 6pm (series 1, episode 6).

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer are back on the bank for carp and barbel at 7pm — the same Surrey Hills episode (series 5, episode 5) Dave already showed at 2:20pm this afternoon.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm

The first of two Would I Lie To You? episodes tonight lands at 7:40pm: Susie Dent, Bob Mortimer, Ore Oduba and Stacey Solomon join David Mitchell and Lee Mack’s teams for series 11, episode nine.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 8:20pm

Straight after, 8:20pm actually goes backwards to episode seven, with Steve Davis, Craig Parkinson, Sara Pascoe and Claudia Winkleman as the guests. Dave doesn’t run these two in transmission order tonight, and they aren’t consecutive episodes either.

Hit Point — Dave, 9pm

Hit Point holds the 9pm slot for a fourth episode, with Leo and Carter reeling from Dylan and Sophia’s disappearance. It’s a scheduling coincidence rather than a rival premiere — the genuine new series tonight is Taskmaster, series 22, launching the same hour on Channel 4.

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

Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the extended news quiz at 10pm, with Stacey Dooley and Andy Hamilton joining Paul Merton and Ian Hislop’s teams.

Taskmaster: Champion of Champions — Dave, 11pm

Dave’s 11pm archive slot brings back Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding, Rob Beckett and Bob Mortimer for a Champion of Champions rerun. It has nothing to do with the new series 22 that launched on Channel 4 two hours earlier — Dave has run a different Taskmaster repeat in this slot every night this week.

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 Secret France opens the early evening at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing takes the 7pm slot — a repeat of the same episode shown at 2:20pm. Would I Lie to You? runs two series 11 episodes back to back at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, but in reverse order: episode nine first, then episode seven. Hit Point takes the 9pm hour with its fourth episode, Have I Got a Bit More News for You airs at 10pm, and Dave closes with an archive Taskmaster: Champion of Champions rerun at 11pm — not the new series 22, which launches the same hour on Channel 4.

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

Thursday’s evening leans on what’s already aired earlier in the day: the 7pm Gone Fishing repeats 2:20pm, and the two Would I Lie to You? episodes at 7:40pm and 8:20pm run in reverse order rather than as a clean consecutive pair. None of that makes for bad viewing, but nobody switching on expecting a fresh, in-order run finds one.

The one thing worth flagging plainly: Dave’s 11pm Taskmaster is a Champion of Champions rerun, sitting two hours behind the real event of the night, series 22’s launch on Channel 4 at 9pm. Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 10pm, with Victoria Coren Mitchell in the chair, is the most solid unrepeated hour Dave has to offer this evening.

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