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

Published: 10 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, Friday 11 September 2026, Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey closes the early evening at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 7pm leads into two episodes of Would I Lie To You? from 7:40pm. QI XL takes the 9pm slot, and two episodes of Magnum P.I. close out the night. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Friday 11 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Friday 11 September 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Overnight opens with two Would I Lie To You? episodes from 12:30am, then QI XL at 1:50am and Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish at 2:50am, before Teleshopping runs from 4am to half past seven.

Pointless opens the broadcast day proper at 7:25am, then two Border Force: America’s Gatekeepers episodes lead into two Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey episodes through the late morning. Two Top Gear episodes fill the early afternoon, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Speed with Guy Martin and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British carry into early evening, where two further Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey episodes lead into tonight’s line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 11 September 2026.

Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey — Dave, 5pm-6pm

Two episodes run back to back through the late afternoon, series 1 episodes 5 and 6, the second sliding into the start of the evening. Rick Stein’s tour of Far East street food and markets is a settled fixture in this slot rather than a scheduling event.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Series 6, episode 5. Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s low-key fishing trips double as an excuse for a chat about friendship and mortality, and it remains one of Dave’s better acquisitions.

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

Two episodes back to back, series 12 episodes 2 and 9, of Rob Brydon’s bluffing panel game ahead of the night’s main booking.

QI XL — Dave, 9pm

Series 14, episode 9. The extended cut of the quiz panel show is Dave’s most reliable nightly draw.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 10pm

Series 1, episode 16 of the private-investigator drama that anchors the channel’s later evening.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 11pm

Series 1, episode 17 runs straight after, closing out the night.

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 Far Eastern Odyssey closes the early evening at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 7pm leads into two Would I Lie To You? episodes from 7:40pm. QI XL follows at 9pm, then two Magnum P.I. episodes close out the night.

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

Tonight is Dave’s usual shape: gentler factual programming into panel shows. Rick Stein and Mortimer & Whitehouse’s travel and fishing hours lead into two Would I Lie To You? episodes back to back, then QI XL takes the 9pm slot, the channel’s strongest regular booking.

Two Magnum P.I. episodes close things out, a dependable archive drama pairing rather than anything built specifically around tonight.

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