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

Published: 21 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, Tuesday 22 September 2026, two Would I Lie To You? episodes open primetime from 7:40pm, ahead of two editions of Have I Got a Bit More News for You from 9pm. QI XL takes 10:40pm and 8 Out of 10 Cats closes out the night at 11:40pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Tuesday 22 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Tuesday 22 September 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Overnight opens with Live at the Apollo at midnight, then QI XL at 1am, Will & Ralf Should Know Better at 2am and Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish at 3am, before Teleshopping fills the small hours from 4am until twenty-five past seven.

Pointless opens the broadcast day at 7:25am, then two Cops on the Rock episodes carry the morning through to twenty past ten, when Rick Stein’s Spanish Christmas and Rick Stein’s Spain take over. Two Top Gear episodes open the afternoon at twenty past midday, followed by Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, How Britain Worked and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British, before a repeat pairing of the two Rick Stein shows leads into this evening’s schedule.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 22 September 2026.

Rick Stein’s Spain — Dave, 6pm

A rerun of Stein working through regional Spanish cooking opens the evening, market stalls and home kitchens rather than a restaurant set.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse carry on their unhurried riverbank conversations. The fishing is mostly an excuse; the show has always been more interested in friendship and getting older.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm

Two episodes run from 7:40pm. Rob Brydon referees as David Mitchell and Lee Mack’s teams try to spot the one implausible truth hidden among a run of confident lies.

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

Two more editions fill the hour from 9pm, drawn from the archive spin-off strand rather than a fresh topical recording.

QI XL — Dave, 10:40pm

The extended cut from Sandi Toksvig’s years in the chair, with Alan Davies still the one panellist who’s never missed a series.

8 Out of 10 Cats — Dave, 11:40pm

Closes the night with the numbers-driven panel format at its loosest, closer to stand-up with a scoreboard than a proper quiz.

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?

Two Would I Lie To You? episodes open primetime from 7:40pm, ahead of two editions of Have I Got a Bit More News for You from 9pm. QI XL follows at 10:40pm, and 8 Out of 10 Cats closes out the night at 11:40pm.

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 a fairly ordinary Dave evening: two Would I Lie To You? episodes open primetime, then two editions of Have I Got a Bit More News for You run from 9pm. QI XL takes 10:40pm and 8 Out of 10 Cats closes things out at 11:40pm.

Earlier on, Pointless, two Cops on the Rock episodes and a pair of Rick Stein travel shows carry the day in before primetime proper gets going — panel comedy and factual reruns in the usual reliable rotation.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Drama TV Guide | Films on TV Tonight