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

Yesterday is UKTV’s history and heritage channel, mixing archive documentaries, military history and natural history with a growing slate of classic motoring shows. BBC Studios has owned it outright through UKTV since 2019, and it’s free with no subscription required. Saturday’s daytime here runs on repeats rather than a magazine format: a Train Truckers block through the morning, a Flipping Bangers pair at midday and three Canal Boat Diaries episodes tracking narrowboat Robbie’s journey from Oxford towards Windsor in the afternoon. Early evening belongs to the BBC’s Planet Earth II, with the Jungles episode at 5pm followed by Deserts at 6pm. Primetime is where the channel shows its hand: four Bangers programmes across five hours and three different series, opening with Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics at 7pm and Bangers & Cash itself at 8pm, before Dream Car Fixers takes 9pm and Restoring Classics returns for a pair at 10pm and 11pm. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

Saturday’s schedule opens just after midnight with Bangers & Cash, followed by Find It, Fix It, Flog It at 1am and Abandoned Engineering at 2am, before just over three hours of teleshopping fill the small hours from 3am.

Two more episodes of Abandoned Engineering run from 6:10am, then Train Truckers holds the whole morning with four episodes back to back from 8am to midday, following the run from series 1 into series 2.

Flipping Bangers takes the midday hour with a pair of episodes, then Canal Boat Diaries settles in for three from 2pm, tracking narrowboat Robbie’s route from Oxford towards Reading and on to Windsor. Early evening is the BBC’s Planet Earth II: Jungles at 5pm, then Deserts at 6pm. From 7pm the schedule turns into a run of four Bangers programmes spread across three different series — Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics opens it at 7pm, Bangers & Cash itself takes 8pm, Dream Car Fixers breaks it up at 9pm, and Restoring Classics returns for a pair at 10pm and 11pm that run in broadcast order.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026.

Planet Earth II — Yesterday, 6pm

The Deserts episode closes out Planet Earth II’s early-evening double, following Jungles at 5pm. Expect locust swarms and desert lions working together to bring down giraffes, the kind of sequence the series built its reputation on.

Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics — Yesterday, 7pm

From 7pm the evening turns into four Bangers programmes back to back, drawn from three separate series of the format — this one, the plain Bangers & Cash at 8pm, and two more helpings of Restoring Classics either side of Dream Car Fixers. Tonight’s opener has the team fitting out a Paul Smith-liveried Mini.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 8pm

The Mathewsons’ auction floor at 8pm brings in a Mark 1 Astra GTE, a Morris pickup, a Lambretta Silver Special and a 1964 Trojan.

Dream Car Fixers — Yesterday, 9pm

Sheldon and Will take on a 1976 Triumph Stag, seeing whether the classic convertible can be rescued into something roadworthy.

Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics — Yesterday, 10pm

Back to the auction house at 10pm for a 1972 VW Fastback and a decades-old police motorbike.

Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics — Yesterday, 11pm

The night closes with a Volvo 144 rolling into the yard, the second of two Restoring Classics episodes running in order.

What kind of shows are on Yesterday

Classic motoring and Bangers & Cash

Motoring is the growth area, and it is essentially one family: the Mathewsons of Thornton-le-Dale. Bangers & Cash produced Restoring Classics, and the channel has built a wider strand around them with Flipping Bangers and Find It, Fix It, Flog It.

Military and social history

Archive war documentaries are what the channel was founded on. The World at War still anchors a run of conflict and social history titles pulled from decades of British broadcast archive.

Natural history and engineering

The rest is natural history and engineering: A Perfect Planet, plus Abandoned Engineering and Secrets of the London Underground, which are really infrastructure documentaries wearing a history badge.

How to watch Yesterday

Channel numbers

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

Yesterday is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat channel numbers can vary slightly by region and box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Yesterday streams live and free on u.co.uk and via the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and most streaming boxes. U is UKTV’s streaming service, formerly known as UKTV Play, and it’s free to sign up for. Most Yesterday shows are also available to catch up on demand once they’ve broadcast, though older archive series can come and go from the library.

Yesterday +1 and sister channels

Yesterday +1 runs the main schedule exactly an hour behind, on Freeview channel 26. Miss the start of a Bangers & Cash episode on the main channel and +1 lets you pick it up from close to the beginning an hour later instead.

Yesterday sits within the wider UKTV stable alongside Dave, Drama, Really and Alibi. If you enjoy Yesterday’s history and documentary output, Dave carries more panel shows and sitcoms, while Really leans towards true crime and paranormal programming.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Yesterday on?

Freeview 27, Sky 155, Virgin Media 129 and Freesat 155. Yesterday +1 is on Freeview 26. All are free to watch.

What’s on Yesterday tonight?

Planet Earth II’s Deserts episode airs at 6pm, following Jungles at 5pm. From 7pm it’s four Bangers programmes across three series: Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics at 7pm, Bangers & Cash at 8pm, Dream Car Fixers at 9pm, then Restoring Classics again at 10pm and 11pm, the last pair running in order.

Is Yesterday free to watch?

Yes, on every major UK platform, with advertising breaks but no subscription fee.

Can I watch Yesterday online for free?

Yes, live and on demand via u.co.uk and the U app, UKTV’s free streaming service.

Verdict

Pound for pound, Yesterday remains one of the better-value channels on Freeview. The archive documentaries that built its reputation are still on air, and Bangers & Cash has grown into the channel’s biggest draw since it began in 2019.

Tonight leans hard on that motoring strand: four Bangers programmes fill five hours from 7pm, drawn from three different series of the format, with Dream Car Fixers breaking up the run at 9pm. It sounds repetitive on paper, but the cars change every hour — a Paul Smith Mini, a Trojan, a Triumph Stag, a VW Fastback and a Volvo 144 all pass through by midnight. Planet Earth II’s Jungles and Deserts episodes make a solid lead-in from 5pm if wildlife is more your speed.

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