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

Yesterday is UKTV’s history and heritage channel: archive documentaries, military history, natural history and, these days, a great deal of classic motoring. BBC Studios has owned it outright through UKTV since 2019, and it’s free with no subscription. Wednesday’s evening leans towards travel rather than the motoring strand: Antiques Roadshow repeats at 6pm and The Green Planet takes 7pm, before a new episode of Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime at 8pm and Simon Reeve’s South America at 9pm. Bangers & Cash then repeats twice more to close out the night. More on that below. Channel numbers are further down.

Yesterday Schedule: Wednesday 5 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Wednesday 5 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

What’s on Yesterday today

Wednesday opens with Bangers & Cash at midnight: Dave takes on a Ford Fiesta XR2i that hasn’t left a garage in twenty-one years, while Derek collects a 1956 Siva Tourer with a Doctor Who screen credit behind it. A new Find It, Fix It, Flog It follows at 1am, with Simon and Henry visiting a Northamptonshire clock restorer and a mechanism that catches Simon’s eye, then Abandoned Engineering at 2am heads to Houska Castle in the Czech Republic, a ruin with a long-standing reputation for the supernatural, ahead of the teleshopping block running from 3am to 6:10am.

Two more Abandoned Engineering episodes fill the gap from 6:10am, covering a bomb-damaged Hull landmark and a decaying Liberian site with American origins. A Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics double bill takes 8am and 9am, working on a faded Vauxhall Astra GTE and a 1970s Vanden Plas saloon. Secret Nazi Bases opens the mid-morning at 10am with the tunnels dug beneath Poland’s Ksiaz Castle, followed by Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution at 11am, and two Antiques Roadshow episodes, from Fountains Abbey and the Royal Marines Museum in Southsea, take the early afternoon from midday.

Bangers & Cash returns at 2pm and 3pm with a 1982 Audi Quattro and a rain-soaked run to Scotland for a Jaguar E-type, and then the afternoon repeats: Secret Nazi Bases again at 4pm, Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution once more at 5pm, and the Fountains Abbey Antiques Roadshow episode returns at 6pm, before new material resumes with The Green Planet at 7pm.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 5 August 2026.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

This is a repeat of the midday edition rather than fresh material: series 36, episode 5, filmed at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Among the pieces brought in for valuation are items once owned by Ronnie Barker and artefacts connected to the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

The Green Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

David Attenborough’s series on plant life gets its third outing, “Seasonal Worlds,” looking at the engineering and outright deception plants rely on to survive as the weather turns through the year.

Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime — Yesterday, 8pm

A genuinely new addition to tonight’s line-up. The opening episode goes back to how Palin, not yet the travel presenter he’d become, took on the job of circling the globe by the route Jules Verne set out in Around the World in Eighty Days. It’s the series that reset his career after Monty Python.

Simon Reeve’s South America — Yesterday, 9pm

Episode three of the series carries Reeve out of Peru and into Bolivia, crossing the Andes and starting out among the ruins of Machu Picchu. It’s an older run rather than new material, but the ground it covers is still distinctive against the rest of tonight’s schedule.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 10pm

A repeat of the 2pm episode: the Mathewsons take in a 1982 Audi Quattro and a Sunbeam Alpine, and Derek picks up a green Renault van once used to deliver bread in Paris.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 11pm

And a repeat of 3pm’s episode closes the night, Derek driving to Scotland through a rainstorm for a Jaguar E-type and a rare MGC convertible while Dave pulls an Austin Gipsy out of a lock-up.

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?

A repeat of Antiques Roadshow opens the evening at 6pm, followed by The Green Planet at 7pm. A new Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime airs at 8pm and Simon Reeve’s South America at 9pm, then Bangers & Cash repeats twice more at 10pm and 11pm to close the night.

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 is one of the better-value channels on Freeview. The archive documentaries it built its name on are still there and still worth your time. The Mathewsons pay for them.

Wednesday’s evening leans towards travel rather than motoring: a repeated Antiques Roadshow and The Green Planet lead into a new Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime and Simon Reeve’s South America at 8pm and 9pm, before Bangers & Cash repeats through to midnight.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Dave TV Guide