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. Monday’s evening turns from wildlife to waterways and then to cars, before closing out with a fresh instalment of Empire with Michael Portillo.

Yesterday Schedule: Monday 10 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Monday 10 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

What’s on Yesterday today

The overnight run opens with Canal Boat Diaries, in which Robbie slips overboard on Heartbreak Hill near Middlewich, before Flipping Bangers and Abandoned Engineering fill the next two hours and three hours of Teleshopping take over from 3am.

Abandoned Engineering returns from 6:10am with two fresh cases, Chicago’s Old Joliet Prison and a crime-linked chateau on Martinique, ahead of a Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics double built around a Montego Turbo and a Vauxhall Nova Merit Plus. Secret Nazi Bases and Hitler: Countdown to War both get a late-morning outing, then repeat again in the late afternoon.

The middle of the day belongs to Antiques Roadshow, screened at midday and again at 1pm, followed by two runs of Bangers & Cash. The evening reuses a good deal of this: the 6pm Antiques Roadshow is the same edition shown at midday, and the 10pm and 11pm Bangers & Cash episodes are the two that already ran that afternoon.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 10 August 2026.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

Antiques Roadshow repeats the same retrospective edition shown at midday, revisiting some of the year’s most talked-about finds, among them an item once owned by a Queen.

A Perfect Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet opens its run at 7pm with an episode on volcanoes, where eruptions build as much land as they destroy. It’s the evening’s only natural history slot, before the schedule turns to canals and then cars.

Canal Boat Diaries — Yesterday, 8pm

Canal Boat Diaries picks up Robbie Cumming’s Pennine crossing from Marple to Huddersfield, where storm-downed timber blocks the cut and a lock pound that won’t hold its water adds to the trouble.

Canal Boat Diaries — Yesterday, 8:30pm

A second half-hour follows straight after, as Robbie heads out of Sowerby Bridge along the Rochdale Canal towards Manchester and runs aground before he arrives.

Empire with Michael Portillo — Yesterday, 9pm

The headline slot goes to a new Empire with Michael Portillo, which turns west to the United States and Canada. Portillo traces how the same colonial rule provoked armed rebellion in one country and held, more or less, until the British empire’s own end in the other. It’s one of the few nights this month where a new episode, not a repeat, takes the 9pm slot.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 10pm

Bangers & Cash repeats the episode where Derek drives out to collect a Swedish pairing, a 96L model from Saab alongside a Volvo P1800ES, while an unusual British-built AC Aceca goes under the hammer elsewhere in the show. The same episode aired at 2pm.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 11pm

The night closes with another repeat, this one built around a 1967 Aston Martin DB6 that Derek reckons could set a new record price for the Mathewsons, alongside a Jaguar E-type. It’s the episode that ran at 3pm.

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?

The headline event is a new episode of Empire with Michael Portillo at 9pm, the only fresh programme in an evening built mostly from repeats: Antiques Roadshow at 6pm, A Perfect Planet at 7pm, two episodes of Canal Boat Diaries from 8pm, and Bangers & Cash twice more from 10pm.

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.

Monday’s evening leans on that same strength in a different order. Natural history and canals give way to a new Empire with Michael Portillo, the only genuinely new programme in a night largely built from repeats.

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