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 schedule is dominated by two long runs: nine Canal Boat Diaries episodes fill the early afternoon, then the evening hands over almost entirely to cars. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Saturday 15 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

The overnight run opens with a Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics repeat at midnight, pairing a quick-flip Ford Mondeo with a three-year MG rebuild, then Find It, Fix It, Flog It at 1am and an Abandoned Engineering visit to Seoul’s Seodaemun Prison at 2am, before Teleshopping fills just over three hours from 3am.

Two more Abandoned Engineering episodes follow from 6:10am, first Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and then a chain of desert ruins in Tunisia, ahead of a Flipping Bangers double at 8am and 9am in which Will and Gus take on a stripped-down Reliant Kitten and then go hunting for a Saab 99. Great Canal Journeys at 10am has Timothy West and Prunella Scales cruising the Oxford Canal and meeting son Samuel West along the way.

From 11am the channel settles into a nine-episode Canal Boat Diaries run that lasts until 4pm, following Robbie Cumming’s narrowboat trips across assorted stretches of English waterway, from the River Ouse near Ripon and the Tinsley lock flight at Sheffield through to the long climb up the Rochdale Canal to Summit. Seven Worlds One Planet’s look at African wildlife takes the 5pm slot before the evening line-up begins.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 15 August 2026.

Gorilla Revisited with David Attenborough — Yesterday, 6pm

David Attenborough looks back on his own time with Rwanda’s mountain gorillas ahead of the evening’s motoring takeover, tracking how close the population once came to disappearing and what conservation work since has managed to claw back.

Bangers & Cash marathon — Yesterday, 7pm to midnight

Five straight hours belong to the Mathewson family. Restoring Classics opens the block at 7pm and 8pm with a Subaru pick-up buy and a pricier pairing of a Ford Escort Mexico and a Riley Kestrel, before the parent series — Bangers & Cash itself, not the spin-off — takes over at 9pm for a Home Counties run that lands an Amphicar, a Mini Moke and an imported Fiat in one go. Restoring Classics closes the night at 10pm and 11pm with a Montego Turbo rebuild followed by a far humbler Vauxhall Nova.

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?

Gorilla Revisited with David Attenborough takes the 6pm slot, then it’s cars for the rest of the night: Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics at 7pm and 8pm, the parent series at 9pm, and two more Restoring Classics episodes closing out the schedule at 10pm and 11pm.

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.

Saturday’s evening is more one-note than most, a solo hour of nature documentary before the Mathewsons take over for the rest of the night.

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