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. Sunday’s daytime leans on travel and engineering documentaries, then the evening opens with a Dan Snow history double bill before Bangers & Cash and a pair of Canal Boat Diaries reruns carry the schedule through to midnight. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Sunday 16 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

The overnight run opens with two Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics repeats back to back at midnight and 1am, then Abandoned Engineering takes the 2am slot before Teleshopping fills just over three hours from 3am.

Two more Abandoned Engineering episodes follow from 6:10am, tracking forgotten construction and industrial projects around the world, ahead of a Great Continental Railway Journeys double at 8am and 9am, Michael Portillo’s Bradshaw’s-guided tour of Europe’s rail network. Great Canal Journeys takes the 10am slot, with Timothy West and Prunella Scales continuing their tour of Britain’s waterways.

From 11am the channel runs five Canal Boat Diaries episodes through to 2pm, Robbie Cumming’s narrowboat legs taking in stretches from Loughborough to Braunston, Sowerby Bridge into Manchester, and on toward the climb up the Rochdale Canal to Summit — the same Scholar Green and High Lane legs return as reruns at 10pm and 11pm tonight. Two episodes of Mediterranean with Simon Reeve fill 3pm and 4pm before the evening line-up begins.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 16 August 2026.

Operation Grand Canyon — Yesterday, 5pm & 6pm

Historian Dan Snow opens the evening with a two-part return to one of the American West’s great expeditions, retracing explorer John Wesley Powell’s 1869 passage down 280 miles of the Colorado River in period-style wooden boats. The first leg runs at 5pm, with the conclusion following straight after at 6pm.

1066: A Year to Conquer England — Yesterday, 7pm

Dan Snow stays on for the opening episode of this docudrama account of England’s most consequential year, tracing the rivalries between Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans that followed Edward the Confessor’s death and set Harold and William on a collision course that ended at Hastings.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 8pm & 9pm

The Mathewsons get a double bill tonight. Derek’s 8pm run is a Home Counties triple pickup, hauling in an oddball trio including a 1968 Mini Moke and an amphibious car, while the 9pm follow-up sends him to the North-East to collect a garage-full of vintage motorbikes.

Canal Boat Diaries — Yesterday, 10pm & 11pm

The night closes with two reruns from earlier in the day: Robbie Cumming’s Scholar Green to High Lane leg returns at 10pm, followed by the run on into Manchester at 11pm.

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?

Operation Grand Canyon opens the evening with a two-part special at 5pm and 6pm, then 1066: A Year to Conquer England takes the 7pm slot. Bangers & Cash follows with a double bill at 8pm and 9pm, and two Canal Boat Diaries reruns close 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.

Tonight’s evening is more varied than most: two Dan Snow history instalments ahead of the Mathewsons, then a pair of Canal Boat Diaries reruns to close. It’s a reasonable sample of what the channel does well outside its archive war documentaries.

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