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. Wednesday’s daytime works through wartime history and the Mathewsons’ car business, then the evening opens with Antiques Roadshow and Blue Planet before Michael Palin and Simon Reeve take the travel documentary slots at 8pm and 9pm, and Bangers & Cash closes out the night from 10pm. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Wednesday 19 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Wednesday 19 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

Wednesday’s schedule opens just after midnight with an episode of Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics from series 5, followed by Find It, Fix It, Flog It at 1am and an Abandoned Engineering outing at 2am. Just over three hours of teleshopping fill the schedule from 3am.

Two further episodes of Abandoned Engineering pick things up from 6:10am, closing out series 13 and opening series 14. Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics takes over from 8am for a back-to-back pair from series 5.

Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War share the late morning from 10am, Laurence Olivier’s wartime archive series still doing much of the heavy lifting for the channel’s history output. Antiques Roadshow fills the top of the afternoon from midday with two episodes from series 36, then Bangers & Cash proper returns at 2pm and 3pm with a pair from series 6. Both Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War repeat at 4pm and 5pm ahead of the evening, and the midday edition of Antiques Roadshow airs again at 6pm to open primetime.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 19 August 2026.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

A repeat visit to Wentworth Woodhouse, the stately home near Rotherham, opens the evening (series 36, episode 25). Among the items brought in: an ornate glass punch bowl and, more unusually, a set of bones with a surprising backstory.

Blue Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

Series 1 continues with a look at the open ocean, David Attenborough narrating the hunting habits of some of its most recognisable predators (series 1, episode 3).

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

Palin looks back on Full Circle, his journey around the Pacific Rim taking in Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and both American continents (series 1, episode 3). It’s the pick of the night for anyone who prefers their history told through travel rather than archive footage.

Simon Reeve’s South America — Yesterday, 9pm

Reeve’s route runs from the Atacama Desert in Chile, tracking the Andes down towards Patagonia before he reaches Tierra del Fuego, the world’s most southerly settled outpost (series 1, episode 5).

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 10pm

Derek Mathewson is shown around Hadlow Castle in Kent to pick up a pre-war Alvis, plus a Citroën with an unusual wartime past as a Gestapo staff car in France (series 6, episode 7).

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 11pm

A pair of Batmobile replicas and a Ford wartime jeep close out the night, with Dave struggling to hide his enthusiasm for the jeep in particular (series 6, episode 8).

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?

An Antiques Roadshow repeat opens the evening at 6pm, then Blue Planet takes the 7pm slot. Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime follows at 8pm, Simon Reeve’s South America takes 9pm, and two episodes of Bangers & Cash close the night 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.

Tonight is a good showcase of the channel’s range: Antiques Roadshow and Blue Planet open the evening, Michael Palin and Simon Reeve then take the 8pm and 9pm slots with their own brands of travel documentary, and the Mathewsons close things out from 10pm with a double bill of Bangers & Cash. It’s a fair split between the archive nostalgia Yesterday is known for and the newer travel strand it has been building up.

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