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. Friday’s daytime works through wartime history and the Mathewsons’ car business, then the evening opens with Antiques Roadshow and Blue Planet before settling into pairs: Canal Boat Diaries runs a double at 8pm and 9pm, then Bangers & Cash closes the night with a double of its own at 10pm and 11pm. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Friday 21 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Friday 21 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

Friday’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, series 14 episodes 6 and 7, pick things up from 6:10am. Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics takes over from 8am for a back-to-back pair from series 6.

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 37 — the earlier one a return visit to Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire — then Bangers & Cash proper returns at 2pm and 3pm with the same pair of episodes that closes out tonight’s primetime. Both Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War repeat at 4pm and 5pm ahead of the evening, and the Kirby Hall 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, Friday 21 August 2026. Four of the six primetime hours run as back-to-back doubles.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

Fiona Bruce and the specialists are back at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire (series 37, episode 3) — a repeat of the edition that opened the afternoon at midday.

Blue Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

David Attenborough’s Blue Planet reaches “Seasonal Seas” (series 1, episode 5), tracking how the turning seasons reshape life beneath the waves, from tropical shallows to the edge of the polar ice.

Canal Boat Diaries — double bill, Yesterday, 8pm & 9pm

Two hours of Canal Boat Diaries carry the middle of the evening. At 8pm (series 7, episode 10), Robbie detours off the towpath to look into a UFO legend around Todmorden. The 9pm episode resets to series 6, episode 1, with Robbie on the Oxford Canal.

Bangers & Cash — double bill, Yesterday, 10pm & 11pm

The Mathewsons close the night with a pair of their own: series 6, episode 11 at 10pm and episode 12 at 11pm — both repeats of the same two episodes that filled the 2pm and 3pm slots earlier in the day.

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?

Antiques Roadshow opens the evening at 6pm, then Blue Planet takes the 7pm slot. From there it’s two doubles back-to-back: Canal Boat Diaries at 8pm and 9pm, then Bangers & Cash closes the night 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 is built almost entirely on pairs: Antiques Roadshow and Blue Planet open the evening solo, then Canal Boat Diaries takes 8pm and 9pm before Bangers & Cash closes out 10pm and 11pm. Four of the six primetime hours are doubles, and two of those Bangers & Cash episodes already had an outing at 2pm and 3pm. It’s a schedule built for repeat viewing rather than discovery, but it plays to the channel’s strongest hand.

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