Yesterday TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Yesterday Tonight

Published: 25 August 2026

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 runs an Abandoned Engineering double, a Bangers & Cash double and an Antiques Roadshow double at midday, and several of those episodes resurface later on: Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War repeat at 4pm and 5pm, then the same Antiques Roadshow comes round again at 6pm and the 2pm and 3pm Bangers & Cash episodes return at 10pm and 11pm. Primetime proper is more varied than that repetition suggests, running from Blue Planet through Michael Palin’s travel documentary and Simon Reeve’s Explore before the evening closes on that Bangers & Cash pair. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Wednesday 26 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Wednesday 26 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 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics, followed by Find It, Fix It, Flog It at 1am and Abandoned Engineering at 2am, before just over three hours of teleshopping fill the small hours from 3am.

Two more episodes of Abandoned Engineering run from 6:10am, then Bangers & Cash takes the 8am and 9am hours with a pair of episodes. Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War carry the schedule through mid-morning, taking it up to midday.

Antiques Roadshow settles in for a double from midday, before Bangers & Cash repeats that same pairing structure in the early afternoon with two episodes from 2pm. Secret Nazi Bases and The World at War repeat themselves from 4pm, and by 6pm Antiques Roadshow is back on screen — the same Tredegar House episode shown at noon, not a new one — ahead of an evening that turns to natural history, travel and exploration before Bangers & Cash returns to close the night.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 26 August 2026.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

Antiques Roadshow opens the evening with the Tredegar House valuation day near Newport, the same edition Yesterday aired at noon. It’s a repeat rather than a new outing, so anyone who caught the lunchtime showing has already seen everything on offer here.

Blue Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

Blue Planet moves to the coast at 7pm, tracking marine life that lives where sea meets land, David Attenborough’s narration carrying an episode built around green turtles making their way to nesting beaches.

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

At 8pm, Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime revisits his fourth travel series, when a camel train carried him across the Sahara by way of the Atlas Mountains. Palin narrates with the benefit of hindsight here, picking through decades-old footage rather than simply replaying the original programme.

Explore with Simon Reeve — Yesterday, 9pm

Explore with Simon Reeve takes the 9pm slot, opening in Argentina as Reeve and his reporting team dig past the tourist trail into Patagonia’s landscapes.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 10pm and 11pm

The evening closes with two more editions of Bangers & Cash, at 10pm and 11pm — both repeats of the episodes Yesterday already showed at 2pm and 3pm this afternoon rather than new material. Dave Mathewson collects a Volvo P1800S from a former RAF base at 10pm, and Derek Mathewson auctions off a two-seater plane, an unusual lot for the Thornton-le-Dale saleroom, 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?

Antiques Roadshow repeats at 6pm, the same Tredegar House episode shown at noon, followed by Blue Planet’s coastal wildlife at 7pm. Michael Palin’s travel documentary takes 8pm and Explore with Simon Reeve follows at 9pm, before Bangers & Cash closes the night at 10pm and 11pm with two more episodes already shown earlier in the afternoon.

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 leans on that strength without overplaying its hand: Michael Palin’s Sahara reflection and Simon Reeve’s Explore give the 8pm and 9pm hours real substance either side of the schedule’s usual repeats. The 6pm Antiques Roadshow is the same episode shown at midday, and the 10pm and 11pm Bangers & Cash instalments repeat the afternoon’s 2pm and 3pm episodes — worth knowing before settling in for what looks like a night of new motoring drama and isn’t.

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