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

Published: 30 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. Monday’s schedule doubles up three separate strands across the day: Churchill’s Toy Shop at 10am and 4pm, The World at War at 11am and 5pm, and the same Antiques Roadshow visit to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral at 12pm and again at 6pm. Seven Worlds One Planet takes the 7pm hour before Canal Boat Diaries fills 8pm to 10pm — the closing leg of one journey followed straight by the opening three episodes of the next. Bangers & Cash rounds off the evening at 10pm and 11pm, repeating the same two editions shown earlier at 2pm and 3pm. Full breakdown below.

Yesterday Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Yesterday schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 27.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Yesterday today

Monday’s schedule opens with Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities at 1:30am and Abandoned Engineering at 2am, before teleshopping fills the small hours from 3am to just after 6am.

A second Abandoned Engineering follows at 6:10am, then The Architecture the Railways Built airs at 7:10am — the opening episode of the strand, not to be confused with the later instalment BBC Four runs the same evening. Bangers & Cash holds 8am and 9am with a pair of episodes from its first series, before Churchill’s Toy Shop at 10am and The World at War at 11am, the first of two showings each.

Antiques Roadshow opens the afternoon at midday with its Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral visit, followed by a second cathedral episode at 1pm. Bangers & Cash returns at 2pm and 3pm with a Wolseley restoration and a rare Vauxhall Cresta, then Churchill’s Toy Shop and The World at War repeat at 4pm and 5pm respectively. Antiques Roadshow closes out the early evening at 6pm, repeating the same Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral episode shown at midday, before Seven Worlds One Planet takes the 7pm hour. From 8pm, four editions of Canal Boat Diaries run through to 10pm, and Bangers & Cash repeats its 2pm and 3pm episodes at 10pm and 11pm to close the night.

Yesterday tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Yesterday primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 31 August 2026.

Antiques Roadshow — Yesterday, 6pm

Antiques Roadshow opens primetime with a repeat of the channel’s own midday episode (series 37, episode 15): Fiona Bruce and the team visit Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Among the objects brought in are a Hindu sculpture dating to the 12th century and pieces with a loose Titanic connection. A second, different episode from the same visit aired earlier at 1pm.

Seven Worlds One Planet — Yesterday, 7pm

At 7pm, David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds One Planet turns to South America (series 1, episode 3), with anacondas, swifts, Andean bears, pumas and poison dart frogs among the animals filmed across the continent.

Canal Boat Diaries — Yesterday, 8pm to 9:30pm

Four half-hour editions of Canal Boat Diaries run back to back from 8pm, but they’re not a single run. The 8pm episode (series 3, episode 4) closes out narrowboater Robbie Cumming’s journey across the north of England, tackling the fast-flowing River Ouse between Knottingley and Ripon and making an emergency stop along the way. The 8:30pm episode then opens series 4 with a new route: Sheffield to Keadby, including a running repair on the Tinsley lock flight and a pass beneath Conisbrough’s viaduct. At 9pm, Robbie continues from Keadby to Kiveton Park, tackling the River Trent and joining a night-time illuminated boat parade in Worksop, before the 9:30pm episode takes him from Lincoln to Nottingham, a leg on which he grounds the boat and then suffers a breakdown. A series finale followed straight by the next series opening, not four parts of one story.

Bangers & Cash — Yesterday, 10pm and 11pm

Bangers & Cash closes the night with the same two episodes shown earlier in the afternoon. The 10pm hour (series 7, episode 8) has Derek collecting a restored 1936 Wolseley 14/56 while a Batman-inspired Chrysler Crossfire arrives at the Thornton-le-Dale garage. At 11pm (series 7, episode 9), Paul handles pick-ups in Lancashire, including a dusky pink Vauxhall Cresta PA Friary estate from 1960, a genuinely rare survivor. Both are straight repeats of the 2pm and 3pm showings rather than new episodes.

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 its Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral episode at 6pm, then Seven Worlds One Planet airs at 7pm. Canal Boat Diaries runs four episodes from 8pm to 10pm — a series finale followed by the first three episodes of the next series — before Bangers & Cash closes the night at 10pm and 11pm with a repeat of the 2pm and 3pm episodes.

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 repetition more than most: three separate strands air twice apiece before primetime even starts, and both Bangers & Cash slots at 10pm and 11pm repeat episodes already shown at 2pm and 3pm. The one genuinely new stretch is Canal Boat Diaries from 8pm to 10pm, where a series finale hands over to the opening three episodes of Robbie Cumming’s next route — a tidier hour and a half than the schedule’s habit of doubling up suggests.

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