Red Dwarf is on Channel 4. So is QI, and The Office, and Bergerac.
If that sounds wrong, it is because something changed in January 2026 that almost nobody has written up for viewers, and it quietly made Channel 4 the best free streaming service in Britain.
What happened in January
Channel 4 and UKTV signed a multi-year carriage deal bringing UKTV’s U service onto Channel 4 streaming. It is the first time Channel 4 has hosted another company’s streaming brand on its own platform.
So through the Channel 4 app, with one login and no payment, you can now stream programming from U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Eden, U&W and U&Yesterday.
That brings in:
- Red Dwarf, QI, The Office and Bergerac — BBC programmes that sit with UKTV rather than the BBC
- UKTV’s own — Outrageous, Big Zuu’s Big Eats, Bangers & Cash, Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake
It works both ways: Channel 4 programmes also appear on U. But for most people the useful direction is the one that puts Red Dwarf in the same app as Derry Girls.
And none of it needs a TV Licence, which iPlayer does. Our guide to whether you need a TV Licence to stream in the UK covers which services require one.
Comedy, which is why Channel 4 matters
This is the service’s real strength and no paid subscription in Britain competes with it.
Peep Show
Nine series of two men sharing a flat in Croydon, told entirely through their internal monologues. Still the most uncomfortable comedy ever made in Britain and arguably the best.
Derry Girls
Four teenage girls and one wee English fella getting through adolescence in 1990s Derry, with the Troubles as background furniture rather than subject. Three short series, funny throughout, and the ending lands properly.
Friday Night Dinner
A Jewish family in north London have dinner. That is the entire premise and it sustained six series, because the cast is extraordinary and the jokes are built on repetition rather than plot.
Stath Lets Flats
Jamie Demetriou as an incompetent London lettings agent. One of the strangest and most quotable comedies of the last decade.
Chewing Gum
Michaela Coel as a 24-year-old working out love, sex and adulthood in London. Made before I May Destroy You and the clear reason she got to make it.
Big Boys and Big Mood
Two of the better recent commissions. Big Boys is three series about friendship at university and considerably more moving than it lets on. Big Mood is six episodes of under half an hour each, which makes it the easiest thing on this list to start tonight.
And now Red Dwarf, QI and The Office
Via the U deal. Red Dwarf in particular is the kind of catalogue nobody expected to find here.
For how all of this sits against iPlayer and the paid services, our guide to where to watch British sitcoms maps the whole field.
Drama worth your time
It’s a Sin
Russell T Davies on the Aids crisis in 1980s London, through a group of friends sharing a flat. Five episodes, devastating, and the best thing Channel 4 has made this century.
Say Nothing
Adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe’s book on the Troubles and the disappearance of Jean McConville. Difficult and very well made.
Trespasses
Belfast in the 1970s, a cross-community relationship, adapted from Louise Kennedy’s novel.
Get Millie Black
Marlon James writing a detective series set between London and Kingston, which is not a combination British television has tried before.
Patience and The Couple Next Door
Two solid thrillers if you want something less demanding than the above.
These were all current when last checked in May, and drama rotates, so worth confirming in the app before you plan an evening. Our guide to finding which service has a programme in the UK covers how.
The entertainment, which is the actual reason most people open it
- Taskmaster — now up to series twenty-one, and the back catalogue is the deepest comfort-watch in British television.
- Gogglebox — people watching television, which should not work.
- The Great British Bake Off, and Junior Bake Off, and The Great Pottery Throwdown, and Game of Wool, in which Tom Daley presides over a knitting competition. Channel 4 has cornered the gentle-competition market entirely.
- Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and 24 Hours in Police Custody at the other end of the tonal range.
- Hollyoaks, First Dates, Made in Chelsea, Come Dine with Me and nine series of Dance Moms, if that is the evening you are having.
One practical tip
Use the Box Sets category, not the search.
Channel 4’s search is poor and tends to surface single episodes and clips. The Box Sets category is where the complete runs live, and browsing it for two minutes will turn up more than ten minutes of searching.
By one count Channel 4 now carries over 671 programmes, which makes it the largest free catalogue in the country. Whether that figure is exact or not, the point stands: there is far more here than the homepage suggests.
A warning about other lists
Search this and you will find pages still calling it All 4 — a name Channel 4 retired in 2023. Those lists predate the U deal by years and are describing a service that no longer exists.
If a guide to Channel 4 streaming does not mention Red Dwarf or U, it is out of date.
Where to start
- Peep Show, if you have somehow never watched it. Nine series.
- It’s a Sin, if you want the best thing on the service. Five episodes.
- Derry Girls, if you want something short and genuinely funny.
- Big Mood, if you have one evening. Six episodes under half an hour.
- Red Dwarf, if you want to test whether the U deal is real.
- Taskmaster, if you want something you can leave on indefinitely.
How it compares
Honestly: for British comedy, Channel 4 is now the best service in Britain, free or paid. Peep Show, Derry Girls, Friday Night Dinner, Stath Lets Flats, Taskmaster, Red Dwarf, QI and The Office in one app, for nothing, with no licence required.
iPlayer is better for drama, as our guide to the best series on BBC iPlayer sets out, and it needs a licence. ITVX is better for the ITV archive and its paid tier is really a BritBox subscription, which our guide to ITVX Premium explains.
Between the three of them, our comparison of free versus paid streaming in the UK argues that a great many households are paying for less than they already have.
Common questions
Is Channel 4 streaming free?
Yes, entirely, with adverts and no TV Licence required.
Is Red Dwarf really on Channel 4?
Yes, since January 2026, through the UKTV U carriage deal. So are QI, The Office and Bergerac.
What is U on Channel 4?
UKTV’s free streaming service. Channel 4 now carries programming from U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Eden, U&W and U&Yesterday inside its own app.
What is the best series on Channel 4?
It’s a Sin for drama, Peep Show for comedy. Derry Girls if you want something short.
Do I need a TV Licence for Channel 4?
No. Only BBC iPlayer requires one among the free UK services.
Why can’t I find box sets on Channel 4?
Because the search is poor. Use the Box Sets category instead, where the complete runs are.
Is Channel 4 still called All 4?
No, that name was retired in 2023. Any list still using it predates the U deal and is years out of date.
The short version
Channel 4 quietly became the biggest free catalogue in Britain in January, when UKTV’s U service moved onto its platform and brought Red Dwarf, QI, The Office and Bergerac with it. Add Peep Show, Derry Girls, Friday Night Dinner, Stath Lets Flats and twenty-one series of Taskmaster and it beats every paid service in the country for British comedy — free, and with no licence needed. Use the Box Sets category rather than the search.
For everything else that costs nothing, see our guide to free streaming in the UK.
