PICK OF THE WEEK TV review The daytime show with a party atmosphere

SATURDAY Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 6.30pm) Doomsday of Pompeii: Rome Unwrapped (Channel 5, 8.35pm)

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It’s movie week on Strictly, although some viewers may be forgiven for initially assuming that Halloween has come early as the show is kicking off with a homage to the Harry Potter franchise. Then no doubt things will get a little bit glitzier as the remaining 14 celebs and their partners take to the floor to perform routines inspired by the silver screen. But who will judges Shirley Ballas, Darcey Bussell, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood decide is the closest thing Strictly has to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers?

The tragic events of 79AD have fascinated millions, many of them dramatists who used it for projects such as Doctor Who and the movie Pompeii, while countless documentary makers have been drawn to the site. The latest study of the eponymous ill-fated Italian region examines how the eruption of Mount Vesuvius rained seven million tonnes of debris onto Pompeii and sealed the fate of more than 1,000 people. However, this tragedy also created one of the best-preserved sites on Earth, giving experts and the public an insight into how people lived almost 2,000 years ago.

Mystery Road (BBC4, 9pm)

Judy Davis has long been one of the most compelling actresses of her generation in projects such as My Brilliant Career and A Passage to India. She also shines in this thriller, which comes to a close tonight. In the penultimate offering, a corpse found in a sacred spot dredges up a past crime for Emma, while Jay’s daughter Crystal helps him to a fresh discovery. The series is wrapped up at 9.50pm when Jay finally learns what happened to Marley and “Reese” but suspects a deeper motive than drug dealing.

Troubles: The Life After (BBC2, 10pm)

An intimate account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, told through the stories of people who lost loved ones during the conflict, which lasted more than 30 years. Contributors include Virtue Dixon, whose daughter Ruth was killed on her 24th birthday while celebrating at the Droppin’ Well pub in Ballykelly in December 1982. An Irish National Liberation Army bomb brought the roof down, killing civilians and British soldiers, and Virtue tells the story of the aftermath from her perspective.

SUNDAY Doctor Who (BBC1, 6.45pm)

So here we go. The 13th incarnation of everyone’s favourite time traveller, and with all eyes on Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor. The drama opens with the regenerated Gallifreyan crash-landing the Tardis. Wandering around Sheffield, with no memory of who she used to be, it’s not long before she meets three seemingly ordinary people whose lives will be changed forever. Good support comes from Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill as the latest companions, while new showrunner Chris Chibnall has written episode one, The Woman who Fell to Earth. Given his success with Broadchurch, chances are we’re in for a gripping run.

BY the continuity announcer’s warnings shall ye know the programme that follows. Thus was This Morning: 30 Unforgettable Years (STV,

Tuesday, 7.30pm) introduced with the caution: “Now, with brief scenes of medical nudity…”

There was medical nudity sure enough, and non-medical (the infamous Chippendales routine), sexual content (the infamous Viagra test) and disasters (the infamous Twiggy/Coleen Nolan presenting experiment). For a supposedly fluffy daytime television show, This Morning has had a lot of infamous moments, and that is without Richard Madeley doing the show dressed as wife Judy. It certainly made for educational viewing if you were off school with tonsillitis.

This hour-long canter through the years lingered longest on the Richard and Judy period, which remains the show’s heyday, with the real stars of the show, the production teams behind a rare three-decades-long success story, largely staying hidden. Still, 30 years: respect. That’s a lot of fluff, but as the programme showed, a lot of people helped and kept company besides.

Horizon: The Placebo Experiment – Can My Brain Cure My Body? (BBC2, Thursday) might have made an item on This Morning, but only if it involved a skit with Phillip Schofield being wired up to the mains like Frankenstein’s monster. As it was, we made do with sensible Michael Mosley, the hardest working man in medical showbiz.

With the NHS spending £400 million on painkillers, Mosley wanted to investigate whether the body could be prompted to produce its own natural analgesic. He went to Blackpool, a back pain hotspot, to recruit 117 people for an

Great Canal Journeys (Channel 4, 8pm)

Timothy West and Prunella Scales travel down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. Tim has some misgivings about attempting such a daring journey, but is won over by Pru’s desire for adventure. They discover how travel along the river was vital to the ancient Egyptian civilisation and discover how the first ever canals were constructed nearby to ferry building materials for the temple at Karnak. Along the way, they visit a Nubian village and buy aphrodisiacs in a souk.

The Mediterranean with Simon Reeve (BBC2, 8pm)

A journey around the region, examining the challenges currently facing the nations in the area. In