Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, tonight) remains a wonder to behold. Auntie’s flagship show can turn sawdust into stardust and stomping ugly ducklings into gliding swans, but when it comes to the concept of a jinx? Not a clue.

Last week was the first live show of the series. The programme was already in the news after claims that some dancers had opted not to be vaccinated. But here we were, all Covid safety protocols observed, the nation’s family favourite raring to go. First couple: Tom Fletcher of the band McFly and his partner Amy Dowden.

Tom and Amy danced the cha-cha and they were fine. Such was the relief that the good ship Strictly had left port, the judges went overboard in their praise. Anton predicted Tom’s nifty foot work could see him all the way through the competition, while Motsi said, “With that start, what can go wrong?”

Cut to Sunday teatime and the news that Tom and Amy had tested positive for Covid and would miss the next show. (There is no suggestion the pair were among those unvaccinated.) Good luck for tonight everyone. Maybe best to leave the predictions to Mystic Meg.

Hollington Drive (STV, Wednesday) was set in a street of large, new-build houses that looked very pricey. Who lived in homes like those, the viewer wondered. Two sisters, Theresa and Helen (Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachael Stirling), and their families for a start.

Odd, given the crackly atmosphere between the siblings, but the mysteries were just beginning. Hollington Drive was hoaching with secrets. Well of course it was. No-one lives happily ever after in an ITV midweek drama.

So it proved as a 10-year-old boy from the neighbourhood went missing. A search of the area began as inquiries started behind closed doors. Did Theresa and Helen’s children know anything about the boy’s disappearance? What was the story behind Theresa’s flashbacks? And did all that lovely furniture come from John Lewis (asking for a friend)?

The missing child is well-travelled territory in television drama, so there had better be a good reason to take viewers into those scary woods again.

By the end of the first episode Hollington Drive was already pushing its luck with a couple of twists that seemed far fetched, even for a psychological drama.

This noirish tale will stand or fall on the performances of the leads, so take it away, women.

There is nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition between shows, but this one could get messy. Returning for its 36th – count ‘em – series was the veteran Location, Location, Location (Channel 4, Wednesday), and opposite it at 8pm was the relative newbie, Your Home Made Perfect (BBC2, Wednesday).

They are not exactly the same, one being a search for houses, the other about home improvement, but they are in the same property show postcode. If the two production teams met I imagine it would be like the battle of the news teams in Anchorman 2. My money would be on lovely Phil and slightly scary Kirstie, though Angela Scanlon at Your Home Made Perfect looks like she could be a bit tasty in a fight.

Scanlon’s programme has gimmicks, in this case using virtual reality to show people what their dream homes will look like. The hopeful home owners this week were a mother and her 22-year-old son who were sharing a small two bed house. A tough one, but they got there in the end, as did Phil and Kirstie who had the unenviable task of battling their way through the post-Covid property maze where houses in some places are selling like hot steak bakes for silly money. The market at its most obscene, but since it is not you or me spending half a million on a house, fun to watch.

Time to call in to 28 Up: Millennium Generation (BBC1, Wednesday) to see how the gang are doing. Most of the lives documented follow familiar patterns, and the question asked – nature or nurture? – has been posed many times before, not least by the original Up films. Yet it is still utterly fascinating to watch the seven-year-olds become 14, 21, and now 28.

When we met Sanchez at seven his dream was to be a star in Hollywood. Then the lad from Leeds wanted to be a premiership footballer, but that did not work out and for a while his gas was at a peep. Now, after a stint in a reality show set in Ibiza, he has a regular gig on Radio Leeds. He is still after world domination.

Oliver, from Chelsea, having gone the Eton, Yale, Oxford route was now doing a PhD and hoping to be a published writer one day, while Courtney, a Scouser, had started teacher training. Ben, from Mull, had now moved to Lochgilphead and was still a joiner. They were all happy enough, some more than others. The cheeriest were those rich in family and friends. Corny but true.