Bunny boiler is back

GLENN CLOSE, left, famously struck fear into the hearts of men when she played the original psychotic bunny-boiler in the movie Fatal Attraction, and she’s scaring a new generation of men half to death as the ruthless law attorney Patty Hewes in Damages.

The five-time Oscar nominated actress was persuaded to turn her back on umpteen film offers after she finished filming cop drama The Shield to star in Damages.

The part, written for her, intrigued Close because it took a more complex look at what power can do to people than anything else on TV.

“That’s what interested me. Because I think for a woman it’s always a very, very tricky position to know how to maintain your power, in a world that’s mostly dominated by men,” she says.

The last time we checked in at Hewes and Associates at the end of series two, Patty had been stabbed by Fin Garrity, and not shot by Ellen as we were led to believe in flash-forward scenes earlier in the series. We also discovered Patty had not set up Ellen to take the fall for a bribe, but had been framing FBI agent Pell for his corrupt practises.

The series ended with Patty recovering at home, and Ellen considering a job offer to work for the District Attorney’s office.

The show is noted for having more twists and turns than the Nemesis rollercoaster at Alton Towers. And, unsurprisingly, the writers have stuck to a winning formula for this third series. The action starts ten months after the UNR lawsuit, with Patty as the court-appointed trustee representing the victims of financier Louis Tobin’s $70bn Ponzi scheme.

With Ellen having left to work as an assistant DA prosecuting drug crimes, Patty’s challenge is to keep her angry and destitute clients from seeking revenge as she searches through mountains of paperwork for Tobin’s ill-gotten gains.

Ellen, meanwhile, embraces her new job as she tries to get drug dealer Donnie Rhyne to turn against his suppliers. However, while his lawyer, Ted Fratto, insists he isn’t interested in a deal, a death threat prompts Rhyne to offer to trade his drug boss’ identity for his freedom.

TO an amateur chef, working in your own restaurant can sound like a dream job, but the reality is often very different. You only have to watch Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares to discover that not everyone is cut out to run their own eatery – and even the bestrun business can struggle.

So before you rush to invest your life savings in a restaurant, maybe you should volunteer to take part in Instant Restaurant.

Nadia Sawalha invites two cooks to see if they have what it takes to turn their homes into a profitable restaurant. If it turns out they can’t stand the heat, they can at least take comfort in the fact that it’s for one night only.

Today, she heads to the West Country to meet Paul Tobin and Andrew Strigner.

They will be aiming at very different clientele.

Paul is providing a vegetarian menu, Andrew’s dishes will be offal-based.

WHY no one thought of the format for this comedy quiz We Need Answers before is a mystery.

The programme is hosted by Tim Key, Mark Watson and Alex Horne, who ask two celebrities per edition questions posed by the public.

It’s a simple, straightforward idea, and it’s become the basis for easily one of the best comedy quizzes since Shooting Stars – and let’s face it, with the likes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Argumental, Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You and The Bubble on our screens, we’re not exactly short on such things.

This edition features actress and comedian Sharon Horgan and travel writer Benedict Allen tackling various challenges, including crying on cue.