It's hard not to get carried away fantasising about what to do with the garden while you're huddled indoors. But for once, says Emma Townshend, I might have had a vision I can actually pull off.

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Dan Stevens with Michelle Dockery in Downton Abbey

Michelle Dockery from Downton and Claire Danes of Homeland in Golden Globe battle

The Golden Globe nominations are in and it looks set to be yet another battle between popular television dramas Homeland and Downton Abbey.

Seal deaths may be fatal attraction

Scientists believe they may have partly explained the mystery of the growing number of dead seals being washed up on UK shores exhibiting horrific "corkscrew" injuries.

What's Bond doing in a viral video...?

A Norwegian television advert improbably featuring the likes of Roger Moore, John Nettles and Paul McKenna lip synching to a 1980s cover of Let It Be has become a viral internet hit.

A Streetcar Named Desire, Octagon, Bolton

Rancid whiffs of cooking hang in the air of this highly charged staging of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Last Night's TV: Out of the Frying Pan, BBC2 </br> Damages, BBC1

A dish with all the wrong ingredients

Glenn Close - Lock up your pets, she's back

Nobody plays a manipulative monster as well as Glenn Close. As she returns to our screens in a welcome third season of the legal drama Damages, Gerard Gilbert celebrates the star's formidable froideur

The Stepfather

It's astonishing to think that the thrillers of the 1980s are now deemed insufficiently bland and glossy for mainstream audiences, but it's true. In May we had Obsessed, a (12A)-rated copy of Fatal Attraction, and now we have a plastic, production-line remake of 1987's The Stepfather – with no blood, no swearing, no sex, and no violence – that wouldn't be at home in an episode of Poirot. I'm not even sure why it deserves a 15 certificate, except for all the gratuitous shots of Amber Heard in an itsy-bitsy bikini.

Stalker movies - The genre that just won't go away

As Patrice Chéreau's 'Persecution' premieres at the London Film Festival, Geoffrey Macnab looks over his shoulder and sees the stalker movie lurking in the shadows of movie history

Shoulder pads: A history

They&rsquo;ve been the epitome of power dressing since the Forties &ndash; and now, thanks to Posh, they&rsquo;re back. By Carola Long and Harriet Walker

Carola Long: Good Eighties Hair is a far cry from the bouffedout barnet sported by Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

Between now and the 'Sex and the City' sequel's release, we will no doubt be treated to never ending behind-the-scenes shots of the bag- and shoe-toting stars on set. So far so predictable, but last week a more entertaining photo appeared of SJP sporting a perm that would make a poodle look sleek. Reportedly for an Eighties flashback scene, it served as a handy reminder that although the decade that the natural look forgot is back, there is good Eighties and there is bad Eighties. Very bad.

Great Works: Evening on Karl Johan (1892), Edvard Munch

Bergen Art Museum, Norway

Obsessed (12A)

Bunny boilers ahoy. This lame and laughable stalker-thriller makes Fatal Attraction look thoughtful.

Janet Street-Porter: MPs don't deserve their summer hols

The continuing controversy over MPs' expenses has finally galvanised the Prime Minister into action. Gordon Brown wants MPs to vote next week to abolish their second-home allowance and replace it with a flat fee for daily attendance, and today Sir Christopher Kelly publishes the first findings of his committee's inquiry into Standards in Public Life.

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Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end