Suranne Jones is back as Doctor Foster for series two and is as unhinged as EVER in explosive opener

GLENN Close in Fatal Attraction has nothing on Doctor Foster’s Suranne Jones.

If Close’s character is the original bunny boiler, Jones’s Gemma must keep a secret room with unspeakably cruel photos of rabbits plastered over the walls, voodoo lop-eared pin-cushions and “Death to bunnies!” scrawled in blood.

She’s that unhinged, as we learned from THAT dinner party scene from the series one finale, before pretending she murdered her own son Tom to get back at cheating husband Simon.

And so onto that difficult second series and the burning question: should the BBC1 drama have quit while it was ahead with a staggering 10million viewers?

In a word? No. The opener was every bit as tense and uncomfortable to watch (not in a bad way) as the cracking last episode two years ago.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. You either have to buy into the melodrama or don’t and switch off.

The biggest danger in bringing back Doctor Foster, though, was whether viewers could again root for either of the two main characters — Gemma and Simon.

After all, they both have major — and I mean major — personality flaws and are borderline unlikeable.

It speaks volumes of Jones’ and Bertie Carvel’s on-screen chemistry, then, with three seismic showdowns in episode one — every one an uninvited house visit/trespass — that it’s almost impossible not to take sides.

The main reason episode one works so well, however, is that the underlying theme anchoring the first series remains the same — betrayal and revenge.

This time the betrayal is not the affair but the fallout from it, with enough water under the bridge for forgiveness.

Gemma’s friends attend Simon and Kate’s house-warmer/wedding celebration despite telling her they wouldn’t out of loyalty, only for her to gate-crash the party unannounced.

Then she starts to lose Tom too, first with her embarrassing behaviour on the night and then with a campaign by Simon to lure him from her clutches and force Gemma to leave town alone — obviously his goal in returning from London.

Now the boy is moving in with his dad and stepmum against her pleas and she’s emotionally plummeting downhill in a hurry, seemingly hellbent on the kind of twisted revenge that made the first run so memorable.

So she’s dissolved her wedding ring in acid and has a doctor’s bag full of syringes and heaven knows what nasty substances. Standard behaviour.

Then there’s that small matter of the unopened mystery gift she gave Kate and told her not to show Simon.

Based on the content’s of Kate’s bedside drawer she snooped on, I’m going with sex toy.

Doctor Foster is not as good as Line of Duty and the cliffhangers simply don’t match up, but it’s still one of those rare British TV dramas that can hold its own against some of the best across the pond.

I’ll even excuse Simon cornily telling Gemma: “There’s only one way I’m leaving now and that’s in a coffin.”

There are four episodes to go. Take your pick which one it’ll be.