Stamford Bridge Community Pool is described as one of the village’s “greatest assets”.

Hosting generations of birthday parties, swim sessions and children’s lessons, the pool in Church Road is well used, year-round.

Recommended reading:

But in recent weeks, fears have mounted about its future.

The pool needs up to four new lifeguards or it will be forced to close for open swims and private hires this summer.

Speaking about this, chairperson of the pool committee Shelley Lawton said: “Our two lovely lifeguards are leaving us before summer.

“Ideally we would hire up to four new lifeguards, two of whom will receive a training package kindly paid for by the parish council.”

Shelley explained that sadly, small community pools like Stamford Bridge’s do not have the resources to train their lifeguards in-house.

(Image: Supplied)

She said that lifeguards are required to re-train every two years – something that is usually self-funded by employees.

Faced with the possibility of losing the pool, Shelley’s committee had begun turning customers away.

She said: “We have been so stressed – our pool means everything to us.

“It caters for all ages in the community – from babies first swims, to hosting five primary school lessons, family sessions and classes for those over 55.

“Our elderly users particularly benefit from regular visits; it’s important to them, their health and serves as a means to make friends.”

‘Without support, we risk losing something truly special’

A spokesperson for Stamford Bridge Parish Council said that the pool was a facility most villages of its size could “only dream of”.

They added: “Without support, we risk losing something truly special.

“We were proud to give funding to the pool to ensure new lifeguards can be trained.”

Shelley said the pool wanted to hire the new lifeguards in time for a taster session given by the facility’s current lifeguards in the coming months.

An appeal has since been shared widely on social media – and has received more than 15 applicants, the parish council confirmed.

For more information, please email info@sbcpool.org.

For Shakespeare’s Hamlet “the world is out of joint”. In screen writer Michael Lesslie’s collage of Shakespeare’s play, directed by Aneil Karia, Riz Ahmed’s intense, grief-wrecked Hamlet pays a high price as he tries to “set it right” in a corrupt corporate world.

This Hamlet is a radical adaptation that mostly uses Shakespeare’s words but relocates to contemporary, uber-wealthy south-Asian London. Hamlet has had a south-Asian makeover before now, most famously in Haider; a 2014 action packed Hindi film set in 1990s Kashmir. Karia’s Hamlet, however, is far moodier, more muted and uneven. Some of it is brilliant, some less so. But there is a stunning pay off at the end.

The recent film Hamnet repositioned Hamlet as a response to Shakespeare’s son’s death. Ahmed’s prince also returns the focus to fathers – after all Shakespeare’ father died around the time Hamlet was written. The film asks the audience: whom can we trust?

The opening has Hamlet performing Hindu funeral rites on his father’s body, guided by his concerned uncle Claudius (Art Malik).

Within moments of the coffin going into the furnace and the lavish wake beginning, Hamlet is taken into a side room where Claudius announces he will marry his brother’s poised and pragmatic widow, Gertrude (Sheeba Chadha). This will protect Elsinore, the ruthless family business of developers and builders.

With Hamlet in shock from this announcement, his friend Laertes (Joe Alwyn) takes him off to the drug-fuelled sensory overload of a night club. Laertes and his sister Ophelia (Morfydd Clark) in this film take on the role traditionally played by Horatio, becoming close friends and confidantes.

Ophelia, like Hamlet, is disgusted by corporate corruption although, as the daughter of Claudius’s chief adviser, Polonious (Timothy Spall), she benefits from Elsinore’s rapacious deals. But as Laertes tells the pair, she is no bride for the future head of Elsinore. An arranged marriage within his culture and one that is advantageous for Elsinore is assumed to be in store for Hamlet.

Overwhelmed by the nightclub music, dance and drugs, Hamlet flees out into the night and a decaying London, with skyscrapers on the horizon and walls graffitied with anti-Elsinore slogans. It is here that Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father, King Hamlet (Avijit Dutt).

The existence of the ghost of King Hamlet is witnessed in Shakespeare’s play by several characters other than Hamlet, including the sensible Horatio. However, in this film only Ahmed’s Hamlet sees this ghost. Is the ghost real?

Hamlet follows his father to the top of a half-built skyscraper. Speaking in Hindi, with no subtitles provided, King Hamlet tells his son that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius. Or at least that is what audiences familiar with the play might infer.

The play-within-a-play, The Murder of Gonzago, which Hamlet stages in order to confirm his uncle’s guilt is here presented as a blistering south-Asian dance at Gertrude and Claudius’s splendid wedding banquet. The dance depicts Gonzago’s murder by poison, leading to his wife’s hasty remarriage – a clear parallel to Hamlet’s situation. As in Shakespeare’s play, Ahmed’s Hamlet believes that Claudius’s reaction proves he murdered his father. However, this where the film begins to diverge from Shakespeare’s story.

The brilliant choreography (by classical Kathak dancer Akram Khan) reads, within the logic of this film’s narrative, as a direct threat of violence towards Claudius. The dancers’ fists create a funnel for poisoned wine to be tipped into the dancer Gonzago’s ear while Hamlet, apparently deranged by grief, watches eagerly.

After his nephew has caused maximum embarrassment at the wedding, Claudius’s subsequent attempts to dispose of Hamlet make sense. The dance delivered a warning to Claudius and the long term future of Elsinore is at stake. But crucially, while Shakespeare shows Claudius subsequently trying to pray, and explicitly acknowledging his guilt, Karia’s film cuts this confession.

The risk to others as Hamlet works through his grief is clear. “To be or not to be” is delivered as Hamlet drives at manic speed in a high-performance car on the wrong side of the road towards an oncoming lorry, briefly lifting both hands off the steering wheel. While the audience may still believe in Hamlet, mesmerised by the intense closeups on Ahmed’s anguished face, they might also start questioning his judgment as he enacts his revenge.

Spurts of blood fly everywhere as Timothy Spall’s Polonius has his throat slashed after responding to Gertrude’s cries for help when a manic Hamlet corners her. Disposing of the body, Hamlet encounters a statue of Ganesh, the remover of obstacles.

It seems, however, that the god might not be totally on his side when one of Claudius’s thugs attempts to dispose of Hamlet by staging his suicide, forcing him to slash his own wrists. Luckily, he is rescued by Fortinbras, the leader of a band of homeless tent-dwellers, all dispossessed by Elsinore. Shocked by their misery, Hamlet decides to give it all away and signs over his shares in Elsinore to Fortinbras.

After divesting himself of his stake in the business, Hamlet heads home seeking revenge. When Claudius flees into the garden of the palatial family residence, he stops and waits for a dying Hamlet to catch him up. This is puzzling.

As his nephew sticks a broken bottle into his guts, Claudius states with his very last breath, “I loved my brother”. Prince Hamlet unravels. The ghost is, like the witches in Macbeth, untrustworthy. In grief, Hamlet has, he acknowledges, become “bewitched”. King Hamlet was part of the corruption and so now is his son.

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Stuart Diamond murdered 17-year-old Christopher Hartley by strangling and dismembering him in 1997, but has never disclosed where the teenager’s severed head is located

Stuart Diamond, a man who brutally murdered 17 year old Christopher Hartley in 1997 and has since refused to disclose the location of the teenager’s decapitated head, has been deemed safe for release. Diamond lured the teenager to a flat on December 30, 1997, where he strangled and dismembered him.

Christopher’s mutilated remains were discovered in a bin behind a hotel. Diamond was subsequently convicted of the murder and detained at Ashworth High Security Hospital in Maghull, Liverpool under the Mental Health Act, reports the Liverpool Echo..

During his sentencing, the judge warned: “It is clear you are a very dangerous young man. The most anxious consideration will be given as to whether it will ever be safe to release you.”

Despite serving beyond his minimum sentence, Diamond remained behind bars largely due to the relentless efforts of Christopher’s mother, Jean Hartley. She told the Liverpool Echo last week that her son’s murderer had never provided them with closure by revealing the location of Christopher’s severed head.

In February 2025, Diamond was granted a deferred conditional discharge by a mental health review tribunal, indicating that arrangements for community care were yet to be established. However, the now 48 year old Diamond appeared before the Parole Board last month, where it was determined that further imprisonment was no longer necessary for public safety.

He is now set to be released back onto the streets of the north west, subject to stringent licence conditions imposed by the Parole Board.

Parole documents obtained by the Liverpool Echo reveal that the panel identified several risk factors that could increase the likelihood of Diamond reoffending. Diamond informed the panel he had been carrying a kitchen knife because of growing paranoia and acknowledged he had needed support.

He also discussed the devastating effect the crime had on the victim’s family, and the panel determined he had demonstrated “significant victim empathy”, according to the documents. The panel noted that during the period of Diamond’s offending, he was misusing drugs and alcohol and “had been willing to involve himself in violence and to act without thinking about the consequences”.

The panel concluded: “In this case, protective factors, which would reduce the risk of reoffending, were considered to be Mr Diamond’s improved ability to manage violent situations and the fact that there had been a lack of evidence of violence for a number of years. Mr Diamond had also developed a sense of structure and routine in his life.”

The documents reveal that Diamond had been assessed through independent living arrangements and had been granted unescorted community leave. He has previously spent periods in the community on overnight stays.

Ms Hartley, who resides in Kirkby, told the Liverpool Echo last month that Diamond’s crimes had inflicted “unimaginable suffering”. She said: “I still to this day have nightmares – it has destroyed my whole family.”

Ms Hartley added: “I hate Diamond. I can’t forgive him for putting my family through hell.”

Christopher was raised in Burnley before relocating to Blackpool, where he secured employment at the seaside resort’s Pleasure Beach.

On the day he was killed, he had left his sister’s house and encountered Diamond, who had relocated to Lancashire from Ireland.

Diamond’s 1999 trial heard how the killer strangled and smothered Christopher before dismembering his body into three pieces in the bathroom shared by residents of the flats. Police discovered blood stains and tissue in the property, along with Diamond’s fingerprint in Christopher’s blood on a stool leg.

The jury dismissed his claims that drug dealers had carried out the killing to frame him for the crime. Diamond fled to Ireland following the murder and was extradited to face trial.

It later emerged Diamond had two prior convictions for violence, including an 18-month stint in a young offenders’ institution after slashing a man’s face with a knife.

A psychiatric assessment from an earlier conviction revealed Diamond had fantasised about committing murder. He had been released on licence just weeks before he killed Christopher.

Ms Hartley told the ECHO that Diamond’s absence of remorse and agonising refusal to admit his guilt meant he should never have been freed from prison. She added that if he were ever released, she would live in constant fear of coming face-to-face with her son’s killer.

Following the hearing, the parole panel concluded: “Mr Diamond had completed necessary work to address identified risk factors and areas of his life that had impacted on his behaviour towards others. The panel noted there was no ongoing evidence of problematic behaviour, emotional instability, poor compliance or pro-violent attitudes.”

Diamond’s release conditions include:

• To comply with requirements to reside at a designated address, to be of good behaviour, to disclose developing relationships, and to report as required for supervision or other appointments.
• To submit to an enhanced form of supervision or monitoring including a specified curfew.
• To comply with other identified limitations concerning contacts, activities, residency and an exclusion zone to avoid contact with victims.
• To continue to work on addressing defined areas of risk in the community.

Christopher’s family have previously voiced concerns that a killer shouldn’t be freed into society if they’ve never spent any time in a mainstream prison. Current legislation permits those convicted of murder to apply for parole directly from high-security psychiatric facilities.

Ms Hartley questioned: “How can he be fit to live in the community if he has never been fit to be in a normal prison?”.

The bereaved family have launched a petition demanding changes to UK parole laws for those found guilty of murder. Their online campaign states: “While mental health care is vital for the rehabilitation of offenders, it must not replace the core principle of accountability for serious crimes such as murder. Allowing parole without prison time undermines justice, erodes public confidence and places additional emotional strain on victims’ families.”

A representative for the Ministry of Justice informed the ECHO: “Being held in a psychiatric hospital does not change the minimum time a life-sentence prisoner must serve before they can be considered for release. The offender’s liberty is restricted, and they must complete treatment before any return to prison or release into the community.”

Luckily you can help prevent this issue with some simple steps

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A neurologist has highlighted an often “overlooked” risk factor for both strokes and dementia. You may not realise that your mouth health is linked to these conditions.

In a video shared on the social media platform TikTok, Dr Baibing Chen, also known as Dr Bing online, emphasised the importance of maintaining good dental hygiene.

Dr Chen said: “ One risk factor for stroke and dementia that people often overlook is dental and gum health and let me explain. Large studies have now shown that people with gum disease, cavities or major tooth loss have higher stroke risk.

“And many of these studies control for things like socioeconomic status, income, or other demographics and risk factors, and the association still held. Now, some people will say, well, of course, because people who take care of their teeth also tend to take care of the rest of their health.

And they may be right. In statistics, we call this residual confounding, where healthy behaviours tend to cluster together, and it is very hard to separate one habit from the rest. So this does not prove that bad teeth directly causes strokes.”

But he said that gum disease can result in inflammation. He continued: “It’s important to know that chronic gum disease can create ongoing inflammation. Inflammation can damage blood vessels, and oral bacteria have been found inside clots that cause strokes.

“And this is why sometimes I check my patient’s teeth during my physical exam. It’s not about judging what their teeth look like, it’s more about understanding their whole health picture.”

He added: “People who see their dentist regularly, people who brush more consistently, and people who protect their gums tend to show lower stroke risk in large studies. Not zero risk, but lower.

“So think of your oral health as part of your brain health. So flossing, water flossing, and brushing is not just protecting your smile and your breath, it may be also quietly protecting your brain.”

A study, published in Neurology journal in 2023, backed Dr Bing’s claims. Study authors wrote: “Among middle age Britons without stroke or dementia, poor oral health was associated with worse neuroimaging brain health profiles.

“Genetic analyses confirmed these associations, supporting a potentially causal association. Because the neuroimaging markers evaluated in this study precede and are established risk factors of stroke and dementia, our results suggest that oral health, an easily modifiable process, may be a promising target for very early interventions focused on improving brain health.”

To keep your teeth healthy, the NHS recommends you:

• Brush your teeth twice a day
• Clean between your teeth
• Cut down on sugar
• Quit smoking
• Limit your alcohol intake
• Have regular dental check-ups

‘Better than Broadchurch’

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With countless British crime dramas available to stream, choosing what to watch next can feel overwhelming. Massive successes such as Happy Valley, Line of Duty and Adolescence have captivated both audiences and critics.

Recent years have also seen viewer favourites including Vera, Unforgotten, The Fall, Luther and, naturally, Peaky Blinders. However, a brand new drama has just dropped that’s already being hailed as “better than Broadchurch”. And it’s available to stream right now.

Launched within the past week, Under Salt Marsh boasts an impressive cast featuring Kelly Reilly (of Yellowstone fame), Rafe Spall of The English and legendary acting powerhouse Jonathan Pryce, whose credits include The Two Popes, The Crown, Game of Thrones and Glengarry Glen Ross, which has been dubbed the film with the “greatest cast of all time”.

The moody, atmospheric new drama, which holds a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, unfolds in an isolated coastal village in north-west Wales under threat from rising sea levels. Known as Morfa Halen in the programme, it’s actually inspired by the genuine Welsh village of Fairbourne, whose inhabitants genuinely face the possibility of abandoning their picturesque village due to rising sea levels, reports the Express.

Sequences from the series were shot in the village itself. The breath-taking footage of marshland featured throughout was captured in the nearby Mawddach Estuary. It’s within this wetland setting that Reilly’s character, Jackie Ellis, a former detective turned teacher, discovers the corpse of a young lad. Whilst tragic on its own, the find also brings back the trauma of an unresolved case involving a missing girl from the village three years earlier, which brought Ellis’s policing career to an end.

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Reviewers claim it “could be the best British crime drama in years”. In Vogue, Daisy Jones wrote: “It’s hard to find a genuinely compelling British crime drama these days. Netflix is crammed with throwaway Harlan Coben offerings… ITV detective shows are a dime-a-dozen… But Under Salt Marsh… is one such drama that’s worth paying attention to. It’s one of the more gripping thrillers I’ve seen in years.”

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Craig Mathiseon described Under Salt Marsh as “as good as Broadchurch”, the massive success featuring Olivia Colman and David Tennant that aired from 2013-2017. Meanwhile, Irish News declared it “the best thing on TV right now”.

Is Under Salt Marsh based on a true story?

Under Salt Marsh features two distinct storylines. One centres on the finding of a young boy’s remains (and the unresolved vanishing of a missing girl three years before). This isn’t based on actual events.

The other focuses on the environmental crisis threatening the community. And this is rooted in actual events. Whilst Morfa Halen is fictional, it’s inspired by (and shot in) Fairbourne, where residents were told in 2013 they could become the globe’s first “climate refugees”.

Authorities said then that the village’s sea defences wouldn’t be kept up after 2054, with a “managed retreat” strategy proposed that would see inhabitants relocated and the village ultimately surrendered to the ocean.

Residents mounted fierce opposition to the proposals, which have never been spelled out in significant detail, and it appears officials may now be backtracking and prepared to abandon earlier pledges to “decommissioning” the community.

Under Salt Marsh is streaming on Now TV now.

Charlotte Hamilton thought the council had made a mistake when she received the bill for her business, Cots to Tots in Haxby, last year. “It was a bit of a shock when that came,” she said.

But the rate increase was very much real – and will likely rise again in April, when Covid-era discounts for businesses come to an end.

For Cots to Tots, which sells new and pre-loved equipment for babies and children, the business rate changes come on top of a 27 per cent rent increase, as well as hikes to its service charges and utilities.

Cots to Tots owner Charlotte Hamilton outside the shop in Haxby (Image: Charlotte Hamilton)

Charlotte, 46, said she welcomed calls for further support for the high street, adding that she has witnessed other businesses in Haxby close due to rising costs.

The married mother of two from Appleton Roebuck added that her business has also seen a drop in footfall.

She said the drop in footfall started during the pandemic when buyers moved online but has got worse in the past two years.

Her business, located in Haxby Shopping Centre, has been in the town for the past 13 years.

But Charlotte admitted that people had “forgotten we were here”, as customers stopped using the shop after their children grew up.

Charlotte decided to write to her customers on Facebook as a “last resort”, urging people to share the word about the business.

“We are not asking for anything big – just awareness,” the post said. “If you love what we do, please tell a friend, share a post, or pop in to see our amazing savings on preloved, new, and refurbished items.”

“We didn’t want it to seem like a begging call,” Charlotte said. “It was just what we could put out to encourage people.”

Recommended reading:

She praised the response to the post, saying it has resulted in people raising awareness about the business in the community.

“There’s a lot of local people coming in and saying, ‘We have loved your shop and we wouldn’t want to see you go’,” Charlotte said.

“I want to thank people for all the support. Keep sharing and we’ll get some new people coming through.

“Our best form of advertising has always proven to be word of mouth and recommendations. If anyone is able to leave us a review on our Facebook page that would be amazing.”

The Friday letters page is relatively enthusiastic about Horizon Hunters Gathering, as one reader thinks Nintendo should ditch GameChat on Switch 2.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Poor Partner
So that Partner Showcase from Nintendo was awful, as we all thought. Although it was actually quite a bit worse than I was expecting, to be honest. There was no real surprises for anything big, Elden Ring and The Duskbloods weren’t there, and the mic drop at the end was Bethesda.

I don’t want to get into fanboy territory but if there is one developer whose success I have never understood it’s Bethesda. OK, Skyrim was innovative back when it came out but stuff like The Witcher 3 did the same idea much better. More importantly, Bethesda has never made anything that good again.

Fallout 4 is significantly worse than 3 and I, along with most people, didn’t even bother with Starfield – which you’ll notice was not one of the three games they revealed. But what really gets me is how bad Bethesda is technically. Everyone’s been saying it about them for years and yet they never change.

And so what do we see in that new trailer? What looks like a terrible port of a game that should have no problem working on the Switch 2. If that’s what you’re showing off I hate to think what the rest of the game looks like.
Torrence
PS: The only saving grace was two different dinosaur games!

Welcome bomb
What a nice surprise the Nintendo Direct pulled today.

A Bomberman Collection? Heck, yes! Takes me back to when I was 10 years old playing Super Bomberman 2 single and multiplayer and destroying the CPUs.

Also, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in June, for Xbox and Switch 2? I will take that!
ShaunOMacY2J (gamertag)

Small screen gaming
Yikes, that Partner Showcase was weak sauce. I know we were told not to get ourselves hyped up but I really question what the point of it was. It’s not like the proper Nintendo Directs don’t have third party games, so why exactly did we need this bunch of third rate games and lazy-looking ports?

Fallout 4 looks like it runs terrible on Switch 2 and it’s going to be nearly 11 years old by the time it makes it, so I really find it impossible to get excited about it.

But what else was there to tempt anyone? Resident Evil Requiem looks like a pretty good port but there’s no way I’d buy it on Switch 2 instead of PlayStation 5. Third party games on a Nintendo format need to offer something special or be really well suited to portable play, but that didn’t seem to be the case for most of the games they showed.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on a handheld screen would be such a waste given how over-the-top and detailed the graphics are. Another Nintendo Direct and yet more disappointment.
Goldwing

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Evil deal
While most of what I was interested in from yesterday’s Direct was already known about, the release of the Pragmata demo was at least a welcome surprise.

Short but sweet as a demo, but it’s sold me on the game. Hopefully I get better at the hacking and combat at the same time, it’s a bit like rubbing your stomach and patting your head. But it already feels like it’ll be a good game.

Capcom are really going through a golden period. The new Resi looks good too, the triple pack of 7, 8 and 9 on Switch is just £82 at Argos, which is tempting, even for Game-Key cards.

I do wish Elden Ring had been in the Direct though.
Euclidian Boxes

GC: That is a very good price for the Resi trilogy.

Forgotten birthday
We are getting very close to that Zelda 40th anniversary and Nintendo still hasn’t said a thing, except for some concerts. Are they really going to ignore such a big number, even as they make a fuss about Pokémon turning 30?

You’d think they’ have a game lined up to go along with it, probably a remaster or remake, but I don’t see how they’ve got time to release it now. Even if they shadow-dropped it. Considering how multiple leakers knew about the Partner Showcase, and were accurate about it, I don’t see how we get a surprise Nintendo Direct in the next two weeks.

I’d love if it did happen but at the moment I’m not even confident Nintendo will mention anything to do with Zelda this year. Since when did Link become the unloved loser who can’t get anyone to go to his birthday party?
Paulie

Wasted time
As achingly trend chasing as it all looked, I surprisingly found myself quite fluffed by the Horizon Hunters Gathering reveal, it looked very polished and fun.

But live service games’ moment-to-moment gameplay often is very good, it’s that they are designed to drag on forever that’s the problem; for the well documented reason of being forever games and all the monetisation models around them, I genuinely feel I need to boycott live service games.

Jan-Bart Van Beek’s assurance at the start of the video, that Guerrilla bloody love making single-player games, and will continue to make them, didn’t convince me one bit. If it’s a hit they’ll divert more time and resources to it.

At the start of the gen, and the talk of Sony having 500 or so live service games in development, I convinced myself that it was additional to single-player. But we learnt that wasn’t the case and nearly all of their traditionally single-player studios were significantly tied up with the live service push. With the $3.6 billion purchase of Bungie as well, Sony committed massive resources to it all.

So no live service games for me, or Nintendo Directs from now on. Time better spent elsewhere.
Simundo

Honest addition
Interesting to see Valve admit that the RAM problems have caused them to change their Steam Machine plans, at least a little bit. I think that’s the first time a company has actually admitted it, because usually they just say it won’t even when they turnaround and do a price raise straight after.

Maybe Valve would be a good addition to the console world if they’re actually going to… tell the truth and engaged with people? They’re not saying much at the moment, because the thing hasn’t been properly unveiled yet, but I’m hoping they can bring some straight talking to the industry… as well as Half-Life 3.
Gantz

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Always in motion is the future
The steady stream of news about the Switch 2’s fortunes is kinda interesting, it seems like it’s destined to get locked in a debate over whether it is a success or not for a while to come. I think both things can be true, it’s the fastest-selling console ever and taking Japan by storm, but also underperforming in the West and third party games sales are floundering. 18 million consoles sold is great but if everyone is just replaying Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom at 60fps, as Ubisoft weep into their Star Wars Outlaws sales, that isn’t the gaming saviour we were hoping for.

I did suspect performance in the UK might not be in line with the blockbuster figures elsewhere, the Black Friday deals (admittedly modest) ended up running right up until the end of January and the console wasn’t ever sold out over that time.

In Japan, it’s worth remembering that the machine is essentially being subsidised due to the currency problems with the yen. They have a much cheaper, locked Japanese language version that’s unavailable in other territories. Suggesting in the West, at least, Nintendo really need to bring that price down significantly somehow. Maybe ditch GameChat? I recently saw figures it was being used by less than 4% of console owners.

The latest Partner Direct lent into Japanese developed titles and franchises (outside the Bethesda reveals) in a strategy that seems to double down on the console’s trajectory so far. If Western publishers can’t turn a profit on it and so ditch support, it won’t be good for anyone at a time when we need games to be as widely available as possible. If the market fractures everything will be even worse.
Marc

GC: GameChat Is unlikely to have cost very much in either R&D or manufacturing. That’s probably why it exists. Nintendo actually did better, proportionally, in the UK than most other countries, over Christmas. Whereas it did unexpectedly poorly in France, which is usually it’s biggest market in Europe. Everything is very much in flux at the moment.

Inbox also-rans
So if the PlayStation 5 is selling roughly the same as the PlayStation 4 that means it’s going to come out at about 117 million sales, right? So somewhere around the fifth best-selling console of all time, above the Wii and PS1. That seems a pretty good achievement to me.
PhantomZ

So glad to see that Rave Racer is getting a proper console. I was always sore it never got a proper home version, as it was my favourite in the arcades. Can’t wait to play it again.
Johno

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The NHS has shared simple advice on plating up food to help you lose weight

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Two straightforward principles for portioning your meals could support your weight loss journey. The NHS has advocated these strategies as components of a healthy lifestyle to assist those pursuing slimming goals.

Statistics indicate that approximately one in four adults across the UK are affected by obesity. Given the various health complications linked to excess weight, shedding pounds is consequently a widespread ambition for numerous people.

Nevertheless, embarking on this path can prove challenging and intimidating. Recognising this, the NHS offers online guidance featuring fundamental measures to adopt when working towards a healthier weight.

Through its Better Health website, the health organisation outlines two uncomplicated principles for meal preparation to facilitate your progress. These include:

• Filling half your plate with vegetables
• Using smaller plates or bowls

Vegetables

The NHS advises targeting a minimum of two vegetable portions per meal, which should occupy approximately half your plate. This approach ensures satiety whilst maintaining lower calorie consumption.

The NHS stated: “Aiming for two or more portions of veg in a main meal means about half of your plate. Try to make sure you have at least two portions of veg as part of your main meals.

“This helps to fill your plate with low-calorie, fibre-rich, filling foods, leaving less room for higher-calorie foods or ingredients.”

Plate size

Part of the issue stems from the reality that many individuals are consuming quantities beyond their requirements. According to the NHS: “Everywhere we look there are large and extra-large portions of food and drinks – this has left many of us eating more than we need.”

The health service went on to advise: “Scale down when plating up. Try using smaller plates and bowls to help reduce your portion sizes at mealtimes.”

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Calories

The NHS added that the amount you eat is “just as important” as what you eat. It warned: “No matter how healthy your diet is, you can still put on weight if you are eating too much.

“Having more calories than your body needs each day can lead to weight gain.” To lose weight, the NHS said the average person should reduce their daily calorie intake by 600kcal.

That means having:

• 1,900kcal per day for men
• 1,400kcal per day for women

This will vary slightly depending on the individual, though. For more information, visit the Better Health site here.