The Monday letters page remembers the glory days of the Commodore 64, as a reader recommends indie game Beyond Words.
Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Old is new again All the recent talk about the ZX Spectrum and other retro formats warms my heart, not least because they’re UK formats and not the NES, which I have ever seen in my life and definitely did not know anyone that had one when I was a kid in the early 90s.
I’m not sure why there’s been this sudden outburst of discussion but I imagine it has a lot to do with how messed up the games industry is at the moment and the five or more year wait we have between big games now. Compare that to the old days when you’d get a sequel every year, that was made by just one or two people.
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The games felt raw and exciting, not the manufactured rubbish you get nowadays. Indie gaming is a lot closer to what gaming was in the old days but my problem with them is that so much of it is pandering to nostalgia and they’re always held back, either on purpose or by budget, whereas back in the day the game games were always pushing the envelope in terms of technology.
Now, I’m not so much of a hypocrite to say I’m not going to buy GTA 6 or any other big name games I like but more and more I find myself more interested in retro gaming and less in the modern stuff. Especially as there’s so much I didn’t play at the time, so there’s always something new to discover. Jacob
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The best bit I haven’t seen the film yet (I know I’m going to enjoy it from what I’ve read) but all the talk got me in the mood for Star Fox so I thought I’d play a bit of Star Fox Zero and this game is terrible! When it’s just the Lylat Wars on-the-rails shooter it’s fine and it still looks great. But it keeps forcing you to use the GamePad for aiming and turn into that awful chicken thing.
It’s a great tribute to the N64 game at times but it’s just held back by these baffling gameplay decisions. If they do release a new game then hopefully they don’t try any gimmicks and just keep it as an on-the-rails shooter. Simon
GC: It’s not terrible, but we don’t think anyone would argue the on-rails sections aren’t the best part. The problem for Nintendo is whether anyone still wants to play a game that is only that.
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Licensed property Talking about the C64 in the Inbox, I have just been watching the Commodore 64: Classic Game Insights Vol 1 Blu-ray and there is an interesting fact about Ron Gilbert (who made Maniac Mansion and The Secret Of Monkey Island games) when he started working at Lucasfilm he and his co-developers could not make any Star Wars games because George Lucas had sold the rights out to third party companies like Atari and others!
So, it’s a bit like somebody going to work for Nintendo and Nintendo telling their developers they couldn’t make Mario and Zelda games because they had sold the rights out to other companies! So what Ron Gilbert and his co-developers did was make up new games like Maniac Mansion and Secret Of Monkey Island, etc., in response to that.
The company that made this documentary is doing a full documentary for the C64 computer and it’s games and are looking for 2,000 followers on Kickstarter before they can launch the Kickstarter for the documentary. They currently have about 1,300 followers, one of which is me!
The people making the documentary also made The PlayStation Revolution documentary and the recent Rubber-Keyed Wonder documentary about the Spectrum, which were both very good in my opinion. Andrew J.
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GC: That sort of thing happens all that time. It’s why Sony still has the licence to make Spider-Man movies.
40 years, man and boy I’m loving all this chat about the ZX Spectrum.
I never had one myself, but I did have friends when I was a young kid, that either had a ZX or a Commodore 64, so I would enjoy gaming via osmosis through them.
It’s weird because when I look back, I didn’t realise how much of a gamer I was, it was just a new and exciting entertainment form which I was happy to get involved in.
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For me personally, it stated with those LCD gaming devices you could pick up at your local paper shop behind the glass cabinet for £2.99.
My friend used to borrow me his Game & Watch Mario and Donkey Kong and I didn’t care what my mom did for tea, as far as I was concerned I was living the life, it really fascinated me.
There was normally a high score of 9999 back then and I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure that’s where the term ‘clocked’ came from, when the game you were playing had no other numbers to give so just reset to 0, hence the term clocked.
I remember the Tomytronic games and the Tomy Racing Turbo, that was a particular favourite of mine.
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Anyway what I’m getting at, is it took me years to realise I was a gamer.
I work with a gentleman who takes the mickey out of his son in law and his PlayStation 5 yet he spends most of his time playing online snooker against other people!
I think we all have it in us to enjoy gaming in the same sense you really have to be a movie buff to enjoy a movie or watch a lot of television to enjoy a programme.
It’s a great hobby and I feel very fortunate to have watched it grow up from its infancy. freeway 77
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GC: We believe that ‘clocked’ started with pinball games, but that is the gist of it.
Beyond Balatro I wanted to write in to alert possibly yourselves, but mainly your readers, to a new game released on PC and Switch 2 (not sure about other formats).
It’s called Beyond Words and it is similar to Balatro but it plays along the lines of Scrabble rather than poker.
It for me, it isn’t necessarily as polished as Balatro but having put a few solid hours into it already… it is going to be right up there for replayabilty. It’s only just over £10 at the minute, so for all those that loved Balatro give this one a try. Complex
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GC: It seems to be on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as well, to judge by the trailer.
What are ya selling? I’ve finally gotten around to playing the Resident Evil 4 remake on PlayStation 5. I have to admit the game looks better but more importantly the controls are much improved. Sticky situations with the hostile locals are less sticky now that Leon can move while aiming.
One change for the worse I’ve noticed, however, is the merchant. Have the developers recast him? Leon sounds the same to me, but the merchant definitely isn’t as good. Why change the merchant? Wasn’t he a very popular character when the original version of the game came out?
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If I recall correctly the original Resident Evil 4 merchant had a sort of a pirate voice. The new merchant just sounds like a bland cockney. What a bad decision if the developers recast this character. Why not simply reuse the voicework from the original game?
Anyway, I’m enjoying the remake apart from that, but I do fear what else has changed for the worse. Are the regeneradores/regenerators still scary? Is Ashley less annoying? Michael Veal (Twitter/X)
GC: Everyone was recast; Metal Gear Solid Delta is the only big budget remake we can think of that has ever reused the same voice files from 20 years back. But the merchant was always meant to be cockney.
The unfunniest day of the year Read some stuff online that the Nemesis system patent had been revoked, you seen anything credible about that? Magnumstache
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GC: We’re afraid that was an April’s Fool ‘joke’. Although if any company wanted to do something similar a patent wouldn’t stop them. Lots of video game ideas are patented – Sega owns the patent to changing camera angles by pressing a button, for example – but they’re always too general to stop anything but a straight clone.
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Stardew nightmare Great to hear that Graveyard Keeper 2 will be an eventuality, as I thought the first one was a great attempt at a variation on the Stardew Valley experience. It was definitely an interesting theme on the management genre, taking care of the corpses in a correct manner to get cemetery ratings.
It was following the crafting, technology, and economy as what is required in these games, but with the added disposing and preparation of the corpses dropped off by the donkey delivery service. Conducting autopsies for crafting was a great idea, along with the skull ratings you get for doing a good job with the body.
Then putting them in the cemetery making them look as good as possible, with decorative items. It was a great way to do your grave keeping whilst farming parts for the technology and crafting side of the gameplay and then choosing the paths you want to use these items and resources in the technology tree.
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Now what’s interesting for the sequel is how it is to expand the creative part of the game and it’s not just fixing up a graveyard and church but an entire community in a zombie infested town with a zombie apocalypse on the horizon.
The town management is definitely a step up, with whole new areas of research to explore and take control of. Can’t wait for another indie classic. Alucard
Inbox also-rans I totally understand where the reader at the weekend is coming with when it comes to the GameCube. It was the first console I bought as a wage owner and despite its problems I have very fond memories of it and its games. Wendel
With so many Resident Evil remake on the way I wish they’d remake the remake of Resident Evil 3, as that was awful was barely anything like the original. Resident Evil 1 is going to be remade twice, so why not that? Carlet
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The fire ripped through the chip shop and neighbouring buildings yesterday evening – with local groups already rallyng around to help those affected.
The community in Dunblane is coming together to help out and share best wishes after a major fire gutted a property yesterday evening.
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The blaze, believed to have started at a chip shop on the corner of the town’s Stirling Road, has seen several neighbouring properties affected – including the popular Village Inn pub.
A massive fire service response was scrambled to the area, with multiple appliances in the area tasked with putting out the blaze.
In a statement on their social media late on Sunday evening, the owners of the Village Inn shared their thanks for locals banding together as the venue closes its doors to assess the damage.
The post read: “Thanks for all the kind messages and offers of help, there has been seriously about a hundred.
“Also thanks to Reverend Duncan Strathdee for taking my mum and kids to Cowie – we can’t thank you enough and to Craig Peat, the police, local councillors etc for their help.
“Dionne from the Dunblane Centre for helping get people somewhere to sleep and making sure we got home OK.
“We are sure they have managed to save the pub and our flat.
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“Our thoughts are for the people at the Chip Inn, and neighbours who have lost everything. We will update everyone when we can re-open.”
Local councillors have been among those sharing their well wishes for those affected by the fire.
Dunblane and Bridge of Allan councillor Alasdair Tollemache said: “A big thanks to all the emergency services for their response to this terrible incident, as well as Stirling Council’s resilience team, Police Scotland Forth Valley and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
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“I’m thinking about all those impacted.”
His words were echoed by fellow representative, Thomas Heald, who wrote: “My thoughts are with all those impacted by last night’s major fire in Dunblane.
“Please avoid the area if at all possible and consult ScotRail for latest advice on accessing the station.
“Stirling Council resilience team are available and please get in touch with either myself, Alasdair [Tollemache], Robin [Kleinman] or David [Wilson] if there are any questions.
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The Dunblane Centre is among the local groups also offering support for anyone affected.
They said: “We are happy to be working with Stirling Council Resilience Team to offer our facilities to those affected by the fire in Dunblane.
“We have showers, general welfare services, refreshments and a safe and warm environment available to anyone displaced by events.”
The blaze has caused mild disruption for commuters this morning, with one entrance point to the town’s busy station due to the ongoing work at the site.
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A Scotrail spokesman said: “The booking office at Dunblane station is now open but the station access via the main entrance remains closed.
“Customers will need to enter and exit via platform three.”
The Observer has reached out to Stirling Council and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for comment.
This is a developing story and we will continue to add to this as more comes in.
All remaining Quiz Clothing shops are expected to shut by the end of the month (Credits: Shutterstock / Amverlly)
Clothing chain Quiz has confirmed it is shutting down its remaining 37 stores after falling into administration earlier this year.
The Glasgow-founded group owed more than £40million when it called in administrator Interpath at the start of the year.
Three stores in Belfast, Leeds and Romford have already shut.
A total of 109 staff at the firm’s head office and distribution centre have also been made redundant.
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In an update issued over the weekend, Interpath said the chain’s remaining 37 stores are expected to shut by June 2026 as part of a ‘phased closure programme’.
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Interpath hasn’t confirmed whether Quiz’s concessions across Ireland are affected by the closures.
The retail chain fell into administration earlier this year (Picture: Quiz)
Which shops are closing?
No official closure dates have been confirmed for the remaining shops, but those that will close over the next few weeks include:
Aberdeen
Basingstoke
Bracknell
Cardiff
Carlisle
Castleford
Clydebank
Craigavon
Derby
Dunfermline
Eastbourne
Gateshead – Metro
Glasgow – Braehead
Glasgow – Buchanan Galleries
Glasgow – Fort
Glasgow – St Enoch
Hanley
Hull
Inverness
Irvine
Leicester
Livingston
Manchester – Arndale
Manchester – Trafford Centre
Mansfield
Merryhill
Newry
Newtownabbey
Northampton
Norwich
Portsmouth
Sheffield – Meadowhall
Stirling
Telford
Thurrock – Lakeside
Warrington
Watford
The remaining shops will continue to trade as normal as part of a ‘final clearance push’, with stock marked 60% off across clothing, footwear and accessories, and some items being sold for as little as £5 and £10.
The stores that are still open have launched a final closing down sale (Credits: Shutterstock / Tartezy)
Alistair McAlinden, the head of Interpath in Scotland, told RetailGazette: ‘As we head into the May bank holiday weekend, we would encourage shoppers to visit their local store as we commence our final closing down sale.’
Interpath managing director Geoff Jacobs added: ‘We’d once again like to say a huge thank you to Quiz staff who have shown such dedication and professionalism under difficult circumstances.’
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index surged by 3.1 per cent in morning trading, reaching 65,321.56. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also added 0.4 per cent to 8,692.70, and the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.4 per cent to 4,127.53.
Trading was suspended in South Korea and Hong Kong for Buddha’s birthday holidays, with US markets also closed for Memorial Day.
Mr Trump stated that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner.”
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This comes as regional officials informed The Associated Press on Sunday that the United States is nearing an agreement with Iran.
The potential deal would reportedly end the war, facilitate the reopening of the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and see Iran relinquish its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 3.1 per cent in morning trading to 65,321.56 (AP)
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is expected to be a key factor in determining the future direction of oil prices. Its closure has previously prevented oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf, disrupting crude deliveries to customers worldwide. Japan, for instance, relies heavily on oil imports, with the majority passing through the strait.
“Markets are rapidly transitioning from pricing geopolitical fear toward pricing a potential peace dividend as Hormuz reopening expectations pressure oil and the dollar lower,” analyst Stephen Innes said in a commentary.
Early Monday, benchmark US crude was down $4.35 at $92.25 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, sank $4.16 to $99.38 a barrel.
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In currency trading, the US dollar declined to 158.80 Japanese yen from 159.16 yen. The euro cost $1.1641, up from $1.1605.
Friday on Wall Street, stocks finished their eighth straight winning week, the best such streak since 2023. That’s even though a survey showed US consumers are feeling even worse about the economy.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz will help decide the direction of oil prices (Reuters)
The S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent and pulled closer to its all-time high set in the middle of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2 per cent.
Recent earnings reports from US companies that topped analysts’ expectations also helped markets. But worries about inflation have pushed bond yields higher worldwide.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.56 per cent on Friday from 4.57 per cent late Thursday, but it remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from before the war.
Lewis Hamilton was overjoyed after securing his best finish for Ferrari after a thrilling late showdown with arch-rival Max Verstappen at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, 41, duelled thrillingly for the podium places in the closing laps with Red Bull’s Verstappen, following the retirement of race leader George Russell midway through the race.
The Ferrari driver ultimately came out on top, making his move around the outside of turn one to claim second for the first time as a Ferrari driver.
“Awesome to fight with one of the greats,” the seven-time world champion said after clinching just his second Ferrari podium. “Very challenging behind him but I loved that hunt, my whole life has been about that since I was a kid in a really old go-kart.
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“I was always hunting, it was amazing to be back in that position and hunting him down ahead.
“I had so much fun out there all weekend, every single lap. Felt like we started on the right foot and came with the right attitude.”
Hamilton has taken a different approach, choosing not to use the simulator in advance of the race and instead focusing on the data to find the best race setup for him.
He believes that it has paid off and praised his team for the work to deliver him a car that he can compete with.
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“To come here to a track that I do love was awesome. This is my first second place with the team, it is something I have been working so hard for,” Hamilton added.
“I can’t explain how deep I have had to dig to get to this point and moving mountains in the background to enable this kind of performance. Really grateful to the team for supporting me.
Hamilton overtook Max Verstappen for second in the closing stages (Getty)
“It is a really lovely feeling to see them (the team) so happy because they truly deserve it for the work they have put in.
“I chose a different setup this weekend, working through the data with my engineer who is awesome, I love working with him.
“Fred (team principal Fred Vasseur) has been super supportive.”
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McLaren endured a nightmare afternoon, starting on the intermediate tyres while all around them chose soft slick tyres and having to get rid of them early on before Lando Norris had to retire with a reliability issue.
That aided Hamilton and Verstappen’s podium finishes – the Dutchman’s first of the season.
Verstappen was grateful to McLaren for “making a mess of the strategy” before again reiterating his call for the proposed engine changes for next season to be voted through, amid his bitter unhappiness over this season’s rules.
Verstappen secured his first 2026 podium
A switch to enable more power to come from the internal combustion engine from 2027 has been agreed in principle but there are suggestions some manufacturers are doubtful about it.
It was a thrilling race in Montreal, but Verstappen does not think that it is related to the rules.
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“Us drivers, give us any kind of car and we will give you a good show. That has nothing to do with the car, it just needs to be more pure,” Verstappen said.
“Driving other cars this season has reminded me how great the racing can be and how pure motorsport can be.
“I hope what they are trying to do for next year goes through because that is the minimum to make it a bit more back to normal.”
Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday that is officially about mourning the nation’s fallen service members, but it has come to signal the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of travel and discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers.
Here is a look at the holiday and how it has evolved:
When is Memorial Day?
It falls on the last Monday of May. This year, it is May 25.
Why is Memorial Day celebrated?
It’s a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military, according to the Congressional Research Service.
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The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence.
What are the origins of Memorial Day?
The holiday’s origins can be traced to the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members, Union and Confederate, between 1861 and 1865.
The first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day occurred May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers that were in bloom.
The practice was already widespread. Waterloo, New York, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday’s birthplace.
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Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864, according to the Library of Congress. And women in some Confederate states decorated graves before the war’s end.
David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina.
A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves.
When did Memorial Day become a source of contention?
As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become “sacrilegious” and no longer “sacred” if it focused more on pomp, dinners and oratory.
In an 1871 Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, abolitionist Frederick Douglass said he feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War’s impetus: enslavement.
“We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers,” Douglass said.
His concerns were well-founded, said Ben Railton, a professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.
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Although roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, the holiday in many communities would essentially become “white Memorial Day,” especially after the rise of the Jim Crow South, Railton told the AP in 2023.
In the 1880s, then-President Grover Cleveland was said to have spent the holiday going fishing, and “people were appalled,” Matthew Dennis, an emeritus history professor at the University of Oregon, told the AP.
But when the Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, 1911, an AP report made no mention of the holiday, or any controversy.
How has Memorial Day changed?
Dennis said Memorial Day’s potency diminished somewhat with the addition of Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice Day became a national holiday by 1938 and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
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In 1971, Congress changed Memorial Day from every May 30 to the last Monday in May. Dennis said the creation of the three-day weekend recognized that Memorial Day had been transformed into a more generic remembrance of the dead, as well as a day of leisure.
A year later, Time Magazine wrote that the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”
Why is Memorial Day tied to sales and travel?
Even in the 19th century, grave ceremonies were followed by leisure activities such as picnicking and foot races, Dennis said.
The holiday also evolved alongside baseball and the automobile, the five-day work week and summer vacation, according to the 2002 book “A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
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In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses began to open defiantly on the holiday.
Once the holiday moved to Monday, “the traditional barriers against doing business began to crumble,” authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran wrote.
These days, Memorial Day sales and traveling are deeply woven into the nation’s muscle memory.
Bruno Fernandes has issued a response to Roy Keane after the Irishman hit out at the Manchester United captain for trying to assist instead of scoring as he eyed a Premier League record
09:35, 25 May 2026Updated 09:47, 25 May 2026
Bruno Fernandes has accused Roy Keane of twisting his words after the Irishman suggested he prioritises personal milestones over helping Manchester United win.
Ex-United midfielder Keane claimed that too much attention was being paid to Fernandes’ assist tally instead of securing victory against Nottingham Forest last weekend.
Speaking on The Overlap after Fernandes had notched his 20th assist of the season in last weekend’s win against Nottingham Forest, Keane said: “When you’re the captain of a club and you’re supposed to be driving the club forward, do not be getting bogged down by just your role in the team, just assists.
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“What I heard at United at the weekend, honestly, I was raging with it. The whole chat about his assists… Everyone, the players were [talking about it], the game was about his assists. That’s the whole thing.
“After the game he got interviewed and he said, the captain of Manchester United, said ‘A few times, I probably should have… shot but I made the passes.’ Wow. How can your mindset be not to win the match but be about an individual record?”
But Fernandes has since responded to Keane, and told Steven Bartlett: “What I don’t like is when people lie about things, and in this case, what you said about Roy Keane, basically, what he said is a lie.”
Similar to Ben’s character DI Richard Poole in Death in Paradise, Professor Jasper Tempest possesses a talent for cracking cases. Despite battling OCD and a troubled history, the professor is drawn from his academic position by a former pupil turned police detective, who persuades him to assist with a challenging investigation.
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During a recent appearance on The One Show, Ben announced that not only was series five of Professor T forthcoming, but series six was also under development.
“We’ve got season five that will hopefully be coming out in the autumn,” he stated. “I mean, spoiler alert, we’re actually working on season six. It’s a very exciting situation to be in.”
Executive producer Jo McGrath hinted: “Season 5 will prove to be a momentous one for Professor T, both personally and professionally, and the series will climax with one of its trademark series finale episodes guaranteed to keep audiences glued,” reports the Express.
Death in Paradise enthusiasts were equally delighted by the announcement, with many expressing their reactions on social media. One commented, “My favourite detective is back on screens.”
Another wrote, “I was so sad when you died in Death in Paradise,” while a third commented, ” Wonderful show!!! You and the rest of the cast are superb, Mr Miller!!! We watch you on PBS channel 13 in NYC.”
Ben also featured on Sunday Brunch yesterday, discussing his separate television venture, Austin. Speaking with hosts Tim Lovejoy and chef Simon Rimmer, Ben revealed that series two of Austin has yet to air in the UK.
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He disclosed, “It is coming soon. It is out in Australia, and it was the number one comedy in Australia.”
Pressed on a UK release date, Ben admitted uncertainty, “I think over the summer, but I don’t know, it could be next month.”
Ben also announced his debut adult novel, A Very Dangerous Pursuit. “My story winds the clock back two years earlier, the same character -39 Steps is not in the UK, mine is obviously in Europe- and another very intriguing thriller, spy type drama,” the Richard Poole actor explained.
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Drawing comparisons between his protagonist, Richard Hannay, and James Bond, Ben insisted the two characters bear little resemblance, noting that Richard is useless with gadgets and is “incredibly self-conscious”.
Reflecting on the pressures of writing the book, Ben remarked, “It’s funny, I didn’t think too much about it at the time, it’s only now it’s come out, and people say, ‘Did you get permission?’”
Sunday Brunch returns on Channel 4 at 10am and Professor T is available to stream on ITVX. Season 5 coming soon.
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