Romeo Is A Deadman is very Suda51 (Grasshopper Manufacture)
The creator of No More Heroes is about to release new game Romeo Is A Deadman and we’ve talked to him about modern development and setting his next game in the UK.
The games industry has a number of great characters and Goichi Suda – known to all as Suda51 – is emphatically one of them. The CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture is more than a mere games developer; he’s an auteur, no less, whose extensive and utterly distinctive games catalogue (whose highlights include killer7 and No More Heroes) has earned him comparisons with the likes of Quentin Tarantino.
I caught up with him on a rare visit to London, as part of a tour to drum up interest in his latest game, Romeo Is A Dead Man, due to be released on February 11 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. There’s no mistaking Romeo Is A Dead Man for anything other than a Suda51 game and it’s surely already a shoo-in for 2026’s most bonkers game.
It follows the bizarre exploits of Romeo Stargazer, a small-town American cop who is killed but resurrected, thanks to his boffin granddad, as a lightsaber and gun-wielding operative in the FBI’s Space-Time Department, zipping back and forth in space and time to take down a bunch of time criminals (including his ex-girlfriend in many different guises) who are creating world-destroying anomalies.
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The most immediately striking aspect of Romeo Is A Dead Man is that, in its first hour, it zaps through a welter of different art styles, from a diorama style intro, via comic book style cut scenes, and more conventional third person 3D to a spaceship hub that’s rendered in top-down retro 8-bit graphics (in which homages to both Pong and Pac-Man can be found). Miraculously, what should be a mish-mash of conflicting style coalesces into a highly distinctive whole, with a weird logic of its own.
‘Whenever you’re developing a game, things are going to change at some point,’ explains Suda. ‘There’s always something that gets taken out, put in or tweaked a little bit. And at first, we were going to do the whole game in full polygon, 3D graphics style. We got to some point in the development and realised: ‘OK: this is not only going to take a lot longer than we thought, but it is going to cost a lot more money too.’ Some people think that it must have been really expensive putting all these different visual styles in the game, but actually, it’s the opposite.
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‘One of the things we came up with was the realisation that we have a bunch of people at the studio who are really good at a specific art style, or at a specific aspect of the development. It could be someone who is really good at realistic illustration, somebody who is really good at comic book style stuff, somebody who is really good at video production, somebody who is really good at environments and backgrounds, stuff like that.
‘So what I wanted to do is have the light shone on each of these people who are really specialised in these certain styles. And it took a while to figure out how to get everything to fit together, to make a coherent game out of it. But I feel the end product came out pretty well for the jumble of stuff that it is, you know?’
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Suda51 alludes to a situation which arose at Grasshopper Manufacture, which has been operational since 1998 but in 2021 was bought by Chinese publisher NetEase, when it was on a massive acquisition spree. In early 2025, NetEase announced its desire to sell most of the international game developers it had acquired.
Although it still owns Grasshopper, Suda51 says: ‘When we started out, I was kind of hoping that this would be the sort of game that we would be able to take our time on and relax while we put it together. But it ended up being the opposite. It ended up pretty much from the earlier stages of development, both as a studio and also for me personally being: ‘OK, we’ve got to do something about this, or this has to be worked out somehow’.
‘Every time I make a game, I figure: ‘Oh wow, that was rougher than I thought it would be.’ But it was the first time in a long time that I’ve thought: ‘OK, making games is not as simple as a lot of people who don’t make them think it is’.’
Suda51 loves big guns (Grasshopper Manufacture)
Luckily, improvisation is Suda51’s superpower. He has always been regarded as a maverick in the world of games development, so I ask him whether he thinks that is fair enough, and whether he embraces the term: ‘I feel like maybe one of the reasons I get called something like that is obviously because of the games I make and the way I make games. But, specifically, I have learned how to improvise, and figure out how to make things work that normally wouldn’t work in a certain way.
‘When I started out at a company called Human, in my first job in the games industry, I began writing for games, then ended up as director, and I’ve been doing both of those things ever since. Especially back in the day, when game specs were a lot lower than they are now, and you couldn’t do nearly as much stuff in a video game as you can now; if there was something that you wanted to express visually or story-wise, you had to figure out: ‘Yeah, OK, this is what I want to show, but we simply don’t have the technology to actually show it, so how can I express this either a different way visually or in literary terms, or thematically?’
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‘I feel like one of the strengths that I’ve gained over the years is being able to figure out ways of creative problem-solving. Nowadays, when things are a lot more advanced than they were before, you’ve got a lot more technical freedom of expression, and there’s more stuff that you actually can show, and things that you actually can do with a game than you could 20, 30 years ago.
‘So there aren’t as many limitations as there were before, but conversely, since there is so much more stuff that you can do, I keep trying to find new ways to use these new means of expression, and new ways to come up with on-the-spot ideas.
‘A lot of the development we do, I kind of view as ad-lib development, as tossing ideas back and forth – it’s kind of like jazz-jamming: ‘This guy’s doing this, and if I do this, it’s going to match in some cool way.’ While the other guy is like: ‘Actually, no, I think I’m going to add this in.’ And when you get a really good bunch of improvisers together, then you have a really good jazz jam band, you know?
‘I feel like that’s probably a reason that I get thought of as something like a maverick – not necessarily because I’m trying to break rules on purpose. To answer your question of how I feel about being called a maverick, honestly I’m happy, because it feels kind of cool, like a pro wrestler nickname or something like that, so I dig it.’
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Romeo Is A Dead Man will be the 28th game that Suda51 has helmed at Grasshopper. During that non-stop burst of creativity, he has collaborated with some other legends of the games industry, but one creative partner stands out for him: Shinji Mikami, originator of Resident Evil and co-founder of Clover Studio, PlatinumGames, and Tango Gameworks.
Suda51 says: ‘We worked together both on killer7 and Shadows Of The Damned, as a kind of producer-director tag team. I’ve learned so much from him over the years, especially back in the day, when we started working together. When it comes to action games, he’s done so much and he’s taught me so much – I truly consider him to be a mentor of sorts. And he’s even given me permission to call him that.
‘He’s had the biggest impact, not only on myself, but on Grasshopper Manufacture as a studio, as far as the way we make games is concerned, and specifically regarding how to make action games work. It’s not necessarily that he sat there and gave me these lessons and told me verbally: ‘This is how you make an action game.’ It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as though I learned it through feeling and sensing and working with him.’
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Suda51 has been around for a long while (Daniel C. Griliopoulos – Hot Grill)
With his career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 is ideally placed to pinpoint how the art of games development has altered, as the technology underpinning it has exploded in complexity: ‘It’s hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing – it’s both good and bad at the same time, for different reasons. But as the general scale of games got bigger and bigger, over the past 30 years, the amount of work that goes into a game, the amount of people that you need working on a game, and the number of types of specialists and professionals you need working on a game has also expanded.
‘For example, back in the day, there weren’t level designers. One of the planning guys would draw the map on a piece of paper, and the graphics guys would turn that into a level, and there you go. But now you have to have somebody planning this stuff out, and somebody actually designing the level itself, then people adding graphics to that, plus backgrounds and so on.
‘So while it’s a good thing in that it provides more work for more people, it also means that things take more time and cost more money. Also, there are less and less people these days who are able to do multiple types of development, multiple jobs. Again, it’s a good thing, because you get people who are really specialised, who get really good at doing a specific part of game development.
‘Personally, I was always worried about not being able to maintain my career and my lifestyle if I was only able to do one thing, so I started out in game design as a scenario writer and tried to work out how to do things like backgrounds, direction, and game design. Ever since I started working in the industry, I’ve been trying to spread out as much as possible, to at least be somewhat proficient, or have usable skills, in multiple areas of game development, just because, again, I never thought that one person would be able to make a career in game development only focusing on one thing.’
This is a game of many art styles (Grasshopper Manufacture)
So now that Romeo Is A Dead Man is ready for release, what’s next for Suda51? You might expect that after that game’s fraught development, he would be looking forward to holing out on a southern hemisphere beach. But that isn’t Suda51’s style: ‘No: I’m going right back into work, work, work mode, basically. I’m actually at the point where I’m planning on taking some time to sit down and put some thought into what kind of projects I should come up with next.’
Jokingly, he dangles what would be a delicious prospect indeed: ‘While we’re on this promotional tour, I’m just constantly trying to work out what the next thing is going to be. Maybe the setting is going to be in the UK. You feel like there should be lots of games set in London, but when you think about it, there aren’t that many. Recently I was watching that show MobLand, and it made me think, oh man, the UK would be a really cool place to set a game.’
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Suda51 was laughing while he said that, but his brand of hard bitten, off-the-wall, literary-infused action would work gloriously well in a British setting. Who knows what he may come up with next?
Come with him if you want to not die (Grasshopper Manufacture)
How much money do you spend on free-to-play games like Fortnite? (Epic Games)
The most popular PC games are typically free-to-play multiplayer titles, but gamers on all formats are increasingly moving away from them.
It’s already well known that the most popular video games nowadays are long-running older titles, with the likes of Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft holding a monopoly on player retention.
That’s unlikely to change in 2026 but a new report has unearthed some interesting statistics; namely that on PC, the top 20 games generated less than half of the platform’s revenue for all of 2025. Which is a good thing.
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According to a Newzoo report, the 20 most played PC games consist almost entirely of multiplayer exclusive games. There are some exceptions, but those still offer multiplayer functionality and/or receive consistent updates, such as GTA 5 (which persists through the GTA Online multiplayer mode) and Genshin Impact.
However, the amount of money those games have generated has declined since 2022, where they made up 52% of all PC revenue made that year. That percentage went up to 57% in 2023, only to drop to 51% in 2024, and then 44% in 2025.
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The same can’t be said for consoles, though. Most of the revenue made on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles has come from their top 20 games, which aren’t identical to the PC list but are very similar.
Revenue from the most popular games has declined in general but more so on PC (Newzoo)
Furthermore, PC play time in general has only grown since 2022, with games outside of the top 20 seeing an increase of 44%. Basically, most of the platform’s growth isn’t coming from any of the usual suspects.
‘On PC, the space below the top 20 is becoming more economically meaningful. That doesn’t make the market unconcentrated, but it does make games below the very top more commercially relevant than before,’ says analyst Tianyi Gu.
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She adds that outside of the top 20, player engagement comes mostly from premium and back catalogue games, whereas the top 20 is dominated by free-to-play ecosystems: ‘That does not mean new releases do not matter. But it does suggest that once a title is outside the very top tier, longevity and depth often matter more than novelty alone.’
Those top five games have been the same since 2023, with only the order shifting (Newzoo)
Given how many of those top 20 games are free-to-play, this seems to suggest that even the people who are spending money on those games aren’t outspending those looking for premium experiences.
On one hand, this wouldn’t be that surprising. Just last month, Epic Games admitted Fortnite, despite its popularity, wasn’t turning a profit and is losing player attention, which resulted in over 1,000 layoffs.
In fact, of the top 20 franchises across all platforms, most of them have seen declines in play time. Fortnite in particular, saw its play time drop by 29% by the end of 2025, losing its top spot to Roblox, which saw its play time grow by 52%.
The continued success of Roblox is no doubt why there’s been a vested interest in player-made content. Fortnite’s been pushing this for a while, allowing players to also make money off their content, and GTA 6 is rumoured to follow suit.
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Even with its decline in play time, Fortnite was still one of the most played games of 2025 (Newzoo)
It is understood the assailant was carrying a kettle which had been boiled elsewhere in the courthouse.
15:54, 16 Apr 2026
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A man was attacked at Strabane Magistrates’ Court ahead of a committal hearing in a murder case.
An ambulance attended after the man was scalded on his face, neck and shoulder when he was doused in boiling water at the doors into the courtroom.
It is understood that the assailant was carrying a kettle of water which had been boiled elsewhere in the courthouse.
The case related to the death of Stephen Holmes, who suffered serious injuries during an alleged incident in Strabane on 3 February 2025.
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The thirty-one-year-old was treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he passed away from his injuries five days later.
Following the attack, Dylan McCrossan (32) from Beechmount Village, Strabane, who is the brother of SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan, appeared in court charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Following Mr Holmes’ death, the PSNI issued a statement advising that a murder investigation had commenced and the charges against McCrossan would be reviewed.
He was then brought back to court and charged with murder.
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There has been no bail application at any stage, and the circumstances of the incident have never been fully disclosed.
Today (Thursday), as a committal hearing to transfer the case for trial was due to take place, a commotion occurred at the door of the court, causing District Judge Alana McSorley to immediately halt proceedings.
Seconds later, a court official dashed into the courtroom, grabbed a jug of water from one of the benches, and rushed back out.
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This was used to cool the wounded man’s scald injuries while awaiting an ambulance.
He was taken to the hospital for treatment of burns. It is understood he is a relative of McCrossan, but Belfast Live understands the victim is not SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan.
Around two hours later, the court resumed, but Judge McSorley said, following consultation with the Office of the Lady Chief Justice, in view of what had occurred, the committal in court was adjourned until May 14.
A PSNI spokesperson said: “Police responded to an incident at Strabane Magistrates’ Court, in which a man was left injured and requiring hospital treatment.
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“At 10.52am it was reported a man had thrown hot water over another man, causing burn injuries to his face and upper body. NI Ambulance Service also responded and took the victim to hospital for treatment.”
Detective Inspector Ballentine said: “The suspect is reported to have run away from the scene, and police efforts are ongoing to identify and apprehend the suspect. We are liaising with the NI Courts and Tribunal Service in regard to the incident. In the meantime, as enquiries continue to establish exactly what occurred, I am appealing to anyone with information, or footage which may have captured the suspect leaving the scene, to get in touch with police by call 101 quoting reference 409 of 16.04.26.
The event will take place on Friday, April 17, at the Majestic Theatre in Darlington, with doors open at 6pm and the show beginning at 7pm.
Tributes to Lewis Capaldi and Sam Fender will take centre stage, while comedian Gareth Harrison will serve as the evening’s host.
Marcus Hawthorn, strategic development officer at Darlington Mind, said: “As a local charity, we rely heavily on the support of our community.
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“Events like this help us deliver essential mental health services to people who need them most.”
Funds raised from the tribute night will support Darlington Mind’s services across Darlington, Hambleton, Richmondshire and South Durham.
These include counselling, peer support groups and wellbeing programmes designed to help local people manage their mental health and reduce isolation.
Mr Hawthorn said: “Every ticket sold makes a real difference, allowing us to provide safe spaces, practical support and a listening ear for those facing difficult times.”
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Darlington Mind supports people of all ages and works to promote better mental health through early intervention, recovery-focused services and community-based support.
Tickets for the tribute night can be purchased via TicketSource by searching for ‘Lewis Capaldi & Sam Fender Tribute Night in Aid of Darlington Mind’.
Further information about the charity and the event is available at darlingtonmind.com, or by calling 01325 283169.
Alex Manninger, the former Arsenal and Liverpool goalkeeper, has died at the age of 48 following a car-train collision in Salzburg, Austria
Alex Manninger has tragically died at the age of 48, the Austrian FA has confirmed. The former Arsenal and Liverpool goalkeeper is believed to have lost his life in a car accident.
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Reports suggest the incident occurred when his vehicle collided with a train in Salzburg. The Austrian FA (OFB) released a statement on social media: “The news of Alex Manninger’s death is deeply shocking. With him, football loses a special person.
“In this difficult time, our sincere condolences go to his family, his friends, and all those who were close to him. Much strength for the time ahead.”
Manninger featured 39 times for Arsenal between 1997 and 2002, playing his part in their Premier League title and FA Cup successes. Throughout a 22-year professional career, Liverpool was his final club, although he didn’t make any appearances during his spell in the 2016-17 season.
A motion paying tribute to late former Labour MP Jo Cox was approved by members on the 10th anniversary of the former Batley and Spen member’s death.
A motion paying tribute to late Labour MP Jo Cox and calling for mutual respect by elected officials has been unanimously approved by Stirling Council.
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The motion was put forward by Council Leader Susan McGill.
June 16 is the 10th anniversary of the death of the 41-year-old MP and mother-of-two.
She had spent just 13 months as an MP in Yorkshire and was shot and stabbed multiple times as she was about to take a surgery.
The murderer was a far-right extremist.
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Proposing the motion, Cllr McGill said: “Jo Cox, in her maiden speech said we were far more united and have more in common than what divides us.
“It’s a huge honour to hold elected office and a huge privilege to work together to try and improve the lives of others.
“No one expects to be assaulted or harassed and abused, whether it is physical or on social media – we certainly don’t expect to be murdered. Women make up half of society.
“They deserve to have their say in helping to shape it. I don’t think much has changed in 10 years.
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“But Police Scotland are challenging men to look at attitudes towards women.
“Men’s violence against women is the leading cause of premature death for women globally,
“On March 12 Labour MP Jess Phillips read out the names of 100 women who had been killed by men in the UK – that amounts to two per week. We need to end misogyny in its many forms. On the 10th anniversary let us remember her life and legacy.”
Backing the motion, Tory Cllr Elaine Watterson said: “Abuse and intimidation have no place in any area of public life.
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“I have experienced this most definitely. I would like to add misogyny.
“I would be surprised if there were no elected members or officers who had not been subjected to misogynistic behaviour or comments.
“There has been an increase in violence against women and this has to be addressed through education.
“I am a feminist and will continue to support the work and campaigns of For Women Scotland. I am neither racist nor homophobic and will fight for safe spaces for both women and girls.
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“Jo worked across party divides and up on marking the 10th anniversary of her murder, there can be no room in this chamber for self-righteousness. It is very important to listen to each other.
“All the political parties represented here have made mistakes and let us move on without rancour and listen to each other. If we disagree let us do so constructively with sound discussion not sound-bites.
“My thoughts and prayers will be with the Cox family on June 16 2026 – she was a shining light taken too early.”
The Coronation Street star, best known for her role as Liz McDonald, is currently taking part in the Ant and Dec-hosted reality show alongside stars including Ashley Roberts and Sir Mo Farah
Matt Davies Trendswatch Reporter
15:11, 16 Apr 2026
Beverley Callard has stated that a famous Irish drinks brand has “knocked Yorkshire Tea off its pedestal” in her view. In recent months, the Coronation Street legend has traded TV studios for the heat of the South African jungle, taking part in the newest instalment of the I’m A Celeb spin-off, I’m a Celebrity… South Africa.
Recognised for her portrayal of Liz McDonald in the enduring ITV soap before securing her latest role as Lily on Irish drama Fair City, Beverley has been joined by the likes of Pussycat Dolls’ Ashley Roberts, boxing champion David Haye, and Olympic athlete Sir Mo Farah in the Ant and Dec-fronted reality programme.
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Life in the jungle presents numerous challenges, especially when it involves going without cherished home luxuries – including the food and beverages the celebrities enjoy in their daily lives, and it appears Beverley is no exception.
Beverley, who also participated in I’m A Celeb during the Gwrych Castle series in Abergele, North Wales, seems to have been pining for one thing particularly: a decent cup of Yorkshire Tea.
Back in February, prior to the series being broadcast, she featured on The Hard Shoulder podcast and was asked about her experience in South Africa, but revealed that she wasn’t certain whether she was “allowed” to disclose any information about the programme.
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She did address one topic, however: her supposed longing for Yorkshire Tea, after a “little birdy” informed the presenter about it. The host then enquired whether she enjoys Irish staples Barry’s and Lyons, following her move from Norfolk to Ireland for Fair City filming.
Beverley revealed: “Wait for this; I am a teaholic, okay? And I can cope without the vodka, without wine, anything, but Yorkshire tea, I couldn’t cope without. And then someone sent me Barry’s Tea.
“And I have to tell you, it’s knocked Yorkshire Tea off its pedestal. It is really good, and I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
After joining Corrie in 1989, Beverley’s character became synonymous with mini-skirts, stilettos and a chaotic romantic life. She remained a key figure intermittently until her departure in 2020 following 32 years on the Cobbles.
Earlier this month, when questioned about a potential return following the death of her estranged on-screen spouse Jim McDonald, Beverley offered a tantalising response: “You should never say never”.
Speaking on behalf of WhichBingo, Beverley explained: “I can’t now because I’m filming something else but I think you should never say never.
“I loved my time there, you don’t stay in something for 32 years if you didn’t love it, but I think the workload and the way it’s filmed, certainly when you’re in a big storyline, you’re there all day, every day so I don’t think I’d want that again to that extent.
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“I think they have great writers on the show and great actors but I just felt the stories were not there for Liz anymore but I’d never say never.”
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding near its record high Thursday as Wall Street waits for more clues about what will happen in the Iran war before making its next big move.
The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1%, a day after topping its prior all-time high set in January for its 10th gain in 11 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 66 points, or 0.1% after the first half-hour of trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Stocks have leaped more than 10% since hitting a low in late March, driven by hopes for an end to the war or something that could avert a worst-case scenario for the global economy. Now, the wait is on to see if such hopes were prescient or just wishful thinking.
Pakistan’s army chief is set to meet with Iranian officials in Tehran Thursday in a bid to ease tensions in the Middle East and arrange a second round of negotiations between the United States and Iran after almost seven weeks of war.
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Oil prices climbed, showing that caution still remains in financial markets. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 3.1% to $97.83. It’s gone from roughly $70 before the war to as high as $119 at times on uncertainty about how long the war will keep oil stuck in the Persian Gulf area and away from customers.
“The key upside risk for the market is that peace talks between the US and Iran break down,” ING Bank strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote Thursday. “This isn’t an unrealistic scenario, given that US and Iranian demands remain fairly wide apart.”
In the meantime, big U.S. companies are continuing to deliver growth in profits for the start of 2026 that’s even better than analysts expected. Such growth is the lifeblood of the stock market, whose level tends to follow the track of corporate profits over the long term.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services rose 5.7%, and Marsh & McLennan climbed 3.4% after both delivered stronger results than expected.
Technology stocks also broadly got some support after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., an industry heavyweight, reported stronger revenue and profit for the start of 2026 than analysts expected. TSMC’s Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said the company expects strong demand to continue into the spring.
On the losing end of Wall Street was Abbott, which fell 4.4% even though it reported slightly better results than analysts expected. The health care company cut its forecast for profit over the full year, mostly because of its purchase of cancer-screening company Exact Sciences.
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Allbirds slumped 28.7%, but that gave back only a portion of its 582% surge from the day before. The company formerly known for sneakers is pivoting to the artificial-intelligence industry and hopes to rent out the use of high-powered AI chips as a service.
In stock markets abroad, indexes climbed across much of Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4%, South Korea’s Kospi rallied 2.2% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7% for some of the world’s larger moves.
China on Thursday reported 5% economic growth for the January-March quarter, an acceleration from the previous quarter. While economists say China has largely shrugged off the initial impacts of the Iran war, some are warning its massive export engine could be hit more significantly in the coming months on slower global economic growth.
Speaking about his career in south Wales, Fernando Llorente outlines his success at the Liberty Stadium and Snoop Dogg’s investment
Former Swansea City striker Fernando Llorente is hoping his old side can make a return to the Premier League, eight years on from their relegation to the Championship.
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Arriving at the Liberty Stadium in the summer of 2016, Llorente would spend a single season in south Wales after signing in a shock deal, helping the club survive relegation, scoring 15 Premier League goals in the process.
Llorente’s notorious injury-time double to clinch a 5-4 win at home to Crystal Palace is a memory Swans fans will always cherish. The World Cup winner would depart at the start of the 2017/18 season for Tottenham, following his superb campaign in SA1.
Reflecting positively on his time at Swansea, Llorente, who was signed on Francesco Guidolin’s watch, said this single season in Landore was one of the best years of his career.
“Wonderful memories, first because it was my debut season in the Premier League and I played as a starter, many games, being important and decisive,” he told Hajper.
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“It didn’t go well at the beginning. After the seventh game against City he (Guidolin) was sacked, the game where I scored my first goal, just when I was starting to feel good. Then I got injured in that match (I had fractured a rib in the previous game after a clash with Virgil van Dijk) and missed about a month. Bob Bradley arrived.
“When I came back from injury I had to fight for my place again. Things still didn’t go well and we changed coach again. But then we finished the season flying. In the second half of the season we played at an incredible level, from being bottom and everyone writing us off, we ended up 12th or 13th. In the last five games we won four and drew one. Incredible.”
One thing that Llorente reminisces over from the 2016/16 season is his relationship with the Swans fans – something he says surprised him in comparison to supporters in Spain.
“I was very surprised by how the fans treated us when we were practically relegated — with so much love and support, no shouting, no bad words,” he explained. “In Spain if you’re in that situation, they kill you. So you see two different cultures.”
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“I haven’t been back since I left and I’d love to. It’s a place where I felt very loved,” Llorente added.
Llorente was a part of the side that escaped relegation, having been bottom of the Premier League, a time in his career Llorente looks back on fondly.
Despite Llorente suffering a broken rib, which ruled him out for a month, he still scored 15 goals in a struggling side.
But even with these setbacks and difficulties, Llorente said it was a shame to have only spent a year at the Liberty and was full of hope for the Swans’ future – especially with a certain US rapper on board.
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“In the end we gave our best in that final part of the season,” he added. “It’s a shame I only stayed one year. In the summer I had offers from Chelsea (Antonio Conte, who I had played with at Juventus) but at the last moment Tottenham came in and, because Chelsea and Swansea couldn’t agree, I went to Tottenham.
“I hope Snoop Dogg helps them build a great team and great group so they can get promoted,” he added.
“For the club and the city, it would be incredible. I hope they return to the Premier League.”
Weddings are a huge life milestone for many couples – and one wedding planner has shared the top five most ‘basic’ couple names he keeps coming across through his years of working in the wedding industry
Jess Flaherty Senior News Reporter
15:05, 16 Apr 2026
A wedding planner has revealed the top five “most basic couple name” combinations he’s encountered throughout his career in the wedding industry. Weddings are a huge milestone for many people, as couples seek to mark their commitment to each other in front of their nearest and dearest.
Given it’s such a momentous occasion with high expectations, weddings often demand extensive planning, preparation and coordination to guarantee everything goes ahead without a hitch and aligns with the couple’s wishes. Choices surrounding the venue, décor, catering, entertainment and more can prove challenging – not to mention the astronomical costs associated with the wedding industry.
Oliver Stanton, based in the Cotswolds, is a wedding planner “for couples who like to party” working across the UK and further afield. He’s also a freelance musician, performing live as a saxophonist at multiple events.
On Instagram, he provides behind-the-scenes stories, advice and more to thousands of followers, alongside light-hearted videos poking fun at various aspects of weddings and the planning journey. In one clip, he humorously shared a “definitive” list of the most “basic” couple names.
Speaking directly to the camera, Oliver began: “This is the definitive top five most basic couple names. If you and your partner both have these names, then you’re pretty basic – and this is based off of my years of experience in the wedding industry.
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“So, I will not be taking any notes or suggestions, okay? At number five, we have Will and Emily. Sorry, Will and Emily, it just is what it is. They are very much a ‘rustic sage’ couple.”
Sage has become an incredibly fashionable colour choice at weddings in recent years.
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Oliver pressed on: “At number four, we have Laura and Matt. Now, Laura and Matt are basically Will and Emily but five years older and a little bit more ‘cornflower blue’ than sage, but you see what I mean with this.”
Oliver, who identifies as queer, continued: “At number three, we have Chloe and Chelsea. Now, these aren’t your disco lesbians, these are your common or garden lesbians.”
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He placed Lauren and Tom in the runner-up spot, elaborating: “Now, Lauren and Tom, they are basically Will and Emily.
“It’s the same thing and if you saw a picture of Lauren and Tom, and then Will and Emily, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. You would need some high tech facial recognition to tell those two apart.”
Concluding his list, Oliver added: “And then finally, at number one, we have Andrew and Matt. And these aren’t your bougie gays, these are the sage lovers of the LGBT community.”
The clip has since accumulated more than 94,000 views. Oliver posted a follow-up video listing additional couple combinations “because these people are important members of the basic community”.
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He rattled off the following name pairings: Charlotte and Tom, Sophie and Daniel, Rebecca and Matt, Jessica and Matt, Ryan and Matt, Christopher and Matt, James and Matt, Rachel and Hannah, Emma and Mark, Olivia and Jack, Becky and Jack, Laura and Andrew, Katie and Sam “as a straight couple and then Katie and Sam as a lesbian couple.”
Passengers have had their travel plans disrupted as services are being cancelled or severely delayed at Manchester Piccadilly Station.
Network Rail says that there has been some damage to overhead electric wires at the station, which has forced the closure of some lines.
As a result, trains running to or from the station may be cancelled or severely delayed by up to 60 minutes.
Manchester Piccadilly says its engineers are on site working to resolve the overhead wire damage.
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“We are sorry to passengers for the disruption this has caused and we are working to get people moving as soon as possible,” the station said on X.
The issue started causing disruption just before midday. In an update just before 2pm, the station said most trains in and out of Piccadilly will be delayed or cancelled.
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