6 h. ago Game review – Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson poaches a role in sceptical take on 90s rave culture

Williamson stars in a debut feature that feels more like an elongated music video than a fully realised drama, but it’s redeemed by some hilarious moments and strident imageryProduced by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if undernourished debut feature turns a sceptical eye on 90s rave culture. Venal pillhead David (Marc Bessant) first robs an unconscious dealer, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own parents. Before you can say “post-Brexit revisionism”, he’s upside down in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with no time for townies, he is broken Britain personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”Game gets off to a shaky start, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his normal activities. The bigger point – that...

Politics

6 h. ago Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 review – this game is big but it only takes small swings

This follow-up to last year’s hit game can be heaps of fun, but it’s difficult to justify that price tag

Politics

4 d. ago Portishead’s Geoff Barrow: ‘I can’t think of any worse music to make love to than ours’

As he moves into film production with the thriller Game, the musician – also known for Beak> – answers your questions on Myspace rappers, Bristol greats and whether Portishead will ever make new musicWhat made you decide to make a film, Game, and can you tell us a little bit about it? Zoe2025As I’ve grown older, I’ve found myself having more film ideas than musical ones. Having an independent label, Invada Records, I wondered if I could actually make a film. I was at school with [co-writer and actor] Marc Bessant, I’ve worked with [director] John Minton for 20 years and I met [co-writer] Rob Williams – a scriptwriter for Judge Dredd and stuff – when he moved to Portishead [Somerset]. The idea of someone trapped in an upside down car comes from JG Ballard’s Concrete Island. Initially it was gonna be a horror film where the character was attacked by rabid dogs, but instead we set it during the end of rave culture. I immediately thought of Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods for the...

Culture

7 d. ago Berberè: Sleaford Mods team up with London pizzeria to support War Child

The Italian and British pizzeria Berberè is known for its sourdough pies and DJ nights

Events

1 week ago Football Manager 26 review –a modern sim for the modern game

Sports Interactive; PC (version tested), PS5, Switch, XboxAfter a two-year wait, Football Manager 26 upgrades every aspect of the football sim, but it may take some getting used toYou can imagine what the home fans are singing in the Stadium of Light: “Top of the league, you’re having a laugh!” Your Liverpool team, who until this afternoon were five points clear at the top of the table, trail by two goals in the 82nd minute. You wonder where Mo Salah left his shooting boots, or why Virgil van Dijk seems to have forgotten the whole concept of tackling. But this isn’t on the players, it’s on you – or so you’ll tell the press – as you stare at the tactics screen trying to figure out which of the dozens of potential tweaks will change the tide of this depressing spectacle.Football Manager was always the data-driven alternative to the visually opulent Fifa series (now EA Sports FC), but the latest instalment starts to bridge the graphical gap. The 3D-rendered match highlights have been g...

Sport

1 week ago Squid Game: The Challenge season two review – nothing you see here is OK

Cash-strapped people forced to do shameful things because they’re desperate for money? How can this rot be real? If I recreated the idea in my local park, I’d surely end up in prisonThere’s missing the point, and then there’s Netflix making its capitalism-skewing Korean hit about a ruthless contest into an actual gameshow. The producers of Squid Game: The Challenge have previously denied that’s what happened here, stating that, in fact, the series is also about camaraderie and how people work under pressure, and is, I quote, “a critique of how we are ingrained from childhood to be ultra-competitive”. Come on – it’s a reality show about people doing humiliating things because they’re desperate for money, based on a drama about people doing humiliating things because they’re desperate for money. If I rounded up a load of debt-ridden people and recreated Squid Game: The Challenge in my local park, I’m pretty sure I’d be put in prison.The thing about Squid Game: The Challenge that makes...

Politics

1 week ago Rangers 'unsatisfied' with SFA Auston Trusty explanation as Willie Collum meeting leaves more questions

Ibrox chiefs met with refs boss Collum but remain unhappy with how the laws of the game were applied and VAR review

Politics

2 w. ago Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter review – Tom Daley is a twinkling, passionate joy of a presenter

The ex-diver is so fantastic that this needle-based Bake Off wannabe is 80% better every time he’s on screen. He absolutely makes this show‘A new generation of knitters is taking the world by storm,” says Tom Daley, striding towards us in his ankle-length woollen poncho. “With just two needles, they are testing the limits of creativity.”And so it proves, as 10 of “the nation’s finest” amateur wool enthusiasts join the Olympic diver (and recently murdered Celebrity Traitor) “to battle it out, stitch by stitch” for the chance to win the ineffably snuggly eight-part series Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Game of Wool review – Tom Daley’s new Bake Off for knitting is must

It’s a privilege to watch these talented, tolerant and thin-skinned folk compete

Politics

2 w. ago Gwendoline Christie and Sleaford Mods release screamy Halloween video

Sleaford Mods have collaborated with Christie for a dark new one-take video which doesn’t hold back on the screaming

Politics

2 w. ago Squid Game The Experience London review: Immersive challenge throws you straight into the Netflix series

With the next season of Squid Game: The Challenge just around the corner, Daily Mail set out to see if we would really have what it takes to survive Squid Game.

Politics

3 w. ago The Séance of Blake Manor review – gripping gothic detective game steeped in mystery and menace

Raw Fury/Spooky Doorway; PCAn atmospheric folk-horror adventure combines colonial guilt, spiritualism and supernatural chills in a tale of secrets and seances on Ireland’s haunted west coastA remote manor house on the west coast of Ireland, an eccentric cast of misfits and ne’er-do-wells, a dapper investigator with secrets of his own. The Séance of Blake Manor sounds like the stuff of cosy Sunday evening gaming. Thankfully, this folk-horror drama has much more to offer than a bit of fun for Agatha Christie fans.It’s October 1897, and you play as private investigator Declan Ward, sent to the aforementioned manor – now a grand hotel – to discover the whereabouts of one of its guests, Evelyn Deane, who has gone missing in mysterious circumstances. What you discover is a gothic mansion filled with eccentrics: from a psychic researcher wielding a spirit camera to a vodouist oungan and a Brazilian woman tracing her family roots. They are here to attend a grand seance that will take place ...

Politics