Dean Franklin: My last big expense? The £700 tux I wore on The Apprentice
Dean Franklin became the first male winner of The Apprentice since 2017 when he persuaded Alan Sugar to invest £250,000 in his air-conditioning business ADL.
The 35-year-old from London beat the pizza firm owner and London School of Economics graduate Anisa Khan in the final of the BBC1 series in April. He's the first tradesman to win the show in nine years.
The self-styled 'Daddy Cool' admits he struggled during the 'brutal' interviews in the penultimate episode of the long-running show — especially an awkward exchange about a photo he had posted online as a joke after installing air conditioning units in an adult shop.
After being crowned winner, Franklin was accused of not obtaining an F-Gas certificate (required to ensure fluorinated gases used in
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Fast Fusion review - 4K and 60fps on the Nintendo Switch 2
Fast Fusion – not F-Zero but it'll have to do (Shin'en) Nintendo might not want to make a new F-Zero game but the creators of Fast RMX do, with a sequel that has some of the best graphics on Switch 2. Much has been said about how Nintendo is in a slightly awkward position with the Switch 2, in that most of its major franchises were so expertly revamped and perfected on the Switch 1 that it's hard to know where to go with them from here. Do they try to reimagine Zelda once again? Or make Smash Bros. even bigger in scale? Or do they continue with more iterative and less ambitious sequels? Or maybe they should focus on other forgotten franchises… like F-Zero. Nintendo's explanation for why there hasn't been a new F-Zero in over two decades (except for online title F-Zero 99) is that there's no point unless they can come up with something new for it, especially as it's never been a big seller, that can get by on just its name. As the inspiration for WipEout, F-Zero is the quintessential future racer and its greatest entry is GameCube title F-Zero GX, which technically is a Switch 2 launch title, as it's now available as part of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. But if you crave something new there is an alternative, in the form of loving tribute Fast Fusion. German developer Shin'en has been making F-Zero clones since the Wii era, all with different names but always starting with word Fast. Fast RMX was a launch title for the original Switch and now we have Fast Fusion, which suffers from all the same pros and cons as the previous titles. As if to make Nintendo's point, there's precious little innovation here but what it does have is a blistering sense of speed and some of the best graphics on the Switch 2. Unlike F-Zero and WipEout, there's very little context given for Fast Fusion's races. Not only is there no attempt at a story, or even any characters, but there's no explanation for what's going on or where you are. The implication is that you're taking part in a futuristic racing championship but there's zero worldbuilding, beyond some vaguely sci-fi sounding names in the leaderboard. That doesn't really matter though and once in a race you can instantly see where all the effort has gone, with some really quite stunning visuals for a launch game. Mario Kart World's cartoon style has made it difficult to gauge exactly how powerful the Switch 2 is, but Fast Fusion frequently looks like a higher end PlayStation 4 game, and certainly much better than Fast RMX. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. If you don't know what F-Zero, or WipEout, is then it doesn't matter, because it's not a complex concept: imagine Formula One but in the future, with anti-gravity cars and roller coaster style tracks, and that's pretty much it. WipEout had weapons and power-ups, but F-Zero and Fast Fusion do not. Instead, Fast Fusion has a boost that is, slightly counter-intuitively, activated by collecting enough coins to fill up a bar. But you can also get a boost from driving over differently coloured chevrons, while manually switching colours between red and blue, so as to match the colour on the ground – or otherwise you slow down instead of speeding up. There's also a very powerful jump and the ability to lean left and right, but those are more advanced techniques that are not necessary at first. You can knock into enemies, to send them spinning, but there isn't really an attack ability, which is something of a shame because if you or an opponent hit an obstacle you explode in a rather nice crash. Red sky at night, future racer's delight (Shin'en) Although the game has the worst rubber band AI we think we've ever experienced, and the vehicles feel a bit lightweight in terms of handling, races are a lot of fun. The track design can seem a little pedestrian (we've been spoilt by the overabundance of shortcuts in Mario Kart World) but the sheer spectacle of it all keeps your interest. If you're wondering about the name, there is a fusion process, similar to the Shin Megami Tensei series, where you can put two vehicles together, to fuse them together and get a blend of both their stats and their physical appearance. That's kind of neat but there's only three stats and there's not a lot of thought needed for which ones to splice together. This costs money to do, naturally, but while the standard game mode is similar to the Grand Prix system from Mario Kart you have to pay to unlock subsequent cups, which we wish we'd known the first time, before we spent all our money on new cars and fusions. Although it's a regular irritation when you have to repeat a whole cup, or waste time in Time Attack, just to earn a few more credits to play a new one. There's also Super Hero mode, where if you crash that's it (it's basically iron man mode, in other words). That's as frustrating as it sounds and so too, unfortunately, is the online multiplayer. There's up to four-player split screen, which is great, but there's no matchmaking for online so you either race with a friend via GameChat or… you don't race online at all. Again, it all comes back to the visuals, with 12 highly varied tracks that range from a redwood forest to deserts with sand whales jump out around you, to a race in an asteroid belt and around a futuristic city. There are four separate graphics options in TV mode, two of which are 4K, although this results in a slight blurriness that we assume is a result of upscaling rather than being a native resolution – so we stuck with the performance option, although only the Ultra Quality option is not 60fps. Fast Fusion is rough around the edges in almost every respect and, apart from its graphics, shows little real improvement over its eight-year-old predecessor. Its low price excuses a lot of its problems but at the same time it fails to address Nintendo's problem, of how to introduce new concepts to the formula. And yet between this and the GameCube games on Switch 2, this is a good as F-Zero fans have eaten in a long time. Fast Fusion review summary In Short: The best F-Zero clone since Fast RMX, with some extremely impressive visuals for a Switch 2 launch game, although the structure and track design lack Nintendo's finesse. Pros: Fantastic graphics, with a ton of options in both TV and portable mode. Solid racing action and dizzying sense of speed, especially in the higher championship levels. Four-player split screen and surprisingly cheap. Cons: The track design lacks flair and the championship structure is very irritating. Outrageously cheating rubber band AI. Vehicle fusion adds very little and online multiplayer is extremely limited. Score: 7/10 Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 Price: £13.49 Publisher: Shin'en Developer: Shin'en Release Date: 5th June 2025 Age Rating: 3 The graphics are really great (Shin'en) Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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Historic Scots bus manufacturer announces plans to close factories with 400 jobs at risk
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Unassuming house was seen by millions on beloved 90s BBC show – but would you recognise it?
The owner gets regular visits from fans of the show HOUSE ABOUT THAT Unassuming house was seen by millions on beloved 90s BBC show – but would you recognise it? Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A HOUSE which featured in a classic 90s sitcom seems inconspicuous in a sleepy town - but do you recognise it? Clue: The main character insisted her name was pronounced 'Bouqet'. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Homes featured in Keeping Up Appearances were filmed in Binley Woods in Coventry Credit: Google Maps 3 Dame Patricia Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket and Clive Swift as Richard Bucket Credit: BBC An unassuming house was seen by millions on the iconic comedy Keeping Up Appearances. The property is situated in Binley Woods, Coventry, and featured regularly on the BBC1 comedy. The show followed shameless social climber Hyacinth Bucket, who was played by Dame Patricia Routledge, now 96. Hyacinth was accompanied by her henpecked husband Richard, played by late acting legend Clive Smith. Next door to the Buckets lived upper-middle class characters Elizabeth, and her brother Emmet, with whom Hyacinth competed against. The show was written by Roy Clarke, who also penned Open All Hours, and ran between 1990 and 1995. It easily ranks as one of the UK's most treasured vintage comedies, and has been sold almost 1,000 times to overseas broadcasters. And the property where Elizabeth and Emet lived still remains, having gone on the market for £495,000 in 2019. The four bedroom detached house's exterior was visible to viewers of the show. Annabel Dixon, writing on property website Zoopla said: "Hyacinth was often name-dropping her sister Violet, who 'had a Mercedes, swimming pool, sauna and room for a pony.' Unassuming corner shop was seen by millions on classic 70s sitcom - but would you recognise it? "So the grande dame would surely approve of this unusual opportunity to snap up the home of her twitchy neighbours, Elizabeth and Emmett. "Its features include a landscaped garden, heated swimming pool, hot tub and wooden summer house.' The real life owner of the house where the Buckets lived in the show, Rosemary Healey, has lived in the property for 47 years. She told CoventryLive what it's like living in a house which was part of a cult classic: "I've been here for 45 years and I was at work when the BBC first came round to ask about filming at my home. "My son answered the door and told me they would come back the next day, which they did. "They had contacted estate agents in the city looking for a property to film as Hyacinth's home. "Mine was chosen because, before we had the extension, you could talk door-to-door with my next door neighbour." The show may be 35 years old, but Mrs Healy says this doesn't stop fans coming to pay a visit to the property. "We get lots of people coming to take photos and occasionally get people knocking on the door," she said. "It's never been a problem though." While the Binley Wood houses were used for external shots, most of the indoor scenes were filmed in a studio in London. Nearby Warwickshire town Leamington Spa was also used for some filming.
