Get £90 off the PS5 and more in the PlayStation Direct sale
If you've been holding off on upgrading to the PS5 Pro or you're just looking to bolster your games library with some bargains, you're in luck. PlayStation has just rolled out some tempting discounts in its annual Days of Play sale.
The two-week event runs from 28 May until 11 June at PlayStation Direct, the official online storefront for everything from consoles and accessories to games and more. PlayStation Direct is also where you'll find Flex, a leasing option which gets you a console for as little as £10.99 per month.
The headline act in this year's Days of Play sale is a hefty £90 saving on the PlayStation 5 console itself, but we're also seeing price drops of up to 60 per cent across some of the PS5's best games, including remastered classics like The Last of Us and the unmissable platformer Astro Bot.
The PSVR2 gets some love in this year's sale too, with a surprise discount of £45 bringing the price of the virtual reality headset (plus the hardware's best game, Horizon: Call of the Mountain) down to £354.99. The new PS5 Pro doesn't miss out on the action either, getting a rare £45 discount for the duration of the two-week sale.
You can check out all of the deals over at PlayStation Direct, but in the meantime I've rounded up some of the best offers below:
Here's a £90 saving on the disc edition PS5, which takes Sony's console down to just £389.99 at PlayStation Direct. This version of the console is essential if you've got an existing collection of physical PS4 and PS5 games hanging around at home.
You'll find the same £90 saving on the all-digital version of the PlayStation 5, which is already £50 cheaper than the PS5 with a disc drive. Capable of playing games downloaded from PlayStation Direct, the digital-edition PS5 can be upgraded with a disc drive later if you ever change your mind.
Bundle an extra DualSense wireless controller with your PS5 and you'll still save £90 at PlayStation Direct. The additional controller is essential if you plan on multiplayer gaming at home. The DualSense controller uses dynamic vibrations and actuators in the shoulder buttons to simulate everything from weapon recoil to throttle response in racing games.
The upgraded version of the original PS5 launched in 2024 and gave Sony's console a massive spec bump, including double the internal storage, more rendering power, AI-driven upscaling, better backwards compatibility and improved ray-tracing performance. The definitive edition of the PS5, the PlayStation 5 Pro gets a £45 discount at PlayStation Direct.
The PSVR2 has to be experienced to be believed, teleporting your easily duped brain into spookily convincing virtual reality worlds. The hardware's standout title is easily Horizon: Call of the Mountain, a stunningly immersive white-knuckle adventure that blends climbing and archery combat. Right now there's £55 off at PlayStation Direct.
Still reeling from the second season of The Last of Us? There's no better time to jump back into the games that inspired the show. Both parts of Naughty Dog's celebrated third-person zombie shooter – including the remastered second game – are discounted in the Days of Play sale.
Here's a small saving on one of the best games of this generation. Astro Bot is PlayStation at its most Nintendo, a colourful and bouncy 3D platformer that's endlessly delightful and makes clever use of the DualSense controller's new features. Right now there's £8 off at PlayStation Direct.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Speedo Mick: From rock bottom to seeing life story on stage in Liverpool theatre musical
Michael Cullen went from sleeping rough in Liverpool to raising £1m by doing charity walks in all weathers in just his swimming trunks. His story is now being celebrated in a stage as Clark Kent turns into Superman when he changes into his famous red underpants, Michael Cullen transforms into Speedo Mick when he pulls on his tight blue trunks."I got a little inkling of what Superman feels like when he puts his knickers on," Cullen laughs."I do feel different when I'm in my Speedos. Something happens. There's a change. I get a little bit more fearless."Speedo Mick doesn't have Suerpman's tights and cape - just a pair of walking boots and, if it's cold, an Everton FC scarf and woolly has criss-crossed the British Isles bare-chested for charity come rain, shine or snow. His most extreme challenge was walking between, and up, the tallest mountains in England, Scotland in Wales in mid-winter."Minus 18 at the top of Ben Nevis. I walked to the top of it and survived it. I never got hypothermia," he marvels. "So something happens when I put my Speedos on. I get a completely different frame of mind. I'm just so determined to get through the day without putting my clothes on." In photos, Speedo Mick often pulls a tough-guy bodybuilder pose for the cameras. But that bravado is part of the in a rehearsal room where actors are preparing for a musical that will tell his story, Cullen, 60, is fully clothed, softly spoken and first pulled on the Speedos to swim the English Channel in 2014, despite never having had a formal swimming lesson until he booked the support boat."It was miraculous that I got across because I was training with men who were born in a pair of Speedos," he jokes. "They were faster swimmers than me, better swimmers than me, their technique was much better than mine."But I had something that they never had, and that was a determination..." He trails off. "I'm just getting a bit emotional... a determination and a will to complete something of that magnitude." That determination comes from "the same place that my negativity comes from", Cullen suffered "a lot of turmoil" during his childhood in Liverpool, using and abusing drink and drugs from his teens, and becoming homeless."I just got lost in it all, to be honest," he says. "It was a sad life. It was terrible and it was torturous, and I was doing it to myself. But I just couldn't stop."He finally got clean in 2001, and resolved to turn the negativity in his life into something positive."It used to hold me down for a long, long time, but now it propels me forward. That's my engine. I suffered for a very long time, and now I just don't want to do that any more."After defying expectations and a shoulder injury to swim across the Channel, Cullen "wanted the world to know that this had happened".So he ordered a pair of blue trunks with the name of his beloved football team on the back, and "went to all the matches after that with 'Everton' emblazoned on my bum". "The fans were so generous," he says. "I could have got ripped to shreds at any point. But they were all applauding and passing money, and putting it in my bucket, and putting it in my knickers. There were not very many other places that you could put it!"His scantily clad presence started raising smiles and funds at away matches, too."I had a front row seat as far as seeing all the generosity, all the kindness, and all the love that people could give," Cullen says."There's a lot of negativity going on in the world, and I was just seeing all this positivity. It was making a massive difference to me, as well as everyone else."Seeking new challenges, more money and bigger reactions, Cullen embarked on a series of increasingly ambitious charity walks - to Everton matches in Wembley and Lyon, then 1,000 miles from John O'Groats to Land's 2021, he traipsed for five months and 2,000 miles between London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin and Belfast; before climbing Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell didn't always welcome the sight of a middle-aged man in skimpy swimming trunks, however."There was some really negative stuff as well," he adds."I got spat at, pushed to the floor, had a pint thrown over me, got thrown out of a few pubs after trying to go in to get a bit of food."Which was funny because I hadn't had a drink for 16 years and I was still getting thrown out of pubs." Highs and lows Speedo Mick's 2023 walk took the amount raised for charities supporting mental health, disadvantaged young people and homelessness past £ that was his final major outing. "I knew I only had a certain timeframe for me to carry on doing it in my Speedos. You can't be doing it when you're 80."And despite their similar taste in underwear, Speedo Mick is not gruelling challenges took their toll, having "a massive detrimental effect on my mental health and my personal relationships", Cullen mission has been followed by "a big comedown", he says. "After the last one, I hit the ground at 1,000mph and I ended up in a clinic because I had a big breakdown."Looking back now, I wasn't managing myself. It feels like I paid a massive price by doing all that stuff. It was too much for me. It was all too much." The stage show, which opens at Liverpool's Royal Court theatre on Tuesday, has given Cullen a new the surface, it is about a "total hero" who "took on lots of big life-affirming tasks and completed them and raised lots and lots of money", says Boff Whalley, formerly of rock group Chumbawamba, who has written the music."But the real story is why he wanted to do that, and at what cost was he doing that."It's saying, 'He's like you, he's got problems and he's struggled with addictions and mental health problems, and this was his way of finding a way through those'."The show's writer John Fay agrees. "He's a very inspirational and charismatic man. He can walk into a room and just make people smile. And the stamina of the guy, and the things that he's achieved, can seem superhuman."But the most important part about him is that he's extremely human. He's got his own fragility. He's like everyone else in the world."Liverpool actor Paul Duckworth is playing the title role, and says Speedo Mick is "a local legend"."We all have our complexities and our vulnerabilities. He's a very thoughtful, very sensitive guy." 'Nowhere to hide' As well as attempting to capture Cullen's character, Duckworth must pull off the Speedo Mick look."There's only a few moments [in the show] when he gets to throw on a T-shirt, because most of his achievements were all done in his Speedos," the actor says with a hint of trepidation. "There's nowhere to hide."It was quite a shock when I put them on the other day. Michael was the only person who saw me in them. In Mick's words, 'You've got to own the knickers. You've got to own the Speedos, mate.' I'm trying to get that mentality."The show is the story of an eccentric, big-hearted but fallible character, although Cullen had reservations about putting it on stage."I was a little bit anxious over the fact that I'm making myself vulnerable again, because I'm telling everybody about my personal life," he says. "They're going to see a completely different side here."However, he hopes the show will start conversations about addiction, mental health, overcoming challenges, and recovery."But the biggest message I hope people take out of it is that it's OK to be you, all of you, whatever's gone on in your life - it's OK to be you, and to take hope."Take hope from this story because you never know what's going to happen. I've got a play about my life on at the Royal Court theatre, and that's a win right there. It's amazing."Speedo Mick The Musical is at the Royal Court in Liverpool from 3 June to 5 July.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
What It Feels Like For A Girl: Trans teen drama based on Paris Lees memoir pulls no punches
What It Feels Like For A Girl. A fairly innocuous title for a teen TV series, right? But the stars of BBC Three's new drama say it's taken on a deeper resonance since the show was filmed last because it's a coming-of-age story about a gender-questioning teenager growing up in a working class town near Nottingham. And it's hitting our screens just a few weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the terms "woman" and "sex" in the 2010 Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex".While some groups have celebrated the decision, some trans campaigners have expressed the court's ruling, even the title of the drama is divisive. Some will take issue with it as it is inspired by the autobiography of the same name from trans writer, journalist and trans rights campaigner Paris Lees. And that's because they believe that Lees isn't a woman - and that the Supreme Court judgement supports Jones, who plays sharp-tongued trans sex worker Sasha in the series, acknowledges the timing: "The title of our show changed overnight. You know, the whole meaning of it is exactly what is going on in the news right now. What does it feel like for a girl? The trans narrative is so different for so many people."Maya Forstater, who set up the campaign group Sex Matters, has told the BBC she strongly opposes the drama's narrative: "Presenting the idea of an effeminate boy 'becoming a girl' as an edgy coming-of-age story is presenting delusion as self-discovery."The series is a raw, hedonistic, brutal - but often hilarious - tale of Byron (Ellis Howard), a 15-year-old boy who is trying to find his identity and is desperate to escape the small-mindedness of his home the heady days of the early 2000s, the teen (based on Lees) is taken under the wing of "The Fallen Divas" while clubbing in Nottingham, a group of hedonistic, anarchic outsiders who soon become a second family. But beyond the hardcore party lifestyle, the dark underbelly of an exploitative sex work industry lures Byron in. Local drug dealer Liam - played by Jake Dunn - is an intoxicating influence on Byron, embarking on an underage relationship with this young wannabee while also enticing the youngster into selling sex. Grooming and child abuse are a constant backdrop."Essentially, he's Byron's pimp," explains can be the case in such instances, Byron is attracted to what he sees as someone with power, his own flat and independence - something he wants himself. "He [Liam] is very enigmatic," explains Dunn."They [he and Byron] actually share a very similar back story. They sort of become magnetised to each other. [It's like] watching an unstoppable force meet an immovable object."Part of Liam's obsession and desire towards Byron is because Byron reminds Liam of Liam at that age."Dunn, who hails from Nottingham himself, based Liam "off of two people I knew from Nottingham and a lad from Derby who really stuck in my head when I was a teenager, their voices and the way they acted". He adds: "At times Liam does feel very vulnerable in a strange way, and then he's also really hardened. And I think when you're working class from a place with no prospects, you're a survivalist and you'll do anything."He looks out for himself in a way that is really scary and coercive."The drama also doesn't shy away from a serious crime committed by Liam and Byron (which led to serious consequences for Lees in real life as a teenager). Lees has previously said that, "for me, personally, the much more interesting journey of this book is the class transition", having become middle class in later life, after growing up working class."I was living in a different city, I had a different accent, I had a different way of making money, shall we say, a different set of friends. I can't connect that with my life today. And a lot of it is the class thing," Lees told the Guardian in says of the drama: "The most exciting intersectionality of it is with the working class. What is that experience going to be for you if you are trans... and you are poor? What is the survivalist mechanism that exists for those people?"It's a hard watch but at no point did the humour leave, at no point did the heart leave. And that's a testament to Paris's life."In a Huffington Post interview in 2019, Lees acknowledged things were easier for her in later life."I'm probably one of the most privileged trans women in Britain. If you're a LGBTQ kid in a council estate in Manchester and you're getting bullied every time you leave the house, you feel like it's not safe to go to school, and you're seeing all of this horrible stuff in the press – how is that going to make you feel?" Ellis Howard concurs, and says of the book: "I feel like it's a real cry from the council estate."So you come out swinging as an actor because of how authentic the book is in terms of Paris's experience."Byron lives a very split existence, navigating a difficult home life with a macho father alongside a dangerous, illegal lifestyle on the get more challenging when, as an older teenager, Byron begins to transition. There is one stalwart ally in the family though, Byron's beloved granny played by Hannah Walters, who co-produced hit show Adolescence alongside husband Stephen Graham."We spoke a lot about code switching," Howard tells me. Code switching is the act of changing one's environment to fit in in certain environments."I think it really highlights the pockets of Byron's life, where Byron is allowed to be who they are and where they aren't, or where they feel comfortable and safe enough to be," Howard says."You can't do that if you just see all of the the glam and the chaos... we all have to come home, and what does that look like, and how does that feel? And I think it's incredibly pertinent for when someone is trying to figure out who they are. "When you taste authenticity, or when you collide into yourself - once you feel like that, you don't want to ever let it go."He adds that he has experienced this himself."I feel like that as a queer person. Once you've felt liberation, one never wants to walk backwards, and so to be forced to is such an awful and really draining experience, but I think one that is really important to show on television, because it then begs the question of why our society forces people to do that." The trans teen drama comes in the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling in April this year, that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities campaign group For Women Scotland had brought a case against the Scottish government arguing that sex-based protections should only apply to people who are born female. The Scottish government had argued in court that transgender people with a gender recognition certificate were entitled to the same sex-based protections as biological women - but it was the decision, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued interim guidance for England, Scotland and Wales for places such as hospitals, shops and restaurants, that says "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities". However, part of the Supreme Court judgement stressed that the law still gives protection against discrimination to transgender people. The EHRC also states that trans people should not be left without any facilities to the Supreme Court ruling, Sex Matters' Maya Forstater, said: "I think every organisation is going to have to tear up their policies and start again. It's much simpler than people have thought. There are men, there are women, there are spaces and services that are for men and women - most spaces and services. "And then there are things that are single sex – and when things are single sex, it's not the start of a negotiation."Laquarn Lewis, who plays the indefatigable Fallen Diva Lady Die in What If Feels Like For a Girl, says the show's characters are "just rebelling against how society is telling them they should be". "And that's exactly what we have to do with the recent law that's just been announced, we have to just rebel. Human rights must exist. The last thing we need to do is focus on such a small demographic who are a minority and just ostracise them and make them feel targeted and become victims."Howard is hopeful the show will be something of a beacon."It's a really scary time in our culture, politically, and so hopefully what the show does is provides relief, but also community. Because I think we need community. We need structure and safety now more than ever."What It Feels Like For A Girl will be on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three from 3 June.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape, sexual assault and indecent assault against four women
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to charges of multiple alleged sex attacks, including an alleged rape at the Labour Party conference. The US-based comedian has denied the allegations of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court today. The incidents, alleged by four women, are said to occurred between 1999 and 2005. He will stand trial over the charges next year, with a trial beginning June 3 2026 that is set to last four to five weeks. The star wore an open black and white pinstripe shirt and several pendants, including two crosses, as he walked into the court ahead of his plea hearing this morning. He was clutching a prayer book called The Valley of Vision in his right hand. The presenter is accused of raping a woman in a hotel in 1999 after they met that day at a theatrical event following the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. Brand is also alleged to have raped a woman working in television whom he met in a Soho bar in 2004. He is accused of grabbing her breasts before pulling the victim into a toilet and forcing her to perform a sex act. Another woman claims she was indecently assaulted by Brand, who grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her into a male lavatory at a television station in 2001. Brand was working for Channel 4 on Big Brother's Big Mouth between 2004 and 2005 when he is said to have carried out the final assault on a radio station worker. The comedian arrived at the court shortly before 10am in a black Mercedes Benz, with a media scrum of photographers and broadcasters capturing his every move. He said nothing to the photographers and journalists gathered outside the court as he emerged from the car, some of whom called out his name. And he looked straight ahead as he walked up the steps inside, alongside lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky. Mr Schneider-Sikorsky successfully defended Kevin Spacey against sex assault allegations in 2023. Brand was flanked by two court officers in the dock as Judge Tony Baumgartner reminded the court that the four complainants in this case have automatic lifelong anonymity as the alleged victims of sexual offences. After confirming his identity, the Florida-based star stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he loudly responded 'not guilty' to each charge read to him. Before ending the hearing, Judge Tony Baumgartner reminded Brand that any failure to attend his scheduled trial could result in custody or be deemed a separate offence. Brand remains on bail with conditions to provide his UK and US addresses to the court and to notify the court of any change in address. Once the ten minute hearing had concluded, Brand slowly reached down for his sunglasses and placed them back over his eyes. The door to the dock was opened for him and he stared straight ahead as he walked slowly past the packed press bench. The court had previously heard that some of the alleged victims will give evidence behind a screen. Brand then left court around half an hour after the hearing ended - walking to the waiting Mercedes without saying a word to reporters and members of the public who called out to him. One was heard to ask: 'Russell, what do you think of the court case?' The charges came following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme in September 2023 in which several women accused him of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse, which he denied. When he was charged, Brand addressed his 11.3million followers on X saying he was 'never a rapist'. The married father-of-three, was once one of the most popular comedy stars on Channel 4. In recent years, has reinvented himself as an anti-woke political podcaster amassing millions of online followers on the alternative video platform Rumble. He has also converted to Christianity, and was seen being baptised in the River Thames by TV presenter and adventurer Bear Grylls.
