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Mal Franks

@merseymal.com

Data Analyst since 2023. IT Supervisor/SysAdmin 1997-2023. Computer tinkerer/gamer since 1982. Console gamer since 1977. Tea drinker since 1974. He/him. Loves telly, music, comics, movies, games and tea.

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Latest posts by Mal Franks @merseymal.com

Robin Ince | Comedian | Writer | Broadcaster

More dates being added - but this is April/May/June book tour so far

Robinince.com

10.03.2026 20:55 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2
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The trailer for EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU FOR MONEY. In select theaters starting April 17th πŸΏπŸ€‘πŸ€£

10.03.2026 20:02 πŸ‘ 4332 πŸ” 1310 πŸ’¬ 117 πŸ“Œ 241

This is how I access Bluesky

10.03.2026 20:25 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
Badenoch denies calling for UK to join US-Israeli war on Iran Conservative leader accused of taking confusing position after she said Starmer should β€˜do more than catch arrows’

At the most basic level of 'have some self-respect', Conservative MPs should not put forward someone who visibly is not intellectually equipped to be prime minister as their candidate to be prime minister.

10.03.2026 18:37 πŸ‘ 977 πŸ” 251 πŸ’¬ 73 πŸ“Œ 28

Tommy DeCarlo, who became lead singer of Boston after Brad Delp died in 2007, has himself passed away at 60.

He got the role after making a MySpace tribute, which is proof that social media is old enough to 1) generate lead singers for classic rock bands and 2) for them to be old enough to die

10.03.2026 18:39 πŸ‘ 100 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0
Clara the cat is sleeping on her heated bed the lucky thing.

Clara the cat is sleeping on her heated bed the lucky thing.

10.03.2026 16:11 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Played the heck out of the first game but have barely touched 2 since launch. Must rectify that!

09.03.2026 18:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

This is really funπŸŽ“πŸ“–πŸ“—πŸ“™

09.03.2026 18:23 πŸ‘ 341 πŸ” 44 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
Buy Rob Fearon a Coffee Become a supporter of Rob Fearon today!

Kofi: www.ko-fi.com/robfearon

PayPal: www.paypal.com/paypalme/ret...

Thanks in advance and sorry again.

05.03.2026 14:59 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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The State of the Art by Iain M Banks - BBC Sounds A spaceship arrives on Earth and finds a planet obsessed with alien concepts like 'money'.

My BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Iain M. Banks' The State of the Art can now be found and played here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

07.03.2026 16:57 πŸ‘ 243 πŸ” 91 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 10

I can understand why Oliver's Army was cut out from the disc, but Pump It Up and Everyday I Write the Book? He also did a cover of She at the gig that's missing too.

07.03.2026 17:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Watching Elvis Costello Detour Live at the Liverpool Philharmonic blu-ray, just saw my bald spot in the audience!

07.03.2026 15:13 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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A little bit obsessed with all the nut clusters currently β€˜ashamed to be British’ because Starmer didn’t sign us up to this shit show.

07.03.2026 12:33 πŸ‘ 2562 πŸ” 467 πŸ’¬ 278 πŸ“Œ 32

4pm today on BBC Radio 4 Extra it’s the repeat of my adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ The State of the Art, with Sir Antony Sher as the ship. So proud of this amazing production by @nadiamolinari.bsky.social

07.03.2026 09:02 πŸ‘ 277 πŸ” 96 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 11

Great! I only recently started reading The Culture series. Read 3 so far. (The Player Of Games is my current favourite)

07.03.2026 09:33 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Slapping the AI label on any old shit has really muddied the bath water we're throwing out with the baby now. DLSS/FSR upscaling is a good example. My AI Sucks video got a few comments re "I always turn off that AI shit in the graphics settings because it looks terrible" and like, No

07.03.2026 09:30 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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'A Birkenhead Triptych, Wirral' - Barry Thomas (1996)

07.03.2026 09:12 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
Red bridge at Birkenhead docks.

Red bridge at Birkenhead docks.

They replaced the one of those bridges with this. Just doesn't look the same.

07.03.2026 09:24 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The real question is, can I make a valid argument for this Flanagan character to also wear a Liverpool top?

06.03.2026 10:55 πŸ‘ 411 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 0

Still very eager to sell this! I'm unsure what an appropriate asking price is, I guess Β£1500 plus shipping? I'm open to negotiation. DM if you're interested!

14.02.2026 20:28 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Heads up, fellow Proton users

05.03.2026 21:08 πŸ‘ 111 πŸ” 54 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 1

The tension of the new Resident Evil slightly broken because every time they show wriggly maggots I’m thinking:

05.03.2026 20:35 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Jaws poster changed to Laws with Bruce wearing a Dredd helmet

Jaws poster changed to Laws with Bruce wearing a Dredd helmet

You’re gonna need a bigger iso cube

05.03.2026 19:18 πŸ‘ 178 πŸ” 31 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 2

Thought it was a young Bob Mortimer for a second.

05.03.2026 19:14 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Bugs Bunny asleep on a green bench. He's wearing a red scarf and his hands are resting on his belly.

Bugs Bunny asleep on a green bench. He's wearing a red scarf and his hands are resting on his belly.

Had chippy tea

05.03.2026 19:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
The Sausage That Saved Berlin πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ🌭πŸ’₯ (Cold War history travel vlog)
The Sausage That Saved Berlin πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ🌭πŸ’₯ (Cold War history travel vlog) YouTube video by Paul And Sanja

Brand new video. We went in search of a sausage, and got lost in Cold War Berlin... youtu.be/O2fcZpp4t1I?...

05.03.2026 17:54 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 3

I think it would have been more pretentious if you'd chosen James A Henry. Should have gone for it! πŸ˜€

05.03.2026 19:05 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I think it would have been more pretentious if you'd chosen James A Henry. Should have gone for it! πŸ˜€

05.03.2026 19:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Hello everyone. I come with the sad news that as you are no doubt already aware, we're saying goodbye to several of our friends and colleagues here at Eurogamer. Leaving us are Tom Orry, our editorial director; our video team of Ian Higton, Zoe Delahunty-Light, and Alix Attenborough; Alex Donaldson, our editor-at-large; and Will Judd, who worked across Digital Foundry, hardware and deals.

I'll start with Tom, who over the past year-plus had made himself a hugely valuable source of advice, expertise, desert-dry humour and world class poker faces (I think we just about made him laugh once, for a moment, on his final day). 

Tom initially began the role when Tom Phillips was our editor-in-chief here, mostly working away diligently in the background in a two-Tom-tandem doing editorial director things, before taking on a more prominent role on the site itself over the past 11 or 12 months, gracing us with some signature console nostalgia and unjustifiably intense Project Gotham Racing enthusiasm. Tom, Dom, Alex and I, along with the rest of the team, worked together closely on what a 'new Eurogamer' might look like last year, and his experience in running multiple games media sites was consistently our rock to lean on. 

While he may have initially seemed an outsider of sorts compared to Eurogamer chiefs of old - at least to some on the surface, coming from his 20-plus years across our sister sites VG247 and USGamer, and before that the cult-favourite site he founded in our once-rival VideoGamer - I can't stress enough how much Tom 'got' Eurogamer. His goal was for us to be at the heart of the big stories that mattered most to our readers with original, diligent reporting and on-the-button commentary, and that will absolutely continue.

In immaculately on-brand, limelight-dodging Orry style, Tom opted to sneak his farewell into this past weekend's What We've Been Playing column, but I'll be damned if he gets away with it that easily. Sorry Tom. Here's what he had to say…

Hello everyone. I come with the sad news that as you are no doubt already aware, we're saying goodbye to several of our friends and colleagues here at Eurogamer. Leaving us are Tom Orry, our editorial director; our video team of Ian Higton, Zoe Delahunty-Light, and Alix Attenborough; Alex Donaldson, our editor-at-large; and Will Judd, who worked across Digital Foundry, hardware and deals. I'll start with Tom, who over the past year-plus had made himself a hugely valuable source of advice, expertise, desert-dry humour and world class poker faces (I think we just about made him laugh once, for a moment, on his final day). Tom initially began the role when Tom Phillips was our editor-in-chief here, mostly working away diligently in the background in a two-Tom-tandem doing editorial director things, before taking on a more prominent role on the site itself over the past 11 or 12 months, gracing us with some signature console nostalgia and unjustifiably intense Project Gotham Racing enthusiasm. Tom, Dom, Alex and I, along with the rest of the team, worked together closely on what a 'new Eurogamer' might look like last year, and his experience in running multiple games media sites was consistently our rock to lean on. While he may have initially seemed an outsider of sorts compared to Eurogamer chiefs of old - at least to some on the surface, coming from his 20-plus years across our sister sites VG247 and USGamer, and before that the cult-favourite site he founded in our once-rival VideoGamer - I can't stress enough how much Tom 'got' Eurogamer. His goal was for us to be at the heart of the big stories that mattered most to our readers with original, diligent reporting and on-the-button commentary, and that will absolutely continue. In immaculately on-brand, limelight-dodging Orry style, Tom opted to sneak his farewell into this past weekend's What We've Been Playing column, but I'll be damned if he gets away with it that easily. Sorry Tom. Here's what he had to say…

From myself and the whole team at @eurogamer.bsky.social, a very fond farewell and huge thank you to our friends and colleagues (thread).πŸ’™

04.03.2026 16:30 πŸ‘ 460 πŸ” 107 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 16

About time!

04.03.2026 15:07 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0