First, thanks for mentioning it in the Guardian blog – it was a real treat that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. I knew from your comment in that discussion that the theme was capital cities, which made it easier to get started but it was no less enjoyable for that. I think I would have got the theme reasonably quickly anyway – RANGOON, CAIRO, LONDON, PARIS and QUITO were all fairly obvious. Though I got slightly stuck on G because I thought it was spelt Gabarone.

There were some brilliantly outrageous clues, just as we expect from Araucaria/Cinephile – 12d SIX FOOT FIVE made me chuckle (and I felt very smug for being able to work it out as quickly as I did!). 7d SKY PILOT, 44 ATHENS and 21 MADRID also raised a smile.

I agree 47 KIEV is intended to be a homophone – that’s how I read it, anyway.

43 ULAN BATOR came readily to me – oddly enough, I learnt that Ulan Bator is the capital of Outer Mongolia from a Bash Street Kids strip in the Beano when I was much younger than I am now. In fact, it must have been nearly 30 years ago but for some reason, the information has stuck. Shame I can never remember any useful stuff, like where I hid my passport.

Being a fluent French speaker, I’m annoyed with myself that I didn’t get 25a TANT PIS – I knew it was an anagram but couldn’t solve it!

Finally, thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap – entertaining and informative as usual, with all solutions that eluded me explained with perfect clarity. Your efforts are always appreciated even if the comments are scarce!