I agree re 20a that Manehi’s answer is cleverer than necessary. However, though seemingly ‘harmless’, it is a devious clue that I only solved after ‘deadbolts’. I expected the answer to be a tree name or possibly an adjectival or substantive meaning of ‘sound’ (because of the be’) rather than its meaning as a verb.

As some might know, I am great admirer of Michael Curl’s puzzles.
He is so good at writing misdirecting surfaces, meanwhile keeping a close eye on precision.
4ac, 10ac, 11ac, 24ac are all perfect examples of that.

We never saw “ER’s man” before, so for us it worked.
A nice twist in 7d too (NOW NOW).

Our first one was TO BE OR NOT TO BE, just getting it from the enumeration. But as we saw in this week’s Crucible, sometimes easy clues can be marvellously written.

Whilst solving I had to think of the difference between Cincinnus and Orlando. When I asked Michael Curl at the London ‘do’ about that, he said that for him there’s not much difference. It was an answer that I didn’t expect. FT’s Cincinnus is much lighter [not bad at all, I haste to say!] and in that disguise he uses very often geographical references. As such, 2d is a typical Cincinnus clue.
For me Orlando has more depth, but apparently he can’t be bothered. Michael Curl = Michael Curl. And it all seems to be so effortless. An inspiring setter.

Well, that was the positive news …..
Of course, there are always two or three clues that are under par.
For us, MAKE IT SNAPPY (17d) didn’t work.
And it was certainly no match for a recent Loroso (/Anax) clue in the FT: “Hurry up, mum – man’s removing hot towel”.

Fantastic crossword, slightly harder than usual.
For tupu it was a ‘game of two halves’ with half-time spent at the cinema with grandchildren watching Rio.
For us it was also a ‘game of two halves’, the left hand side being considerably harder than the ‘other half’ with full-time spent at the cinema, enjoying a coffee and some Chenin Blanc …

And our Clue of the Day?
3d’s VESTA.
Cleverly hidden (maybe the capital S played a role in that), and another example of a perfect surface in which nothing is as it is.

Thank you, manehi, for blogging this cracker.
[I do think though that in 20ac (PLUMB) life's a bit easier: PLUMB is just a homophone of 'plum']

Orlando really is a very fine setter who is brilliant at misleading the unwary with the greatest of ease.

This was packed with amusement and trickery.

A brilliant clue at 25 across and yet another superb hidden at 3 down.

11 across a real gem.

For me the best of the week. A great week as Eileen stated.

Well done to all at the Guardian.

Like Bryan (thanks for the lyrics) I got Moses from Singin’ in the Rain (a favourite film round here).

Lots to enjoy — I particularly liked 11ac and 10dn. After reading Eileen’s comment @6, I appreciated 1ac all the more in retrospect — I missed the ‘stick’ sense of cleave while solving.