A great themed puzzle from Brendan for my first blog – based around George Bernard Shaw and My Fair Lady. I really enjoyed doing this but had recourse to wikipedia for some of the characters and references, not being a massive fan of the film or Shaw.
* = anagram
Across
1 OSCARS OS (particularly large) CARS – the film My Fair Lady won lots of them.
2 DEMIURGE Cryptic def. a demiurge sounds like half a drive, but in fact is the limited creator of this world in Gnostic myth, who is responsible for the evil in the world.
9 RADIO TWO DOAIR* NE(TWO)RK
10 LERNER writer of My Fair Lady – sounds like Learner.
11 HENRY HIGGINS Professor from My Fair Lady – not sure of the wordplay
13 MYNA M(Y)NA* – Myna birds can be taught to speak
14 UNTAPPED (UN)TAP(P)ED – UN for middle of tune, TAPED outside of (without) P
17 BASS TUBA Fish – BASS, front of area – A, round boat – TUB
18 COCK Do East Enders call each other cock? I thought it was more a Northern thing. Not half-cocked I presume is the wordplay.
20 PRE-EXISTENCE PRE(EXIS)TENCE – former partner one’s =EXIS in act = PRETENCE
23 LA-DI-DA LAD + IDA
24 HARRISON Rex Harrison played Prof. Higgins in My Fair Lady. George Harrison from famous group
26 WAGNER Producer of the Ring Cycle, who Shaw criticised.
Down
2 SHAW Hidden , &lit, IRI(SH A W)RITER a clever clue
3 ACIDHEADS A CID HEADS – top detectives gathered together – but would acidheads be drug addicts? Maybe I’m being pedantic but it’s not a drug that causes addiction.
4 SATINY Smoothly finished. A TINY after S.
5 DROP YOUR AITCHES Eliza originally talked like this in My Fair lady – lack aspiration – the ‘h’ sound is an aspirant I think. A lovely clue which took me a while to get.
6 MELT INTO MEL(TINT)O – cut fruit is melon without the last n.
7 UNRIG another hidden clue – well hidden I thought
8 GREENPEACE an environmental group GREEN = space, P(E)ACE , pace being measure
12 MY FAIR LADY Just can’t get the wordplay here.
15 PICKERING Colonel dramatically is another character from 12dn. I have the wordplay as PICK(ER)ING, but not familiar with ER as ‘King’ – it must be Edward Reginum?
16 PURITANS PU(RITA)NS – did Shaw write three dramas for Puritans?
21 ELIZA ELI(Z)A where final character = Z, Elia was an alias of Charles Lamb, an essayist
The wordplay for 18 across is COCK[neys].
12 down in a reference to “London Bridge is Falling Down”. I groaned when I worked it out.
Thanks Matthew, I didn’t get the thinking behind 12 down either, but that’s very good.
And thanks for the maiden blog, golgonooza.
18 ac, COCK is just a form of address, the wordplay is COCK(neys).
Re GB Shaw, he did write Three Plays for Puritans, as well as, of course, Pygmalion, the play on which My Fair Lady was based, which I was expecting would make an appearance here.
15d: ER = Edward (or more likely Eduardus, or some other latinisation) Rex. Similarly GR for King George both – as formerly seen on some coins, or on old pillarboxes.
18ac: COCK is definitely a cockney usage (thought not exclusively so) – short for cock sparrow, I think.
An enjoyable puzzle. Can’t understand 11 ac either – is it something to do with dropping two Hs? Or two solutions 11 and 24 Ac begin with Hs?
There are four H shapes formed by black squares in the grid; I don’t know if that’s relevant to 11 ac.
Well spotted Andrew and Dave; 11ac must be a ref to the H shapes in the grid. I suppose if you drop two H’s from the four shown you get the two that are referred to in 11ac.
The clue to 11A is more accurate than that: Henry Higgins initials are HH and that appears twice in those big black shapes!
I think Beermagnet must be right. I would query the “in a row”; more in “an off diagonal”, but that would ruin the clue.
I like Brendan’s originality; every time something unexpected.
Yes, thanks golgonooza and of course Brendan for an enjoyable puzzle. Well done for spotting those aitches (or was it a reference to 5D?). But still no explanation for 12D, which I only got from the general context. Enlighten me someone.
Hi Richard, for 12d, Matthew was referring to the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down, the last line being the answer and the person who the rhyme is being sung to.
What’s the answer to 19d, please?
OK – Julie (ANDREW)S
Sorry Matthew, just re-read your contribution – all is explained.