eXtent makes a welcome return.
Preamble: Each grid contains two unclued entries identifying a theme (6,8); the fifth unclued entry indicates a thematic relationship. Eight clues lack definitions; their answers are thematic and should be entered in the appropriate grid (four in each). Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their answers, to be entered in the grid wherever they will fit.
This one looked rather daunting: two jigsaws, each with two unclued entries; eight clues without definition, answers to be entered four-a-side; and a fifth unclued entry linking the two sides.
As there were only two 9-letter answers, I tackled those clues first and solved both pretty much straight away. Next, onto the 7-letter answers as there were only four of them and solved NOSEBAG, SPEARED & STRIATE – this enabled me to conclude that ALLEVIATE went on the left (possibly intersected by STRIATE) and ESTAMINET on the right. Not that that helped me very much.
I chipped away at the clues, and solved quite a few, especially the gentler ones, and including NOGGIN. That puzzled me until I reread the bit in the preamble about “lacking definition”. And that led me onto CLANGERS, IVOR and BEAST, the last of which didn’t fit in with the others being animated programs on children’s TV.
At some point, armed with seven of the 8-letter answers (and an assortment of others), I decided it was time to have a go at putting some of them in the grid. Two of the 8-letter answers started in the top left cell of the right-hand grid, so they had to be either BARGEMEN & BEDKNOBS or CLANGERS & COBBLING; the former pair were ruled out by the intersecting 8-letter word in row 3 (which couldn’t start with R or D); and if it were CLANGERS down & COBBLING across, then we’d have ALOPECIA in row 3 & GEL in the rightmost column and a clash of A & L where they intersected. So … it was CLANGERS across, COBBLING down, BARGEMEN in row 3, SEN in the rightmost column … and before I knew what, I was looking at a grid that was 75-80% complete.
On the right, the quartet was completed by BAGPUSS, created by OLIVER POSTGATE (together with Peter Firmin). The left-hand side took a little longer, but ANGELA LANSBURY arrived in due course; she played a leading part in BEDKNOBS & Broomsticks, and in MURDER, She Wrote, as well as doing some voice work for BEAUTY & the BEAST. And the relationship between the two people? Well, given that they had a common grandfather in George Lansbury (who was leader of the Labour Party during the first half of the 1930’s) – and presumably a common grandmother – they would be COUSINS.
The title? COUSINS = US (one) in COINS (pieces). Thank you eXt(ernal + Serp)ent – a very well-constructed grid, great clues, and an entertaining solve. (And not as hard as it looked at first, but not that easy either.)
| Clue | Answer/Entry | Wordplay |
| Moderate start to an original tale featuring evil criminal (9) | ALLEVIATE | A(n) [TALE]* around [EVIL]* |
| Shock disappearance is bound to divide American intelligence community (8) | ALOPECIA | LOPE (bound) in A(merican) CIA (intelligence community) |
| Insight gleaned from newspaper cuttings (6) | APERÇU | (newsp)APER CU(ttings) |
| What undervalued employee could want from discussion groups (6) | ARRAYS | homophone: A RAISE (what undervalued employee could want) |
| Doctor with universal piercing instrument (7) | BAGPUSS | GP (doctor) U(niversal) in BASS (instrument) |
| Bachelor gets married? It’s a hoax! (3) | BAM | BA (bachelor) M(arried) |
| Rail info to cross Maine for people on board (8) | BARGEMEN | BAR (rail) GEN (info) around ME (Maine) |
| Live action’s beginning with silence (5) | BEAST | BE (live) A(ction) ST (silence) |
| Worry about university dons at one’s home (6) | BEAUTY | EAT (worry) around U(niversity) in BY (at one’s home) |
| County briefly adopts Act of Congress retrospectively (8) | BEDKNOBS | BEDS (Bedfordshire) around BONK (act of congress) |
| Bishop managed church office (6) | BRANCH | B(ishop) RAN (managed) CH(urch) |
| Australian outlaw hid in roughly tentlike structure (6) | CABANA | A(ustralian) BAN (outlaw) CA (circa, roughly) |
| People with common ancestor, German saint (8) | CLANGERS | CLAN (people with common ancestor) GER(man) S(aint) |
| Act of fixing cape perplexing Cockney (8) | COBBLING | C(ape) (h)OBBLING (perplexing, Cockney) |
| Acquire book for daughter in funny incident (6, two words) | COME BY | COMEDY (funny incident) with B(ook) for D(aughter) |
| Hollow structure in hive clogged with old earth (6) | COOMBE | COMB (structure in hive) around O(ld) E(arth) |
| Apparatus used by divers leaving South Island (4) | CUBA | SCUBA (apparatus used by divers) − S(outh) |
| Ignored public and stopped working suddenly (6, two words) | CUT OUT | CUT (ignored) OUT (public) |
| Demanding person relinquishes 25% share (3) | DIV | DIV(a) (demanding person) |
| Program’s termination stopping irrational number being returned in pounds (5) | DRUMS | (progra)M in SURD< (irrational number) |
| Build-up of liquid made opening in eardrum burst (5) | EDEMA | [MADE E(ardrum)]* |
| Aim to pinch millions possessed by Dutch protector of riches (6) | EDMUND | END (aim) around M(illions) in DU(tch) |
| Nothing to lose, maisonette transformed into small café (9) | ESTAMINET | [MAISONETTE − O (nothing)]* |
| Return to owner without sleeve on record (4) | EVER | (r)EVER(t) (return to owner) |
| Strong smell of feet enveloping fast runner coming up (5) | FUMET | F(ee)T around EMU< (fast runner) |
| Revolutionary stage set (3) | GEL | LEG< (stage) |
| Looked after property stolen recently outside customs area (8) | HOUSE-SAT | HOT (stolen recently) around USES (customs) A(rea) |
| Person who has overcome adversity gets half-cut (4) | IVOR | (surv)IVOR (person who has overcome adversity) |
| Obtain supply of ornamental work after moving home to the Far East (5, two words) | LAY IN | INLAY (ornamental work) with IN (home) moved right |
| Fiction about money being something that grows on trees (4) | LIME | LIE (fiction) around M(oney) |
| Seldom used game, the whole duck (4) | LOTO | LOT (the whole) O (duck) |
| Singer’s affected clothing beginning to take after God (8, two words) | MARSH TIT | HIT (affected) around T(ake) after MARS (God) |
| Knock back wine and spirit (6) | MURDER | RED (wine) RUM (spirit) all< |
| Intended having left church to go round green (4) | NAIF | FIANCE (intended) − CE (church) all< |
| Honourable blonde wanting diamonds badly (5) | NOBLE | [BLONDE − D(iamonds)]* |
| A couple of drinks (6) | NOGGIN | NOG (drink) GIN (drink) |
| Food bank almost goes bust (7) | NOSEBAG | [BAN(k) GOES]* |
| Back to work at a large island estate (4) | ODAL | DO< (work at) A L(arge) |
| Office is about to acquire computing equipment (4) | RITE | RE (about) IT (computing equipment) |
| Crew member damaged oar to stop working (6) | ROADIE | [OAR]* DIE (stop working) |
| Residence covered in house mice (4) | SEMI | (hou)SE MI(ce) |
| Starters of scrambled eggs and nutty Asian bread (3) | SEN | S(crambled) E(ggs) N(utty) |
| Pierced ear gets noticed when one goes outside (7) | SPEARED | EAR in SPIED (noticed) − I (one) |
| Ship bearing king’s flag (8) | STREAMER | STEAMER (ship) around R (king) |
| Make groovy representation of artiste (7) | STRIATE | [ARTISTE]* |
| Contribution to Anglo-Catholic’s return fare from Mexico (4) | TACO | (Angl)O-CAT(holic) rev. |
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With help from my daughter (I’m a wimp, when it comes to “jigsaws”), I had OLIVER as a potential entry. Coupled with ____GATE, I jumped to the conclusion that it was IRANGATE – Oliver North and all that.
Top left unclued looked like it was going to be ANGOLA, so I set off on a fruitless search for a connection.
Still, all came good in the end.
Thanks to elmac, H___G____ and eXtent.
This was fun – thanks all round. After a certain amount of slow cold-solving, NOGGIN emerged as the first undefined answer and I thought it was worth a gamble on Oliver Postgate (whose autobiography Seeing Things is recommended). He fitted neatly with ESTAMINET, the only 9-letter word I had at the time, and the right-hand grid soon filled up. The left was a lot more work.
Although I’ve never seen any of the productions on the left, I must be dimly aware of Murder, She Wrote since the eventual thought process went “Looks like Angela something … [long stare at top row] … Angela Lansbury? … er um, she’s a writer, isn’t she?” Close enough.
I’m sure there used to be a Preview Comment button here, but can’t find it today.
That was fun. I’m usually not too hot on these jigsaw type puzzles, and was a little worried about having two such grids to fill, but generally got on Ok. Spotting Clangers early on helped – after a “really?” moment, I guessed what the theme would probably be, and filled the right hand side pretty sharpish. That left less clues to contend with, and a satisfying – ah, that was what it was all about.
All much more straightforward than it first looked … I thought it was going to be COUPLES across the middle, but once Google told me they were cousins, then GSM. Our children were growing up long before Bagpuss … in the Stig of the Dump, Bill and Ben, and Fireball X15 era … and I am not an AL admirer, so again Google had to confirm my thematic titles guesses. Grateful for the answer lengths, unlike in another recent carte blanche which cruelly withheld them.
Much enjoyed, thanks eXtent and HG.
I agree that this turned out to be relatively straightforward. An interesting connection, I thought, and convenient that both subjects had names with the same enumeration.
David @2: the preview button has been removed, for reasons explained by Gaufrid. In his post ( see Comment Preview in the left hand menu).
Really enjoyed this puzzle. For me, 5.35 on a weekday evening will always be Ivor the Engine time…
I enjoyed this too; not as hard as it looked, but still a slowburn solve. Great theme; I had no idea.
Thanks to eXtent and HolyGgost.
A double jigsaw…yikes! I assumed I’d be having a week off with this one but gave it a go while on a train and managed to get a decent number of clues solved, including the two nine letter ones, and so persevered. My first thematic was CLANGERS which made me think of Oliver Postgate, and once I had identified IVOR I was confident enough to start entering some solutions. I guessed that the linking word might be BROTHER but reading about OP on Wikipedia didn’t bring up anything likely there. I then spotted who his cousin was – bingo! Like others above, the right hand side fell into place much more quickly than the left.
After completing my first jigsaw a couple of weeks ago (IQ1513), I was delighted to follow it up here. I guess that every solver will have their own methods for these; I developed a system of colouring clues and spaces of the same length. Whether that helped or not, I don’t know, but it did look pretty.
Many thanks to eXtent – I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Thanks HolyGhost – despite finishing the puzzle we could not parse BEAUTY. We should have checked Chambers as the synonym, ‘at one’s hone’ is there!
Our earlier experiences were similar to yours but we needed a search to find Angela Landsbury plus tbe link between the two. The link to the title of the puzzle also eluded us.
Thanks to eXtent for an interesting solve which brought back some good memories – we both loved the Clangers.
I enjoyed this and very nearly made it all the way to the end, failing only on guessing at Angelo Landsbury instead of Angela. I had not heard of either of them and had to get Wikipedia to tell me who they were.
Thanks to HG and eXtent.