A very gentle stroll today but at least the puzzle appeared before late afternoon, unlike yesterday.
There appears to be a theme of Gerry Anderson creations, but it will need someone with more knowledge of the genre than I have to say whether I have missed anything else that is relevant. The ones I have spotted so far are:
CAPTAIN SCARLET, JOE NINETY, THUNDERBIRD, STINGRAY, FIREBALL
Across
1 Drink supplier oddly free with potato soup (3,2,3)
POT OF TEA – an anagram (soup) of F[r]E[e] (oddly free) POTATO
5 Record and preserve gridlock (6)
LOGJAM – LOG (record) JAM (preserve)
10 Naked, nervously repairing shutters (7)
LOUVRES – an anagram (repairing) of [n]ERVOUSL[y] (naked, nervously)
11 Said school programme gets smaller (7)
LESSENS – sounds like (said) ‘lessons’ (school programme)
12 Soft toy accidentally dyed black during race (5,4)
TEDDY BEAR – an anagram (accidentally) of DYED B (black) in (during) TEAR (race)
13 Going easy, announced shortages (5)
LACKS – sounds like (announced) ‘lax’ (going easy)
15 Dog my trap doesn’t finish off (5)
CORGI – COR (my) GI[n] (trap doesn’t finish off)
16 Instruments showing cigarette end back on fire (8)
SACKBUTS – SACK (fire) STUB (cigarette end) reversed (back)
19 Energetic person’s book on passion in decline (8)
FIREBALL – IRE (passion) B (book) in FALL (decline)
20 Cook’s accessory tolerable after a month (5)
APRON – ON (tolerable) after APR (a month)
21 Is a sign of public authorities maybe not being independent (5)
BODES – BOD[i]ES (public authorities maybe not being independent)
23 Most ill-advised in any case (9)
LEASTWISE – LEAST WISE (most ill-advised)
25 Officer likely to stop murderer (7)
CAPTAIN – APT (likely) in (to stop) CAIN (murderer)
27 Articles I leave around are red (7)
SCARLET – an anagram (around) of ART[i]CLES (articles I leave)
28 Some neophyte ninjas repel quite a few (6)
NINETY – hidden (some) reversal (repel) in ‘neophYTE NINjas’
29 Musician sometimes ready for fish (8)
STINGRAY – STING (musician) R[e]A[d]Y (sometimes ready)
Down
1 Business of government mostly civil, with pieces oddly missing (8)
POLITICS – POLIT[e] (mostly civil) [p]I[e]C[e]S (pieces oddly missing)
2 Native American legend burned out in bronze medal position (11)
THUNDERBIRD – an anagram (out) of BURNED in THIRD (bronze medal position)
3 Sadly, over fifty and single (5-4)
FORTY-FIVE – an anagram (sadly) of OVER FIFTY
4 Follow leaders in economics – never sell undervalued equities (5)
ENSUE – initial letters of (leaders in) E[conomics] N[ever] S[ell] U[ndervalued] E[quities]
6 Dipper found in Tesco useless (5)
OUSEL – contained in (found in) ‘tescO USELess’
7 First person in Bordeaux to drink no American coffee (3)
JOE – JE (first person in Bordeaux) around (to drink) O (no)
8 Disguises 1,000 questions (5)
MASKS – M (1,000) ASKS (questions)
9 Circle round a large sort of collar (8)
CLERICAL – an anagram (round) of CIRCLE followed by A L (large)
14 Provide column for young monarch? (11)
CATERPILLAR – CATER (provide) PILLAR (column)
16 Delaying Carol with unbelievable interruption (8)
STALLING – SING (carol) around (with … interruption) TALL (unbelievable)
17 Old method of crossing Channel to criminally obtain art (4,5)
BOAT TRAIN – an anagram (criminally) of OBTAIN ART
18 10 cars (one unknown) form a line (8)
ANCESTRY – an anagram (form) of TEN CARS Y (one unknown)
21 Meat company covered by prohibition (5)
BACON – CO (company) in (covered by) BAN (prohibition)
22 Intelligent way to limit damage (5)
SMART – ST (way) around (to limit) MAR (damage)
24 Advantage when hard (5)
ASSET – AS (when) SET (hard)
26 Sound system introducing northern god (3)
PAN – PA (sound system) N[orthern] (introducing northern)
Can’t believe I missed the Gerry Anderson theme. There’s a minor typo in blog for 1d, should be POLIT[e].
Got held up for a bit by entering CLARETS for 27a which I was so sure was correct at the time. Especially with the ‘are red’ suggesting a plural. Eventually saw 24d had to be ASSET.
For the younger solvers, the old (and back in vogue) vinyl singles were called 45’s because of their rpm, hence 3d.
Thanks to Chalmie and Gaufrid.
Hovis @1
Thanks for the heads-up, typo now corrected.
Thanks to Chalmie and Gaufrid. Enjoyable. I well remember the old FORTY-FIVEs, but I took a while getting SACKBUTS because I kept trying to somehow squeeze in “butt” rather than the reverse of “stub.”
7d: I hadn’t heard of JOE = coffee, and couldn’t find it in the latest (paper) Chambers, but checked the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, and there it was. Strangely it is in my old Compact OED – it’s not often you find something there that’s not in Chambers.
Thanks to both.
Thanks all.
The missing one is Supercar, because I couldn’t think of a way of defining it to point well away from the actual theme.
FORTY-FIVE is how I decided to represent the XL5 of FIREBALL XL5.
While I’m here, may I thank those who were complimentary about my war gods puzzle: I couldn’t comment when the review appeared because I was having a heart bypass, which I think is a reasonable excuse. In case anyone cares, I’m recovering very well.
@Chalmie
I bloody well care! Very best wishes, dear sir
I do care too.
Just beat the Gods of War!
Thanks Chalmie & Gaufrid.
I thought that 3 down might be an &lit, FORTY-FIVE being the age given on a dating site by someone sadly over fifty and single.
Sorry to hear that michael* hope you’re improving. I see i get your Indy on Monday.
Thanks Chalmie (continue with your recovery, of course we care !) and Gaufrid
Was one of those days when I could only grab snatches of time to work on the puzzle, so it as though it was more work than it actually was. Rushing an unparsed LIVEWIRE into 19a quite early didn’t help matters much.
Liked both hidden answers which were very well hidden – didn’t know that OUSEL and ‘dipper’ referred to the same bird.
Like ACD, I spent time trying to work out how BUTT would fit into SACKBUTS until STUB finally dropped into the brain.
Finished with CLERICAL (which I had to confirm was a type of collar) and FIREBALL (where all the crossers were needed) as the last two in.
Didn’t even to think to look for a theme, but doubt whether I would have found it anyway.