It’s down to Qaos to provide the fun this morning – and that means there must be a theme.
I have never seen The OFFICE and all I know about it is that it features DAVID BRENT. There’d be no fun for me in trawling Google to find references, so I’ll leave the fun for fans of the programme to join up the dots.
Many thanks to Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Dog’s coat (6)
AFGHAN
Double definition
4 Jokes about very strong island birds (7)
PUFFINS
PUNS (jokes) round FF (very strong) I (island)
9 Spooner’s brown dress, it’s abandoned (5,4)
GHOST TOWN
Toast (brown) gown (dress) – not a satisfying Spoonerism for me, since toast gown is not a meaningful phrase
10 Daughter’s keen on Beckham (5)
DAVID
D (daughter) + AVID (keen)
11 Oilfield found in London borough (5)
BRENT
Double definition – both of them rather tough for non-UK solvers
12 Oddly, does rhythm lead to corruption? (9)
DECADENCE
Odd letters of DoEs + CADENCE (rhythm)
13 Turing secures D-Day and independence with rubber, perhaps (7)
ALADDIN
ALAN (Turing) round D D(day) + I (indepenence) – reference to Aladdin rubbing the magic lamp
15 Felix, I request sandwiches and potion (6)
ELIXIR
Hidden in fELIX I Request
17 International exams recalled by head of school — still time? (6)
STASIS
A reversal (recalled) of I (international) SATS (exams) + S[chool]
19 Grows old, returning to sleep with dreams on vacation (7)
EXPANDS
EX (old) + a reversal (returning) of NAP (sleep) + D[ream]S
22 Struggle to cover up torn pants every couple of weeks (9)
FORTNIGHT
FIGHT (struggle) round an anagram (pants) of TORN – I’m not sure what ‘every’ is doing
24 Harry loves to do what you do (5)
SOLVE
An anagram (harry) of LOVES – my husband’s name was Harry and he did
26 Epic poem before AD 151? (5)
ILIAD
I + L (fifty) + I before AD – one of Qaos’ trademark ‘mathematical’ clues
27 ‘Confusing meaning’, admits Number 10, over current testing (9)
EXAMINING
An anagram (confusing) of MEANING round (admits) X (number ten) and I (current)
28 First lady to settle on a mountain (7)
EVEREST
EVE (first lady) + REST (settle)
29 One who prays is good, good adult, right? (6)
BEGGAR
BE (is) + G (good) twice + A (adult) + R (right) – not my favourite clue
Down
1 A large problem grasping second part of mathematics (7)
ALGEBRA
An anagram (problem) of A LARGE round B (second)
2 Turning up, for example, about to throw ball (5)
GLOBE
A reversal (turning up) of EG (for example) round LOB (throw)
3 Height, not length, taking time over special views (9)
ATTITUDES
A[l]TITUDE (height) with the l (length) replaced by T (time) + S (special)
4 North American wearing awfully cheap style (7)
PANACHE
N (north) A (American) in an anagram (awfully) of CHEAP
5 Bill starts to expect disaster after fellow disappeared (5)
FADED
F (fellow) + AD (bill) + initial letters of Expect Disaster
6 Roughly, 9 can be divided by both 5 and 0? That’s a lie! (9)
INVENTION
V (five) in an anagram (roughly) of NINE + O in TIN (can)
7 Theologian, ’e’s wearing a red top? That’s unexpected (6)
SUDDEN
DD (Doctor of Divinity – theologian) + E in (wearing) SUN (red top newspaper)
8 Happy anniversary! (6)
GOLDEN
A third double definition
14 Touring France, unusual relief at what might happen next? (9)
AFTERLIFE
An anagram (unusual) of RELIEF AT round F (France)
16 Unconcerned, first street gang to gain power (9)
IMPASSIVE
I thought I was going to have to admit defeat on this one but, after a lot of digging, I discovered that MASSIVE is a street gang, so it’s I (first, as in regnal numbers) + MASSIVE round P (power)
18 Recommend way to eat posh scrambled eggs (7)
SUGGEST
ST (street – way) round U (posh) + an anagram (scrambled) of EGGS – calling to mind the dingbat-style clue that kept Henry from ‘Drop the dead donkey’ going all day
19 Perhaps bye-bye kiss stops tears flowing? (6)
EXTRAS
X ( a kiss) in an anagram (flowing) of TEARS – a bye in cricket is an extra and here we have two of them
20 One putting off batsmen, by Surrey opener’s accounts (7)
SLEDGER
S[urrey] + LEDGER (accounts) – another cricketing term, see here
21 Position retired skater might be in (6)
OFFICE
A retired skater might be said to be OFF ICE
23 Poke fun, you said, pinching wide bottoms (5)
NUDGE
U (you) in the last letters (bottoms) of fuN saiD pinchinG widE (Or, rather, simply the last letters of fuN yoU saiD pinchinG widE – thanks to Jay @32)
25 Dropping introduction to brief is being dishonest (5)
LYING
[f]LYING – brief, as in flying visit
Very quick solve for me today but didn’t spot the theme and wouldn’t know enough of the programme anyway.
[The on-line version is only accepting lower-case for 21d at the moment causing some comments on the Guardian site]
All-in-all, nice puzzle!
Thanks Eileen and Qaos
As well as The Office that featured the character David Brent, there are several other Ricky Gervais shows in the grid. Extras and After Life are also TV series featuring his characters, and there are two films: Ghost Town and [the] Invention [of] Lying. Gervais has also hosted the Golden Globe[s] on many occasions. Any others?
Like MaidenBartok, a pretty quick solve for me + didn’t spot the theme. Hasn’t Qaos got much easier recently? Favourites were GHOST TOWN, ALADDIN and EXTRAS – very clever! Many thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
Like others, was looking for a theme but failed.
Ripping through this I felt like a batsman receiving straight, innocent deliveries and expecting ghastly spin at any minute!
Failed to parse IMPASSIVE but everything else slotted in nicely.
Continuing my self-imposed cricket theme, EXTRAS was my COD.
Many thanks, Qaos and Eileen.
In one episode of Extras, Gervais’s character Andy Millman was in a production of Aladdin (with Les Dennis).
Thanks, Mitz @4. I had heard of ‘Extras’ but that’s all!
A rare quick and complete solve for me, although I missed the theme entirely (despite being a huge fan of The Office). ALADDIN was marvellous – and does appear in an episode of EXTRAS featuring Les Dennis, although I suspect that’s a coincidence rather than an extension of the theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBbAWwSQC8E&list=PLHfOHkCtHl7tLoGDL2Cp4J_C-RKBuWw6H
Thanks Qaos and Eileen.
There are 11 solutions theme-related if one includes ALADDIN – as featured fairly prominently in an episode of EXTRAS.
Jim – we crossed!
Afghan was my last one in. Can anybody find any more countries with three consecutive letters of the alphabet?
Qaos in mild mood today. I couldn’t see the theme without hints for the Grauniad comments. Seems so obvious now.
Thanks for parsing 16 and 25, Eileen and thanks to Qaos for the fun.
Got the theme early enough to help, despite not being a great fan. DAVID, GOLDEN and ALADDIN might have been a different theme at one point.
SLEDGER was a welcome reminder of players like Eddie Brandes and Jimmy Ormond, who may not have been the greatest cricketers in the world, but came out with some of the best sledges.
Thanks, Qaos and Eileen
[Did The Afghan Puffins do a Peel session in the early 80s?]
I also found this a pretty straightforward solve – no, have just spotted that I had GEODE for 2d, so a DNF. I did spot DAVID BRENT and the OFFICE (when finished) but, like Eileen, I have hardly watched it, finding it more cringeworthy than funny. It has put me off any other Gervais stuff, so well done Mitz @2 for picking those up. I knew Brent as a London borough (my son lived there) but DNK the oilfields and had to check it. Like Eileen, ‘massive’ was an unknown, but I just assumed it must be a gang. Liked PUFFINS, ALADDIN, EXPANDS, FORTNIGHT, ILIAD, AFTERLIFE and EXTRAS. Thanks Eileen and Qaos.
Spotted the theme when I’d finished the crossword, for once, but I couldn’t recall Ricky Gervais’ name and it didn’t seem necessary to look further after seeing The Office and Extras. Like others I thought this was relatively undemanding for a Qaos puzzle. I did like 13 once the meaning of rubber dawned on me. Thanks to Eileen for the normal precise blog and to Qaos for the puzzle.
Eileen – re ‘massive’ – clearly an important cultural phenomenon has passed you by…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_CgTl2idcI&t=65s
Very much liked SOLVE – wondered if the ‘Harry loves’ thing has been done before?
Thanks Qaos and Eileen, and Mitz et al for the further elucidation.
@ravenrider #10.
Tuvalu
[ravenrider @10: TUValu]
challenge accepted: Kirghizia
Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional character Ali G was a member of the “West Staines MASSIVE”.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen
I knew precisely as much about “The office” as you did, Eileen!
I missed the B in ALGEBRA and also MASSIVE.
GOLDEN for Q”happy” is pretty loose.
OFFICE was favourite for the smile it raised.
North Mabcdeonia has 5
Very quick solve last night and got the theme straight away with DAVID BRENT. I got 11 references which have already been mentioned and I am a massive fan of his cringe humour in THE OFFICE, but I think AFTERLIFE is his best work to date. I thought BRENT might be a bit unfair for some solvers unless you copped theme. I liked ILIAD, PUFFINS and IMPASSIVE. Ta Qaos & Eileen
Adored 19db, what a clever clue. Completely missed the theme; nevertheless an enjoyable morning solve; thanks Qaos.
Couldn’t parse 25dn so thanks Eileen.
The resolutely lowercase titles of “the office” are of course reflected in 21d – but I’m not really happy with a prank that makes solvers believe their correct answers are wrong.
[Penfold @12
Eddo, not Eddie – one of the great lines, though, in response to McGrath’s “Why are you so fat?”]
TOAST GOWNS are de rigueur in our house at breakfast
[muffin @25 I typed Eddo, the dreaded autocorrect thought it would help! Yeah, his response really takes the biscuit.]
Never watched The Office, but as others have said, Qaos was kinder to us today. Held up by the SE corner with its cricketing knowledge required for EXTRAS and SLEDGER…
gladys@24 I was momentarily put off by the 21d office prank, but took it as a reminder not to make lazy use of the check button. Loved ALADDIN when the penny finally dropped
[Penfold @27
🙂 ]
Gladys @24: Ah! I see… Hmmm. Not sure that was fair game then.
Great fun, thanks Qaos and Eileen.
Re 23d in the blog, I think yoU is just part of the last letters sequence rather than U for ‘you’
I’m a big fan of Ricky so recognised Office, David Brent, Extras, Golden Globe, Afterlife-thanks Mitz forGhost town and Invention of Lying Going straight on my list.I may have missed the Aladdin Extras.
Must be time for a Call My Agent theme`
Hi Jay @32 – of course it is! Thanks – I’ll amend the blog.
Missed the theme as usual, but it wasn’t necessary as I raced through this much more quickly than yesterday’s offering.
I wasn’t happy with BEGGAR – BE for ‘is’ doesn’t work for me, but I suppose the rationale is that many people do use an indicative where a more prescriptive grammarian would demand a subjunctive.
But there was a lot to enjoy and in common with others I particularly liked EXTRAS
Re: 9a
It is VERY obscure but according to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thost thost is a dung.
Merry Christmas all! Many thanks to all the bloggers for their tireless work (especially those that have to hunt down ghost themes) and to everyone else for your comments throughout 2020. They’re always appreciated.
I think the lowercase answer to 21 dn is just an IT glitch.
Best wishes,
Qaos
Spotted the theme early, which helped on a couple of the clues. I don’t feel you needed the theme to get BRENT. In fact, it was the other way round for me – BRENT gave me the theme. Maybe it’s a age thing, but the Brent Oilfield was in the news a lot when I was a boy in the early 70s
Re: ALADDIN and EXTRAS. To be really tenuous, David Bowie was in Extras and he released an album called Aladdin Sane.
Thanks to Q & E
So yes, as Eileen guessed, BRENT was one I needed electronic assistance on. The London boroughs I know are the ones tourists tend to visit (and not even all of those). But I did the thing that I always do when faced with things I’d be expected to just know if I were British (be it towns in Shropshire or supermarket chains): Google “list of [in this case, London boroughs]”. I took the oilfield on trust.
The Office I only know in its American remake (everyone says the British version was funnier, but I haven’t bothered to hunt it down). And the rest of Gervais’s work is even less familiar. So I knew even less about the theme (which I didn’t spot) than most.
Oil prices are still denominated in dollars per barrel of BRENT crude even though it is a declining commodity these days.
Pretty slow for me, though that’s partly because I was unsure that GOLDEN and BEGGAR could really be correct. Was aware of the theme, but didn’t twig most of the Gervais references so it didn’t really help. But I did parse 16d correctly thanks to the MASSIVE!
I usually seem to be completely blind to themes, but as my first two answers were DAVID and BRENT, I could hardly miss this one. But my knowledge of his work is so limited that it barely helped. Most of the trouble with this one was in some tricky parsing, but “perhaps bye-bye” was a very nice bit of work.
Re lower case office- when I shift down to lc on my iPhone the entered letters are always in uppercase. This made it impossible to finish without a ‘reveal’.
Another peculiarity is that I accidentally entered IÑIAD – Ñ is next to L on a Spanish keyboard. On ‘checking’, the first I duly became space since it wasn’t i as required by ‘office’. Surprisingly the Ñ stayed as entered.
¡That’ll learn me to check which keyboard I’m using!
Does a beggar pray?
Much fun…I loved the office, but I struggled to enjoy anything Ricky Gervais has done post the office as it was such a tough act to follow. ‘An Englishman Abroad’, I did watch an episode, though and I thought it was truly awful.
I thought the Spoonerism was a bit contrived for the same reason Eileen highlighted.
Thanks Eileen and Qaos.
I’ve heard GOLDEN used as happy – usually by geezers and Danny Dyer wannabes. It’s also Def number 5 in my Chambers
HoofItYouDonkey@43
Pray has the sense of “please…”.
Suppose you interrupt someone while he is still speaking and he stares at you, you might say, ” Sorry… pray continue…”. That is politeness.
I can imagine a beggar saying “pray, could you spare me a …”
HoofItYouDonkey
Rogar is to beg, plead and by extension ask for something from whatever you believe is a god. Hence pray.
Don’t get me started on arrogant, derrogate, abrogate, or even the Rogation Days – I beg of you.
BE = IS? You be ‘avin’ me on. I’ve seen BE = LIVE often enough to accept it, but there are limits
Aphid @ 47
That be true, that be.
Qaos has sort of become a Monday nowadays, l enjoyed this nevertheless. Never heard of BRENT but with b.e.t, it was easy to get using Google. Rishi in India, is crossword wizard Raju Umamaheswar still around? I don’t see his contribution in crossword unclued these days.
I don’t think BRENT is quite as UK-centric as suggested – Brent crude is one of the main quoted oil prices.
Ong’ara@49
[I knew Raju thru Crossword fora. I then met him in Coimbatore when I went there from Chennai. We used to exchange mails too.
Sadly, he passed away a couple of months ago.]
Anybody else try Argyll at 1ac? It is both a dog and a coat … and latitudes almost works at 3dn. Thanks Qaos and Eileen.
Edward@52: Not me, but I tried “Alpine.”
Generally this was a quick solve but BRENT, SLEDGER, and EXTRAS required look-up’s since they’re all foreign to me. I did figure the theme revolved around someone named DAVID BRENT but that’s as far as I got. Favourites included EXPANDS and INVENTION. Thanks to both.
[The is/be thing reminds me of a time as a child visiting Cornwall when on a narrow country lane our car and a tractor had a close shave. The tractor driver leaned out of his cab and shouted angrily “What be you be doing of?”, which has stuck with me ever since. And that reminds me of another story from a Finnish chap on a forum I frequent. He’d moved to Somerset, and his kids had been raised there. One day he asked his young son who was riding on a toy tractor what he was doing, and the son replied “I be driving ‘e”. The dad expressed concern at his son’s university prospects…]
I’ve learned eventually to look for a theme with Qaos, and that did me no good whatever! I’ve heard of The Office but knew nothing about either its British or American version. But what is all this about upper and lower case? On my computer everything in the puzzle is upper case, however it may show up in the real world.
Couldn’t parse SUN — what’s a red top newspaper?
William @4 Is “innocent deliveries” a cricket term or did you make it up?
mrpenney @39 The London boroughs I know are not so much the touristy ones as the ones that figure in British detective stories, of which Brent isn’t one. But I used occasionally to follow the stories on a map of London and would vaguely register other names as well. And I had echoes in my head of “Brent crude,” which made an oilfield likely.
AlanC @22 I was clueless about the theme but solved it anyway from the double definition. It’s the cricketing terms that do me in.
TassieTim@13 I had GEODE too.
Thanks,Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle if an impenetrable theme, and Eileen as ever for warm and witty guidance.
Rishi@51, so sorry to learn of his passing away, it was reported in a local daily here but I thought it was fake news. Met him in flesh in 1990 when I was still a cryptic rookie in Nairobi.
Valentine @56
Red-top is a dismissive term for mass circulation “newspapers” such as the Sun, the Daily Mirror etc. that traditional have a red banner across the top of the front page. If you can bear to, look here, for example:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/gallery/daily-mirror-front-pages-2019-13831817
Hi Valentine @56
See here https://wordhistories.net/2017/03/02/red-top/
muffin @58, Eileen @59: I thought that “Red Top” was going out of fashion and MSM (Mirror, Sun, Mail) was the more usual term these days for the trashy end of the British media?
MB @60 (& muffin @58 & Eileen @59): where would you use ‘tabloid’ these days? Funnily enough, I still think of Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian as ‘broadsheet’ and the Red Top/MSM/rest as tabloid, even though the format of several of the former has changed. (…and it’s a change I welcomed tbh; I recall the days of trying to read a broadsheet on the Tube or outdoors on a day with the slightest of breezes)
[PostMark @61
I regret the Guardian doing away with the “Berliner” format. I haven’t seen a Telegraph for ages – is it still “broadsheet”?]
The link that I gave @59 discusses ‘tabloids’.
Somewhat a challenge near the end, due to British/cricket refs (and total ignorance re theme); did finish, w/BRENT a guess, solely by what I thought a borough name might sound like. Had several “sort of parsed”, where I guessed construct and gang/cricket refs but needed 15^2 to confirm.
Underlining seems missing for dds at 1a & 8d (but not 11a)… tho at 2 words, not too hard to figure 🙂 (Still, “‘s” might/mightn’t be connector in some instances, so explicitness warranted?)
SOLVE: Saw “to do” as part of defn, else unsure what “do” does?
FORTNIGHT: Agree w/Eileen… “every” makes the surface work but mars parsing?
BEGGAR: Like others, found beggar/prays & is/be tenuous. Re latter, eventually hit on “if it is/be so…”, tho didn’t change my feeling much.
Thought lower case “office” problematic. As has been noted, lower case entry is precluded on some platforms. And highlighting the theme (whether by check or reveal) is a spoiler for rest of puzzle. Plus, makes online/paper experiences different. Thanks, Qaos, for confirming not your idea. Someone post handoff likely thought it’d be “cute” (and they clever), w/out thinking it thru nor testing; BAD IDEA!
But overall, did enjoy this, and found much to like, esp: PUFFINS 🙂
Hats off to setter, blogger, and commenters!
muffin @ 62
You may be aware that the reason the g gave up the Berliner format was because the printworks was costing a fortune, and as they were the only paper in the country using the format they couldn’t co-print with anyone to spread the costs. Not going straight to tabloid was a major contributor to their dire financial plight in the early 2000s onwards.
[Simon S @65
Yes, it makes commercial sense, I suppose]
muffin @58 and Eileen @59 Thank you. They’re like the New York Post only more so. (The Post has red in its cover but not a big red swath like that.)
So we have to watch drivel on TV to parse the clues now do we? I despair.
tony smith @68
To be fair, I hope I managed to parse all of the clues, without, as I said, knowing anything about ‘the theme’ as I saw it then, not knowing that it was only partial.
But that’s surely the definition of a ‘ghost theme’, at which Qaos excels. You win some, you lose some. Today I lost – but, as always with Qaos, I enjoyed the puzzle.
Eillen, Your 9 across parsing implies a homophone for TOAST which is not in the glue. The Guardian blog identified the word THOST, which is middle English for dung! That fits the clue perfectly, even if it would be impossible to get!
themes are curious aren’t they! loved the office but wouldn’t pick it as my Mastermind subject.. so really didn’t spot it as a theme.. didn’t undermine the fun at all though.. in fact if the theme helps to solve i feel its almost unfair! all went according to plan until the old SE corner thing happened..
so… thanks to Eileen and Qaos
I don’t understand the objection to Spoonerisms which aren’t a meaningful phrase. Almost all of the spoonerisms I’ve heard that are supposedly attributed to the man himself aren’t particularly meaningful phrases. I’d say a “toast gown” (which I can actually imagine seeing on a fashion catwalk – there have been weirder things) is equally as valid a spoonerism as a “shoving leopard” (where I can’t really imagine a leopard shoving anything – it’s not an action they’re built for (if leopards have to move stuff, they’d drag it)).
HoustonTony @ 70
I’m mystified by your comment – as I was by Mark B’s @36 and was waiting for comments from others to clarify. There was no comment from Qaos, either.
I can’t see how my parsing of 9ac implies a homophone: to toast a slice of bread is to brown it and gown = dress.
But I love your ‘glue’ 😉
MarkN @72: the image in my mind was of a cosy hearthside, with crumpets, muffins and a glamorous evening gown being toasted together (with the aid of an extra large toasting fork). As I think I mentioned before, I rather like surreal juxtapositions.
HoustonTony @70: Spoonerisms rely on sounds, not spelling – eg “You have tasted two whole worms”. So a spoonerism of THOST GOWN wouldn’t work – it would come out as GOST THOWN.
I was dubious about GOLDEN = HAPPY until I thought of the phrase “golden days”.
tony smith @68 – no, you don’t have to watch drivel on TV to do the puzzles. I never watched The Office, but worked my way through this quite easily.
drofle @76 – many thanks for the endorsement (me @69).
[EVE-REST is how Colonel Sir George Everest, after whom the mountain is named, pronounced his surname.]
Eileen @77. My pleasure! A theme has to be in bold caps to get my attention, and I’m often amazed to see what I’ve missed.
It was easy? Not for me. I didn’t even see ELIXIR straight away, despite the big pointer of Felix in the clue. With several others, nothing useful came to mind for a long time, and I was unable to finish cleanly.
tony smith@68: how do you know it’s drivel if you haven’t watched it. I despair
Finished, except that for 20 I initially put down SLOGGER, despite the fact that that would be more offputting to a bowler. Compulsive use of the Check button made it obvious where the answer had to be amended to give a result which was much more satisfactory.
PS Despite thinking Ricky Gervais comes across as a complete tool whenever I see him not acting, I loved The Office and also Extras. He’s a pretty good actor and capable of moments of real poignancy. There are certainly several candidates ahead of those two series if I was looking for something to hang the label ‘drivel’ on.
Thanks to Eileen and Qaos. My first two solutions in the grid were DAVID and BRENT so it was rather ovoid what the theme would be. However since I can’t stand Ricky Gervais (except when he’s insulting Hollywood glitterati) this was no help whatsoever. Thankfully I still managed to complete the puzzle as I never find it hard to get on Qaos’s wavelength. Rather enjoyed SLEDGER, AFGHAN and ALGEBRA !
Ovoid??! I meant “obvious” !!
I was lucky on Thost Gown Spoonerism which I was sure was Going Down from Doing Gown :O)
Thank you Eileen, I couldn’t see how INVENTION worked and am happy now it is cleared up, and I share your mild dissatisfaction with the Spoonerism. My last one in and favourite (of many enjoyable clues)was SOLVE which required a wee dram to get my brain moving in the right direction – I’m sure your Harry would have approved. Merry Christmas to you and thanks to Qaos for the fun.
[Personally, i cannot understand how anyone with even a modicum of a sense of humour could not find Gervais’ works (in the most part) quite brilliant. (And yes, he can do poignancy to the point of almost irresistible lachrymosity!) Perhaps my recollection is inaccurate but I recall his witty, yet moving, portrayal of the more ineffable facets of human nature to be up there with Victoria Wood – or even Shakespeare! Seriously, quite brilliant.!]