It’s Boatman rounding off the week with a themed puzzle.
The theme is indicated by CO, which didn’t ring any bells at all, so I ignored those clues on the first run through and I’d reached 18dn on the second before, with the crossers and the easy hidden answer, the penny dropped: it was a theme that Skinny had given us earlier in the month in an Indy puzzle – ‘Carry on’ films – and it turned out that Boatman had given us a broad hint in the clue for 21dn.
The theme is not really my cup of tea but most of the titles were familiar, especially with the recent reminder. There are some quite intricate clues, so it was not all plain sailing and I need help with a couple of bits of parsing.
Thanks to Boatman for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7 Where prisoners eat CO (9)
CONSTABLE
Prisoners might eat at the CONS’ TABLE
8 CO appearing regularly in Schroedinger style (5)
HENRY
Every third letter (regularly) of scHroEdiNgeR stYle
9 He made reptiles vanish, recreating past magic (2,7)
ST PATRICK
An anagram (recreating) of PAST + TRICK (magic) – referring to the legend that St Patrick drove snakes out of Ireland
10 First seen in Nightingale, undying resilience supporting each CO (5)
NURSE
Initial letters of Nightingale Undying Resilience Supporting Each
12 Inhale from a smoking thing (6)
DRAGON
DRAG ON (inhale from)
13 Strange, strange, strange: ultimately CO (8)
SERGEANT
An anagram (strange) of STRANGE + [strang]E
16 Where there’s a will there’s way? Contest disputed, not won (7)
TESTACY
I couldn’t see this but, thanks to several early commenters, it’s an anagram (disputed) of wAY ConTEST minus won
19 Tories’ top minister lacking means to gain goodwill for CO (7)
TEACHER
T(ories) + [pr]EACHER (minister) minus PR (means to gain goodwill)
22 Perhaps Cape Fear, Fahrenheit dropped after cold closes in (8)
RAINWEAR
[f]EAR (Fahrenheit dropped) after RAW (cold) round IN
25 Boatman follows core of convoluted book (6)
VOLUME
[con]VOLU[ted] + ME (Boatman)
27 About to tuck into sourdough! (5)
BREAD
RE (about) in BAD (sour – like milk, perhaps)
28 CO scaring me in a funny way (9)
SCREAMING
Anagram (in a funny way) of SCARING ME
29 Bad-tempered Republican leader ejected by CO (5)
CABBY
C[r]ABBY (bad-tempered) minus first letter (leader) of Republican
30 Even cycling finds unexpected zeal around united country (9)
VENEZUELA
EVEN, with the first letter moved to the end – cycling + an anagram (unexpected) of ZEAL round U (united)
Down
1 CO allegedly held back with hesitation (6)
DOCTOR
I’m having problems with this one, unless it’s a homophone (allegedly?) of docked (held back?) ER (hesitation) – but I don’t think so!
2 Time for New Yorkers to eat load of French food (8)
ESCARGOT
EST (Eastern Standard Time – time for New Yorkers) round CARGO (load)
3 Neither thanks mass uprising for CO (6)
MATRON
A reversal (uprising, in a down clue) of NOR (neither) + TA (thanks) + M (mass)
4 Stick around a little, because this is sweet (7)
GLUCOSE
GLUE (stick) round ‘COS (a little ‘because’)
5 Reduce tension in defeat: a tyrant’s leadership rejected across America (6)
DEFUSE
DEFE[at] minus A T[yrant’s] round US (America)
6 Article about riot appeared (6)
ARISEN
AN (article) round RISE (riot)
14, 11 Reheats damaged part of wood? (3,4)
ASH TREE
An anagram (damaged) of REHEATS
16 Boatman‘s origins in the arts reassessed (3)
TAR
Initial letters (origins) of The Arts Reassessed – one of Boatman’s customary self-referential clues
17, 15 Admirer of oddly stupid, yet rugged, prominence (6)
SUITOR
Odd letters of StUpId + TOR (prominence) – I don’t really know why ‘yet rugged’
18 CO manifested in muscle oxidation (4)
CLEO
Contained in mucCLE Oxidation
20 Anonymous newspaper article uncovered abuse by CO (8)
COLUMBUS
COLUM[n] (newspaper article) minus n – name = anonymous; (we had this device quite recently and some people didn’t like it – but I had no problem with it) + [a]BUS[e]
21 Carry on making endless profits (7)
PROCEED
PROCEED[s] (profits)
23 Not a major route to CO (6)
ABROAD
A B ROAD (not a major route)
24 Drink coming up with Spooner in the vicinity (6)
NEARBY
‘Beer nigh’ – drink coming up: one of Boatman’s better Spoonerisms
25 Struggle with editor’s extremes in the Spectator (6)
VIEWER
VIE (struggle) + W (with) + E[dito]R
26 Sad lament for inherited status (6)
MANTLE
An anagram (sad) of LAMENT
16a is an anagram of wAY ConTEST (not won).
Thanks Boatman (I think) and Eileen
I didn’t see the theme, of course, so I had a record number of questions marks. I did like ST. PATRICK and MATRON.
Docked as in “pay docked”, Eileen?
I thought it was an enjoyable bit of fun.
How clever of essexboy to anticipate today’s theme yesterday!
I did wonder how ‘the arse’ could be ‘part of wood’. Something to do with Carry On Up The Khyber? But once I twigged it was ASH TREE, I thought it was clever, because not only is it ‘reheats’ damaged, but also ash trees are damaged parts of woods due to the dieback.
Other favourites were CONSTABLE, ST PATRICK, ESCARGOT and GLUCOSE.
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen
16 ac I think is waycontest* without won.
I had the same for 1D – Docked == held back as in docked pay.
I wasn’t convince either
I did wonder if SUI was a valid entry by itself, but apparently it’s in the Scrabble dictionary. I didn’t see why “yet rugged” was needed either, though tors are rugged, of course.
16 a. Anagram of ‘way contest’ minus won, I think
Didn’t twig to CO meaning but should have
Thanks Eileen and Boatman
I had problems parsing the same two clues as you, Eileen. I think you are right with “docked er”. Thanks to Horus for 16a
Hovis@1: I couldn’t parse TESTACY either, but having seen your suggestion I think it’s an anagram of (w)AY + C on TEST.
Can’t help with DOCTOR, but surely the TOR in SUITOR is a “rugged eminence”? By the way, I’m sure SUI will be a word, but I do hate the trick of splitting an answer into two unrelated halves.
Hovis even
I managed the whole thing without realising the theme. I’d decided CO meant Commanding Officer, and was a synonym for people in authority (matron, sergeant, teacher etc) but Screaming messed up that theory. I agree with others that docked-er was a weak clue. But liked escargot (as a clue, not a meal!) Thankyou Boatman & Eileen.
Thanks all, re TESTACY – I’ll amend the blog.
muffin @6 – both Collins and Chambers give TOR as a hill, esp rocky but the only one I’ve seen (Glastonbury) isn’t. And I don’t see why ‘yet’.
Very unsatisfying if you know nothing about the theme since quite a few answers then make no sense.
Great fun. It helped that I twigged the CO theme early on, with an assist from MATRON, and am fairly familiar with the films (I even saw the execrable Carry On Columbus in the cinema; 90% of the audience abandoned ship within the first hour).
It took me a while to parse TESTACY. I read DOCTOR as the homophone you suggest (though “allegedly” is an unusual homophone indicator). I particularly liked the lift-and-separate device in BREAD.
2d: The “Time for New Yorkers” is currently EDT, as they have already sprung forward.
Regrettably,I still cannot warm to Boatman’s style and I struggled with some of the parsing.
I came to the same conclusion as Eileen about the parsing of ‘doctor’ at 1d, but really Mr Editor.
Good fun on a topic that has always intrigued me. The Carry Ons are a national institutution, despite the often lamentable scripts.
First one in was SERGEANT, which misdirected me down the path of COs having something to do with army and navy ranks. Fortunately CLEO quickly put me on the right track.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen
100% by coincidence, I guarantee. You wait all these years for a Carry-On themed puzzle and two come along at once. I did like this a lot – 13a was my pick for the neateness
Thaks to Boatman and Eileen
Well, just carried on slogging away until it was done without the faintest inkling of the significance of CO!
Rotten luck for me that the first five COs happened to be the occupations, which meant that ABROAD, COLUMBUS, CLEO etc went in unparsed.
Not keen on the -tor part of SUITOR and haven’t found SUI yet. Anyone?
Don’t share others’ misgivings over DOCTOR…seems like a perfectly acceptable homophone to me – we’ve had many worse.
Lots to admire here with RAINWEAR my COD.
Many thanks, both.
25a: I think the third square parenthesis should be after the U, not before it.
Found this hard until a flush of excitement when the theme became apparent, despite the lack of CO At Your Convenience. Toilet humour at its best.
Thanks Eileen and Boatman
William @18 – SUI is in Chambers (Latin for ‘of himself, herself, itself’) but I’ve only ever seen it in the phrases ‘sui generis’ and ‘sui juris’.
Thanks TheFSG @19 – fixed now.
Half expected (CO and) Keep Calm to be in there somewhere… (as a modern adjunct)
Sui generis – of its type… (as in the CO theme indeed – comedy of its time).
Eileen @12
Glastonbury Tor occurred to me after I had posted. The tors on Dartmoor are very rugged, though, as they are outcrops of granite. I don’t see why “yet” either.
I struggled through this thinking the theme was(very) loosely defined types of commanding officer! I should have known better
Enjoyed ESCARGOT & GLUCOSE – not for breakfast though
For the second time this week I have not only spotted the theme but used it as an aid to finish the puzzle – a record for me. Like others I first assumed CO was an authority figure, but SCREAMING gave the game away.
Strange mixture of clues, some very straightforward, some tortuous, some rather iffy. HENRY would be almost impenetrable without spotting the theme, I would have thought.
ESCARGOT, TESTACY and GLUCOSE were great clues IMHO.
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen
Saw only a couple of them, in the ’60s, not enough to ring a bell in the thick skull. Hence doctor, nurse, screaming and Columbus had me going wtf, is this a song by one of those quirky avant groups that some blokes here are into, like HMHB? I do remember giggling at those two though.. Cleo (sinister dexter) and I think it was Nurse (with the daffodil). Always good to get the neurons tickled, thanks both.
Gladys @9. Just back from my morning exercise and saw your post. It makes a lot of sense since the TEST part is not changed and W can mean “won”. No doubt, Boatman will inform us of his intended parsing.
FOI (and in fact my OOI for quite some time…) was SUITOR – the rest took ages to follow.
That was tough – very tough. I’m slightly too-young for the Carry-On films to have made much of an impression on me although I think I have seen most of them (but quite honestly, when you look at them now they seem to be from a different planet).
Not going to moan about the theme having waxed-lyrical on the Indy’s write-in yesterday but without reveal I’d probably still be doing this when the next CO is made which I’m sure one of our current crop of ministers think would be a patr/[id]iotic thing to do…
Thanks Boatman and Eileen!
Seems like ages since we’ve had a Boatman. Good to see him back. My initial thoughts largely revolves around Commanding Officer and carbon monoxide, but SCREAMING quickly gave me the hint that I was aiming too highbrow!
Thought HENRY was a good bit of contrivance and enjoyed ESCARGOT and RAINWEAR. I tend to side with the people who don’t like the ‘anonymous’ device, although given the theme it was a very gettable answer nevertheless.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen
… and the other line I remember goes, approx, Someone: “They’re very intense aren’t they”. Kenneth Williams: “Oh they do everything in tents here.” All fun.
I found the theme a distraction, because the test becomes simply finding places to slot in ‘cabby, ‘nurse’ etc., which means the cryptic nature of the clueing becomes secondary, so less fun. Pity, because some of the non-themed stuff is very nice.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen.
Yes 21 dn gave me the way in, Eileen, after the easy CLEO and SCREAMING (a lovely clue). I make no apologies for not needing googlecheat for once and I agree with dantheman’s assessment of its place in the British film industry.
I was hoping to find Carry on Camping, as I have a lovely memory of watching it in the flicks as a 9 yr-old with my mum, and having my eyes covered unceremoniously, when Barbara Windsor expanded her chest during camp exercises.
I had the same favourites as Penfold @3 plus TESTACY, which I was pleased to parse. ‘Yet rugged’ in SUITOR still has me baffled.
Ta Boatman & Eileen
Hovis@29: there is more than one possibility: Eurobodalla@7’s “way contest minus won” is probably what Boatman had in mind.
HENRY was my first one in and I wondered if the theme might be obscure (to me) units of measurement, but MATRON settled the matter immediately. Anyone who managed to complete this with no idea what CO was all about is a much better cruciverbalist than me.
Well the theme was a mystery to me. With only a few to go I googled CO acronym: there was a surprisingly long yet unhelpful list. Fav clue was the neat BREAD. Thanks to Boatman and to Eileen for the very helpful blog.
I was pretty bemused by this. Like bodycheetah @25 I thought the theme was something to do with commanding officer, and therefore thought that the CO in 28a must be SCREAMING Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party! Couldn’t sort out 1d at all. Liked RAINWEAR, GLUCOSE and ST PATRICK. Many thanks to Boatman and Eileen.
Strange, strange, strange… COD!
The answers involving CO seemed ever more disparate until SCREAMING let the penny drop.
Thanks to all.
gladys @9 and 34 (and Hovis @28) my apologies: I was in a rush to post a parsing for TESTACY, saw that there were several comments and assumed they were all the same, so took the first one. Either works, as you say.
Tough puzzle – had no idea what was going on. I could parse my answers but did not know what the connection to CO was/is.
Did not understand why NURSE, TEACHER, CABBY, CLEO, SCREAMING, ABROAD, COLUMBUS, HENRY, MATRON = CO. I was at one point wondering if the puzzle was about essential workers during the covid crisis?
* Oh, I see now from the blog what CO is. I know nothing about those films. They are likely the sort of movies that my mother would not have allowed me to watch because she disapproved of the Benny Hill (?) type of British comedy.
Did not finish. I gave up on 21d.
Favourites: RAINWEAR, ESCARGOT.
Did not parse: NEARBY; DOCTOR.
Thanks, Boatman + Eileen.
I could see that CO indicated something – but I didn’t get the theme. Difficult puzzle for me – way too much use of the check button and couldn’t parse quite a few.
Some lovely clues though. Favourite was GLUCOSE cos I loved the *little because*.
Also liked TEACHER TESTACY (I like clues where you have to take away letters) SERGEANT
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen
When I discovered today’s theme yesterday through telepathic contact with Boatman, I thought ‘No one’s going to believe I have ESP; maybe I can get away with a cheeky spoiler’. And I would have done too, if it hadn’t been for that pesky Penfold @3.
Needless to say CLEO was my way in, after which this became my quickest ever Boatman solve. I did spare a thought for overseas solvers – have our US friends even heard of Carry On? If not it must have been impenetrable.
Agree with Auriga @37 about strange, strange, strange as COD; ST PATRICK was also very nice – and only a little behind schedule.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen.
Like some others I was initially wondering how a CONSTABLE and a NURSE could be commanding officers, but soon the penny dropped and this was good fun. Favourite was 28a SCREAMING where the clue (CO scaring me in a funny way) had a very clever hint of an extended definition.
And of course we have the good old dual use of “Boatman” at 25a and 16d, once as I / me and once as an actual boatman.
Many thanks Boatman and Eileen.
I suppose 18d with the hidden CLEO should have been the easiest indication to what CO was all about, but didn’t spot it early on. Therefore much chewing on the top of my pencil, and like many others wondering how SCREAMING had anything to do with some of the other CO indicators. So not a gas for me this morning, I’m afraid (though I did wonder for a while) with my only memory of these comedies being Barbara Windsor flaunting her assets in the Nursing version, or was it perhaps the Doctor one, when it was considered OK humour in those days…
FOI for me was Teacher and that gave me no help with the theme. Next was Cleo, the penny dropped and I was off. Sadly , I am of an age where a new CO film was an event, a bit like the Bonds. They haven’t aged well but Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and all of them were brilliant comic actors. All sadly missed. Thanks Boatman (and Eileen) for reviving some happy memories.
Theme based cryptic crosswords – enough already!
I think this would have been a much better puzzle had Boatman avoided the allusions to CO, which I don’t think is ever used for these films and certainly meant nothing to me. That way we could have just got on with it, as many of the clues are actually pretty good in themselves.
We have had several TOR discussions before, including another Boatman on July 12 2016. I seemed to remember pointing out they are not restricted to Dartmoor or the Peak District,and there are many splendid examples in Scotland, but I couldn’t find the particular crossword.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen – theme spotted after CLEO, and I share the general disquiet on DOCTOR
I puzzled for a while after getting CLEO before the PDM. Quite good fun, although CO = carry on is not in any dictionaries as far as I can see.
I could remember a few but not all. I especially liked the clue for RAINWEAR.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen.
Ah, the crossword! The last refuge in the liberal press for the dodgy innuendo and nostalgia for bossy MATRONs. Once I had rejected the fun idea of a Carbon Monoxide theme (that would have raised a few comments!) it was in fact MATRON who helped me out. A rare occasion when wordplay alone gave me the solution and the theme at once.
With regard to rugged did “round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran” feature in one? I have a (possibly false) memory of Kenneth Williams doing it with all “w” s.
Grantinfreo @27 et al: The line that sticks in my memory was from CO Nurse…
Phillips: I say. “What’s your name, nurse?”
Eaton: “Why, Nurse Bell, sir.”
Phillips: “Ding dong. Carry on…”
Eileen @20: Thanks for SUI. Presumable at the root of suicide perhaps?
There were a few well-crafted and enjoyable clues here (ESCARGOT, DRAGON, ST PATRICK, the “lift-and-separate” BREAD) — but I never twigged the theme, so I went through thinking the solutions were all meaninglessly random. Had I spotted the theme early on, I would, like Oofyprosser@32, have found the puzzle a dull mechanistic process of fitting MATRON, CLEO, DOCTOR, CONSTABLE, et al. into the grid.
William @52 – exactly: cf homicide, matricide, regicide, genocide, etc …
I wonder if it’s simply a generational divide — between those who remember Kennedy’s Latin Primer at school, amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant, bellum, bellum, bellum, belli, bello, bello, the ablative absolute and the meaning of ‘sui’… and those who don’t!
blah, blah, blah, bellorum, bellis, bellis…
Not my cup of tea. Unfamiliar with any of the films. Disappointing.
Which leads me to comment that I also found the split SUI-TOR to be infelicitous.
pserve @55/56; …not to mention nihil expector in omnibus (no spitting on the public transport)
Failed on 16d as assumed Boatman had something to do with the Telford Steam Railway. Otherwise loved it.
I was in the mood for a Boatie that didnt tie itself in knots although there was an own-goal spoiler included but until I got to the halfway mark I was thinking something like commanding officer
Then my day worsened as a dear member of my family who is staying for a while and I was tempted to throw in “CO crazy idea surrounding said intended”(8) but that would not be a comedy and would have Eddie Redmayne rather than any of the other lot,
But thanks Boatie for lifting my spirits
essexboy@59: Indeed!… and, of course, “Caesar adsum jam forte, Brutus et erat; Caesar sic in omnibus, Brutus sic in at”.
13a was my first CO clue solved so I then started searching lists of military ranks. I correctly solved many other CO clues without having any idea what was going on. I had TESTATE for 16a that stopped me getting the easy 18d. DNF. Thanks to all involved
Thanks, Eileen and all, and apologies to the (thankfully, minority) who found the theme unappealing – it’s always difficult to know where to pitch these things: choose a theme that’s too highbrow, and you’ll exclude people who don’t know the references; make it too lowbrow, and you’ll exclude a different set. It’s a long time since I’ve actually watched a Carry On film, and I’m fairly sure that I’d enjoy them now more as a historical institution than as comedy – but they’re certainly an institution, and the titles bring back memories of schoolboy chortling.
Skinny @17 – Good to see you here, and glad you enjoyed my take on the subject. The others won’t know that we talked about the coincidence after yours appeared, and I still can’t think of any reason why we’d both have started working on essentially the same idea at the same time, other than that it was in the air. You’d think that it might have been prompted by Barbara Windsor’s death, but my working notes start from the first week of November 2020, a month before she died. Given all that, it’s interesting that there was so little overlap in the end results.
Essexboy @41 – Ok, very clever. So, what’s my next puzzle about, then?
Thanks Eileen – I didn’t get the parsing for 1d either, and I needed your help for 2 and 5d as well. I’d got 8 of the COs and was also going ??? before the penny dropped with MATRON. That helped get my loi HENRY. My cotd was the excellent SERGEANT. Thank you Boatman – although I won’t be seeking out the films to watch.
Eileen@54
SUI is the Olympic abbreviation for Switzerland, from the French Suisse. The IOC only use French or English names of members when abbreviating on the vests of competitors. The IOC are based in Lausanne where the official language is French. So as abbreviations are allowed? Guess this is ok.
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen
CliveinFrance @66 – thanks for that. As I said, it’s in Chambers as a word in its own right so it’s OK anyway. 😉
Toughest of the week by some way. CO made no sense – stretching it to think that my early NURSE was a commanding officer, even though COLUMBUS was – and then I bunged in ‘testate’ and ‘raincoat’ which messed up CLEO until the penny dropped. But GLUCOSE still took forever; Mrs T and I gazed at it for ages, then clocked it at the same instant. It’s nice when that happens.
I got most of the way, quite baffled, putting in words that didn’t seem to have anything to do with each other. To my knowledge the films in question were never exported to these shores–I’d certainly never heard of them let alone seen them–so I’ll just file this one under “too British for me” and…carry on.
I never get the themes, so to see this straightaway once I got 18D Cleo was a wonderful start to the day. I’m surprised more people haven’t picked up on the fact that the key to unlocking the puzzle was there all the time, hidden in plain sight in the clue to 21D. I thought that was really ingenious and playful, though I accept not much use if you haven’t heard of the Carry On films! I’m not a great fan of the films and not sure they’ve stood the test of time for a number of reasons, but some great lines…”Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it infamy!” is my favourite, and there are lots of similarities between a good double-entendre and a good cryptic crossword clue…
I’m sure I never saw any of the films in the cinema, and the few I watched on telly as a boy left me mystified by the weak punning and over-my-head innuendo. So a DNF for me, with PORTER instead of DOCTOR at 1d. Being unfamiliar with the theme (after flirting like others with commanding officers and carbon monoxide) and avoiding online lists, I found this challenging, mostly enjoyable but in the end frustrating not to have completed.
NEARBY, as Eileen mentions, is a pretty good Spoonerism, and I’m pleased to have got HENRY before recognising what the theme was. Favourite was ‘strange, strange, strange’. Grateful for the help here with the parsing of TESTACY, though I wrote the solution in pretty smartly from the definition alone.
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen.
As I work for a solicitor I am very familiar with INTESTACY – the opposite, though I am sure it exists, I have never met in use in real life.
Was convinced CO stood for Commanding Officer and that solved most of the clues for me , until screaming, then decided CO changed to Colorado for 23d. Also I convinced myself « editor » was a very clever answer to 1d. Until I tried to fit in Constable. DOH!!!!!!
Eileen @ 67
I looked up Chambers out of interest to see SUI and suicide and found that sui is pronounced to have two syllables. I think I have only ever seen it written down before (in the term sui generis) and for some reason I pronounced it having just one syllable as *swee*. I think I must have been comparing it to oui – grief knows why – it didn’t look French. So now I know.
Chardonneret @73 – EDITOR would have been far too clever for 1 Dn! I rather like it …
Eileen – I forgot to thank you for being kind to my Spoonerism. I know they’re not your favourite device, and whenever I’ve included one in a puzzle, it seems to land on your desk for blogging, as surely as a cat on an ailurophobic’s lap.
Well I finished this still thinking it was some broad definition of commanding officer meaning someone in charge in some sense. Even Henry and Cleo did not put me off, I just thought Kings and Queens. I expected 28a to contain an O but got the anagram anyway, almost the final along with dragon.
Anyway I enjoyed it, delighted to learn the real theme and the parsing from Eileen and even more delighted to hear from Boatman himself! Friday treat!
Boatman @75 – my objection to Spoonerisms is that they can be a lazy style of cluing. If both halves make a meaningful phrase they can be very good!
A (partial) answer to essexboy@41’s question about overseas solvers. I grew up in the UK so saw a number of these films before moving to the States in 1975. Since that time I have never encountered even a mention of them. It’s not really surprising they didn’t cross the pond.
As a result, the titles didn’t ring a bell at all, so after finishing the puzzle I did a search of all the CO answers in a single query and found the inevitable wiki page.
Got the theme after Sergeant and Nurse, then cheated by getting my Halliwell out. I failed to Parse Testacy and could only parse Doctor as a homophone.
Strangely last one in was Proceeds yet it was obvious really. I too liked Escargot though I only parsed it having put it in early and then goilng back later to question why?
Eileen @77 – Then we are in stronger agreement than I suspected! They’re very tempting, though, especially if even the silliest Spoonerisms make you smile – and I see a lot of them without conscious intention.
Never heard of ANY of the films, so I had plenty of clues with all the crossers and no idea what went in! Not my cup of tea at all I’m afraid – I kept thinking of CO as Commanding Officer and kept wondering why a Nurse or a Sergeant qualified 🙁
Frankly just too dim to pick up the significance of CO, so mystified by the def of many clues. DNF, doh.
Why is CO = Cleo?
I too thought CO would be “commanding officer” and getting Sergeant as one of the first didn’t help, but when I got CLEO I realized that it couldn’t be anything but Carry On films–I’ve heard of Nurse at least. So I had to try and guess what might be in a CO film, and used the check liberally (as well as revealing a couple). Thanks Boatman for the puzzle and Eileen for the explanations, a couple of which were needed!
Aside from the theme, I found 25d, 9ac, 13ac, 25ac, and 23d particularly nice (had to rely on Eileen for the parsing of 23d though).
Did anyone else fill in RAINGEAR for 22ac and then wonder why “rag” meant cold?
Jackie @83
I had no idea what was going on either, but CO in each case stands for “Carry On” – a series of British films. One was “Carry on Cleo” – the one with the famous line from Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”, as I remember.
Jackie Clare Wood @83; the CO clues are all entries in the “Carry on” series of British low comedy films, so “Carry On Cleo” was one of them (apparently).
I got 18 and immediately thought “infamy, infamy…” then got distracted by “foul feet smell something horrible” and “mind if I smoke?”
Thanks Eileen (and the gang), couldn’t understand DOCTOR nor TESTACY: took a guess and just bunged-it din (sorry), and made slow progress around a vague “positions of responsibility” theme (rank stupidity!) until, as for many it seems, CLEO pinged the light bulb on. After that I was quiet lazy in not trying too hard to parse things eg TEACHER but nearly got my comeuppance at the end as DRAGON took a long time. My favourite is the clever SERGEANT but also liked the variety of techniques required (haven’t done any cycling for a while, enjoyed the anonymous device, Spooner, the surface of VIEWER and a lot more). Despite being born after most of them were made I remembered all these titles and still enjoy a chuckle at the puns and innuendo so thanks Boatman, now I’m off to see what’s frying tonight!
I’m new to cryptics and didn’t get the theme at all, so I’m pleased that I was able to finish with some checks to make sure I was on the right path but no reveals. Like at least one person above I thought the theme might have something to do with key workers (DOCTOR, NURSE, TEACHER, CONSTABLE) but obviously then some were baffling (HENRY, CLEO, etc.).
I found this site via the Guardian comment thread on yesterday’s puzzle and it’s such a great resource as I learn, thank you!
The theme was on my sort of intellectual level and became apparent very early, though it conjoured up visions of Barbara Windsor’s bra flying off. Unlike the rest of the male population at the rime, I didn’t find it alluring.
True to say that the CO team with a few exceptions were a right bunch of oddballs.
I enjoyed the crossword very much, just ran aground in the SW corner with 4 to go which represents a triumph for this poor solver.
Thanks for the heads up on a few, Eileen, I must try harder to parse everything.
Katelinnea@89 – welcome. If you’re new to cryptics and managed to complete this with only some checks then you’ve got a stellar solving career ahead of you!
Very enjoyable puzzle to finish off the week. I am familiar with the theme, but the nicely ambiguous “CO” made it sufficiently impenetrable that the inevitable write-ins were minimised.
I stared at the Schroedinger style clue for ages but failed to see it without crossers. I agree that “yet” in 17/15 is superfluous and it irritated me, as it’s unnecessary for the surface. I would have thought a ? would be appropriate for 1a given the somewhat oblique CONS’ TABLE idea. No problems with anything else. I particularly liked DRAGON, RAINWEAR (I toyed with RAINGEAR too, matt w @ 84), ESCARGOT and GLUCOSE.
Thanks, Boaters and Eilers. Pity UP THE KHYBER didn’t fit. To me, that typifies the Carry On brand.
A bit harsh, Couto, but this puzzle highlights the problem with such a themed puzzle – baffling if you don’t see the theme, too easy if you do.
@93 phitonelli – yes CO up the Khyber was about the best, I always remember the gateway to India being just that, a gate.
WhiteKing@91 – Thank you! I’m in the US and have been doing our style of crosswords my whole life, but a cryptic setter was interviewed on a podcast I listen to this week and it made me want to give these a go!
Katelinnea – amazing!
Lovely crossword , thank you for the blog. Let us be kind about 1D and just say it was not up to the standard of the other clues.
Azed has been known to do a complete crossword of Spoonerisms, all immaculate of course.
@41 I enjoy my vicarious trips to the UK with these puzzles but sometimes the lack of local knowledge can be extreme. The Carry-On movies mean absolutely nothing to me and thus I resorted to trying to make Commanding Officer fit (screaming left me perplexed). On the other hand, many of the second halves of the clues were clear enough to do without the CO part. I particularly liked MATRON.
Thank you Boatman, for the puzzle, and for popping in here with the occasional clarification/expansion.
Oh, and I enjoyed beer nigh – nearby.
Count me among those who has never heard of this film series — many of the clues were solvable but I could never identify a common theme. CO to me is either carbon monoxide, chief/commanding officer, or Colorado. I did like the wordplay for SERGEANT with strange x 3, ESCARGOT, and COLUMBUS. Thanks Boatman and to Eileen for the usual fine blog.
[Back in the seventies while working in South America a group of us went to a local cinema to see ‘Carry On Loving’. At one point Hattie Jacques confronts her husband, Sid James, demanding to know why he constantly visits the local tobacconist where a particularly voluptuous assistant works. Sid, feigning innocence utters the wonderful line, “Oh darling, I go there for my tobacco, you know how I like my shag” Cue for the British to fall about laughing, while the locals all sat in mystified silence, reading the subtitles, “I go there for my tobacco you know how I like my tobacco”.] Thanks Boatman and Eileen, and Boatman for checking in!!
Filled the grid in without too much understanding at times. To be honest, I cannot claim ignorance of the theme as an excuse as I had heard of most of the titles, and as has been pointed out, the theme was signposted by 21d. Just looking in the wrong directon all the time. Needed the blog for several explanations (and the theme of course!). Thanks to Boatman and Eileen.
The score so far Boatman 3 – 0 Matematico. So I’ll just sulk and go out for a drink maybe…..What? Noooooo!
HoofItYouDonkey@97 Thank you!
katelinnea @89 and 96 Welcome – and congratulations! I’ve been wondering all day how anyone unfamiliar with the theme could have made sense of this! I hope we’ll hear more from you. 😉
matt w@84. Yes, I’m another RAINGEAR; annoying, as I was preening myself on the smoothest ever completion of a Boatman puzzle.
CLEO gave me the theme early on, and I am of an age to have seen the films when they first came out. As has been said, they are of another world, and now seem for the most part clunkingly unfunny. But there are still parts worth watching for flashes of brilliance from class acts such as Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Frankie Howerd and (especially) Kenneth Williams. A pity they had to work with such dreadful scripts.
I too was of the Commanding Officer (loosely) and expecting Carbon Monoxide. The two I would have remembered Doctor and Matron were my last ones in, so theme passed me by. Quite a few checks and letter cycles. Hadn’t realised that oddly/regularly/evenly could be counted in threes to get HENRY. Really liked the Strange*3, NEARBY – clever not a fan normally, GLUCOSE was great, ditto ABROAD, CONSTABLE, ST PATRICK, DRAGON.
Didn’t care for DOCTOR, SUITOR, TEACHER (the – PR bit was a stretch).
A good tough Friday puzzle, no major quibbles, even if way beyond my pay grade at present. As ever, it all makes sense when explained.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen. Kudos both.
Eileen @104 Thank you! Now I’m working on an old Morse-themed one of Boatman’s and I’m delighted to find that the archives on this site go back that far and you were the one to blog that one too!
Tor is a rocky mountain and that might explain the “yet rugged” ?
Anilxy @108
“Rugged”, yes, but why “yet”?
Thanks to Eileen and Boatman !
A nice and rapid solve once I had (luckily) hit on the theme. I thought CONSTABLE and TESTACY were particularly neat, for varying reasons. The very early part of my youth was mis-spent watching the repeats of the various Carry Ons on TV, usually in black-and-white ! I think though that my favourite moments (if we exclude Suzanne Danielle) came from the rather later “Carry on Screaming” – the first being a very confused-looking Harry H. Corbett turning into a werewolf and the second being the running joke all through the film – “Frying tonight !”
As others have said, these films are a British institution although very dated now, If setting a crossword for an English newspaper it’s perfectly reasonable to assume the majority of solvers will have come across the various titles, and Boatman has every right to do so. If setters can use themes like Abba, Captain Beefheart, Deep Purple, X-Men, Stephen King, Spinal Tap, Camel and Blake’s 7, almost all of which we have seen in the last 15 months, then Carry On films are just as valid – IMHO of course.
Couto@92 – sorry ? Bad day much ??
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen.
I had occasion recently to remind one of our fellow ordinaires that bloggers are the grand cru and are therefore entitled to come to judgment on puzzles. I was reminded of this as I trod the grapes of this offering and wondered which poor sommelier would have to chew it – would the spittoon be deployed? I’m rather rosé-cheeked to say that mine was.
CO to “Carry On” is a large step and definitely a case of setter sui-generosity. But the hint in PROCEED saves it (pace our esteemed blogger) and I can only wish to have spotted the device at some, any, point in the process. I eventually had all but ABROAD and BREAD (I had no idea what CO implied at this point and to continue would have felt somehow insanitary) so I found a towel and threw it in. A blushing Barbara Windsor retrieved it and covered her modesty.
Having missed the PDM for CO I enjoyed a couple of tea trays with ABROAD and (especially) BREAD (what? BREAD? BREAD and “dough” are not the same thing though… though.. DOH!)
Aphapha@111 – bread is slang for money, as is dough,
Matt w @84
Yes we also had rain gear, and couldn’t work out how rag could possibly mean cold
Did think it was a great crossword though, brightened our evening!
Thanks Boatman, thanks Eileen
Yet another RAINGEAR here.
Well, isn’t it fortunate that different people have different tastes? I didn’t like 8a, even though I suppose it’s fair, and I couldn’t parse 19a (kept thinking of Meacher the former minister…).
I got the homophone in 1d, got, though was unimpressed by, the Spoonerism in 24d, was irritated by ‘yet rugged’ in 17, 15, and was one of those who disliked SUI on its own.
There are lot of very clever clues in this ; 13a (once I’d seen the theme), 16a, 22a, 2d. But overall it just felt a bit of a slog.
I’m another who bunged in MATRON and SERGEANT thinking they were sort of COs. Had NURSE and CABBY but help back putting them in until CLEO when the penny dropped. Especially after yesterday’s blog mentioned K. Williams line from Carry on Cleo. The Wikipedia article on the Carry On films provided an interesting diversion. [They wanted to make a spoof of Dallas, but the US company wanted to charge 20 times the entire production budget to give them the rights!] Didn’t parse TESTACY either.
Great fun on this as I only sussed CO quite late on. Thanks to all.
Found myself trying to make a clue (2,3,6) for one (probably the best) of the missing CO’s- and there was no CAMPING either.
The only CO we aver saw at a cinema was “CO Henry” at the lovely Aldeburgh cinema- does that still exist.
Such a shame the editor allowed this themed crossword to be followed by Picaroon’s Prize, with its multiplicity of ‘scores’.
KeithM @ 119: why? Boatman’s theme was unidirectional, Picaroon’s isn’t.
Late to the show again (I’m behind on my solving, and I do them in order).
Didn’t twig the theme, despite the huge clue at 21d, and essexboy’s ESP moment in yesterday’s comments. I too was a RAINGEAR@22a, I loved the NEARBY spoonerism@24d, and my cod was the clever triply-strange clue @13a. Failed on 1a DOCTOR which was an excellent homophone, and 23d ABROAD which was my tea-tray moment. I also loved Alphalpha’s great comment @111.
I don’t know why but it amuses me that a Carry On themed puzzle produced the most voluminous response in weeks on this erudite site.
Thanks Boatman and Eileen for the fun and for popping in, and all commentators for the added jollity and enlightenment.
I also failed on the theme. Thought they were loosely authority figures (teacher, sergeant etc) for a while then ignored until I got it at cabby which only left abroad to utilise the theme. Oh dear.
Thanks to Boatman and Eileen
Happened across this, which I worked back when it was new but didn’t comment on. Lots more comments now.
To essexboy @56 and to Eileen, who may be the only person to read this — some public school character in a long-forgotten piece of fiction supplied “spitto, spittere, achtui, splattus.”