Alchemi has provided today’s puzzle, on the day of the week on which we expect to see a theme.
We didn’t need to look hard for this particular theme, since a quick perusal of the clues made it clear that we were looking for an actor and examples of his work. Solving the puzzle revealed to me how prolific Robert Downey Jr. has been, and how little of his work I was familiar with. That said, the clues allowed me as an uninitiated solver to arrive at plausible film titles, which I was able to verify on Wikipedia. Well done to Alchemi for managing to include so much themed content in the puzzle.
My favourite clues today were 18, for clever overall construction; 24, for the misdirection around Leith; and 6, for smoothness of surface. Incidentally, I am not sure what the intended surface reading of 21 was.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 05 | IRON MAN | Role for 13 in restricting Roman depravity
*(ROMAN) in IN; “depravity” is anagram indicator; Robert Downey Jr (=entry at 13) starred in a trilogy of Iron Man films and played the part in numerous subsequent Marvel films |
| 09 | ORDER | Monks maybe yellow, turning another colour
OR (=yellow, in heraldry) + DER (RED=colour; “turning” indicates reversal) |
| 10 | AMPUTATOR | Morning schedule turned round at place one has cut off
AM (=morning) + PUT (=place) + ATOR (ROTA=schedule; “turned” indicates reversal); an amputator has surely cut someone’s limb off! |
| 11 | IN RUSSIAN | Sin ruins a gathering as Putin speaks
*(SIN RUINS A); “gathering” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | GULCH | Bird’s tail replaced by companion in Yellowstone ravine
GULL (=bird); “tail (=last letter) replaced by companion (=CH) means letter “l” is dropped and its place taken by “ch”; a gulch is a ravine in US English, hence “Yellowstone ravine” |
| 13 | ROBERT DOWNEY JR | 9 try new job arranged for actor
*(ORDER (=entry at 9) + TRY NEW JOB); “arranged” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the American actor and producer, born in 1965, and whose films are referenced in various grid entries |
| 18 | SHERLOCK HOLMES | Woman’s left for time in capital, with essentially domestic role for 13
STOCKHOLM (=capital, of Sweden; “HER (=woman’s) + L (=left) for T (=time)” means letter “t” is replaced by “herl”) + <dom>ES<tic> (“essentially” means middle letters only); Robert Downey Jr. (=entry at 13) played Sherlock Holmes in films in 2009 and 2011 |
| 20 | TOFFS | The upper class profit off student nurses
Hidden (“nurses”) in “profiT OFF Student” |
| 22 | KARIBA DAM | Feature of Zambezi river I mark bad, a maelstrom
*(I MARK BAD A); “maelstrom” is anagram indicator; the Kariba Dam is on the border between Zaire and Zimbabwe |
| 24 | PROVE TRUE | To give a conclusive demonstration, runs over doctor in Leith
[R (=run, on cricket scorecard) + O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + VET (=doctor, for animals)] in PRUE (=Leith, i.e. the TV cookery presenter) |
| 25 | JUDGE | Consider director in prison before end of sentence
[D (=director) in JUG (=prison)] + <sentenc>E (“end of” means last letter only) |
| 26 | CHAPLIN | Clergyman missing out on a role for 13
CHAPL<a>IN (=clergyman); “missing out on a” means a letter “a” is dropped; Robert Downey Jr. (=entry at 13) played Charlie Chaplin in a 1992 film |
| 27 | SYNAPSE | Regularly spy on part of church transmitter
S<p>Y <o>N (“regularly” means alternate letters only) + APSE (=part of church); synapses are involved in the transmission of nerve signals |
| Down | ||
| 01/1A | TROPIC THUNDER | Film with role for 13 pictured north wind
*(PICTURED NORTH); “wind” is anagram indicator; Robert Downey Jr. (=entry at 13) starred in this 2008 film |
| 02 | UNDERGONE | Experienced, and German therefore nets half
UND (=and German, i.e. the German word for and) + ERGO (=therefore) + NE<ts> (“half” means 2 of 4 letters only are used) |
| 03 | DARES | Dutch war god has bottle
D (=Dutch) + ARES (=war god, in Greek mythology) |
| 04 | REALISTIC | Down-to-earth about celebrities I see
RE- (=about, regarding) + A-LIST (=celebrities) + I C (=see, in textspeak) |
| 05 | IPPON | Angela perhaps doesn’t have right judo move
<r>IPPON (=Angela perhaps, i.e. BBC presenter); “doesn’t have right (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped |
| 06 | OCTAGONAL | Sort of figure a long coat disguises
*(A LONG COAT); “disguises” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | METAL | Lead for one encountered at call centre
MET (=encountered) + <c>AL<l> (“centre” means middle letters only) |
| 08 | NORTHERN | Tube line inspector finishes article probing Vikings’ fates
[<inspecto>R (“finishes” means last letter only) + THE (=article, in grammar)] in NORN (=Vikings’ fates, in Norse mythology) |
| 14 | ELLIS BELL | Brontë sister unfortunately libels the foreign lecturer
*(LIBELS) + EL (=the foreign, i.e. a Spanish word for the) + L (=lecturer); Ellis Bell was the pen name of Emily Brontë |
| 15 | OTHERNESS | Sibling removing bronze head, being different
<br>OTHER (=sibling; “removing bronze (=BR)” means letters “br” are dropped) + NESS (=head(land)) |
| 16 | YIELDED UP | Surrendered soggy bottom that’s forming puddle
<sogg>Y (“bottom” means last letter) + I.E. (=that’s, id est) + *(PUDDLE); “forming” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | ISOTOPIC | Happens old subject is the same, but of different weight
IS (=happens) + O (=old, as in OT) + TOPIC (=subject); isotopes have different mass numbers |
| 19 | IMPEDE | Independent politician finishes off the established procedure to get in the way
I (=independent) + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament) + <th>E <establishe>D <procedur>E (“finished off” means last letters only) |
| 21 | FLORA | State lacking unconscious plants
FLOR<id>A (=state, of the US); “lacking unconscious (=id, in psychology) means letters “id” are dropped” |
| 22 | KORAN | Religious text in Greek or Anatolian
Hidden (“in”) greeK OR ANatolian |
| 23 | BAJAN | West Indian band oddly covers Steely Dan album
AJA (=Steely Dan album, from 1977) in B<a>N<d> (“oddly” means odd letters only are used); Bajan means Barbadian |
Thanks both. I’m no film buff, so needed to solve conventionally, which was preferable on reflection. Hesitated at YIELDED UP only as my understanding was that surrendered as the definition equates to yielded, with the ‘up’ added in more specific circumstances
Thanks, RR and Alchemi. Enjoyed this – a nice theme that falls comfortably within the scope of my “general knowledge”. The only one I had any problem with was KARIBA DAM, which I’m not familiar with – the wordplay was obvious enough but it took some guesswork to get the vowels in the right place.
Of the theme clues, I particularly liked SHERLOCK HOLMES – having twigged the theme, I got it easily from the crossing letters but it took a bit longer to unravel the wordplay. Nice. Other faves were TOFFS, PROVE TRUE, IPPON, ISOTOPIC, BAJAN.
I liked that one too, though I’ve never really been comfortable with ‘essentially’ meaning ‘the middle bits of’. With the first bit parsed however, it couldn’t really be anything else.
I know very little about the actor in question and even less about the films he appeared in so this solve was very much a collaboration between Mr Google and myself – and that’s before I tackled the judo move, the ravine, the Steely Dan album, the West Indian and the dam!
Not to worry – some you win…………
I did particularly like PROVE TRUE so that was a bonus.
Thanks to Alchemi and to RR for the review.
Maybe it’s the hot weather but our brains weren’t functioning on full power solving this. We eventually worked out IRON MAN as a film title and were able to get 13 by googling and work back to 9 from the ‘missing’ letters in the anagram. And googling turned up the remaining films, although we took ages to see the perfectly obvious 18. We needed to google the SD album, too, and confirm IPPON and BAJAN from Chambers. And we thought 11 was a bit odd – the answer was obvious but it was a little like a ‘green car’ clue. So not a very satisfying solve but thanks all the same to Alchemi and RatkojaRiku.
allan_c@5 Help a novice here: what is a ‘green car’ clue? Thanks
Jayjay@6
It is an adjective noun pair which is not a well used phrase. E.g. Wooly jumper is an ok answer, but red jumper not..
Hmm….
We found this pretty impossible without knowing any of the film titles, or that RDJr had been in them. Of course Google solved it but that didn’t feel at all satisfactory.
I was pretty much stuck on the theme until I got 5ac, and I remembered CHAPLIN but I had to look up the rest of his films. And still couldn’t get the judo through and the West Indian (which stopped me getting 25ac.
Solved 3d and 5d and searched for a film with ‘thunder’ (wind?). Came up trumps. Big like for this puzzle and it was fun. Then I watched the movie. Big thanks to Alchemi. Plus, I needed assistance parsing ‘northern’, ‘amputator’ and the ‘vet in Leith’ so thanks to RatkojaRiku as well. Top clue was ‘isotopic’. Typically of today’s clues, I followed the parsing and found the solution.
Well after a 150 mile journey in 38c heat I got this done. Gripping my pen wasn’t easy. The actor was fairly easily guessed via the enumeration even if some of the roles and films proved more elusive. Thanks RR and alchemi who I’ve been most remiss with our traditional insults recently.
Thanks, Dave @7
I think the Kariba Dam is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
I think the Kariba Dam is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.