Hi all. Some tough clues and a lovely thematic treatment culminating in a satisfying endgame.
The preamble:
Some of the perimeter grey cells must contain multiple letters; the other two overlong answers must be shortened (into new real words) before entry. Numbers in brackets refer to spaces available. The unclued entry is a codename (in Chambers) which must be adapted into the theme (two words); the titles of two (literary) sequels explain how solvers must next modify the contents of another ten cells (creating new entries). Finally, the isolated grey cells must be filled to identify who’s played the ARRIVISTE. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Normal solving to start with, just keeping in the back of my mind that in addition to some extra letters in outer grey cells a couple of other answers would be too long. As it happened, I filled in almost all of the unaffected entries first and then worked backwards from the end game to get those last tricky ones.
With enough checkers in place I found a word to fit the unclued entry:
VILLANELLE
The preamble tells us that this is a codename, and I remembered Codename Villanelle as a title of one of the Killing Eve books. (I had watched the TV series and was aware of the books; I couldn’t have told you which came first, or anything else, but to verify that I was thinking of the right Villanelle that did the trick.)
This codename needs to be “adapted into the theme”, so:
VILLANELLE becomes KILLING EVE
It seemed a fair bet that we would be removing – killing – EVE from the overlong answers … and I was finally able to understood 1a and 1d!
I needed to consult the Wiki oracle to find the literary sequels and hence the instructions for the final modifications:
NO TOMORROW and DIE FOR ME
Aha – 30a is TOMORROW, so that needs to be removed. Just two more cells remaining to be modified.
Finally, DIE for ME resolved the puzzle of why I hadn’t quite managed to fit JODIE COMER into the perimeter grey cells. Swapping the two cells containing these words duly identified her.
Thanks to Artix for a killer puzzle!
Initial gridfill:
Final:
| Clue No | ANSWER (ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | BEVERIDGE BRIDGE |
Economist who reported drink to auditors (6) |
| Sounds like (… to auditors) BEVERAGE (drink) | ||
| 5a | STAPLE | Main bar (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9a | RIVER HEAD | After 1st, tee shot leads to birdie, then dead in front of water (9, two words) |
| After the 1st letter, dRIVE (tee shot) + RHEA (birdie) + D (dead) | ||
| 10a | OCCLUSAL | This “gnashing of teeth” ain’t making calculations wrong (8) |
| OCCLUSAL + AIN’T can make an anagram (… wrong) of CALCULATIONS | ||
| 12a | UNCO | Ray disrobed Glaswegian great (4) |
| dUN–COw (ray) without outer letters (disrobed) | ||
| 13a | KELIMS | Mats Ek’s little letter, returning favour (6) |
| K (Ek’s little letter) + reversal of (returning) SMILE (favour) | ||
| 14a | SAME SADIE |
Scrubbing brown shoulder belt becomes repetitive (3) |
| Without (scrubbing) BROWN, SAM [brown]E (shoulder belt) | ||
| 15a | EKKA | Two royals in each carriage (4) |
| K K (two royals) in EA (each) | ||
| 17a | EVINCING | Showing proof home nation borders Leo’s birthplace (8) |
| ENG (home nation) goes round (borders) VINCI (Leo’s birthplace) | ||
| 21a | CENSORED | Encoders-decrypted? (8) |
| ENCODERS anagrammed (decrypted) | ||
| 25a | CELL | Small order from market relayed over Tannoy (4) |
| SELL (market), homophone (relayed over Tannoy) | ||
| 26a | COLD | Detached fish, snagging line (3) |
| COD (fish) around (snagging) L (line) | ||
| 27a | FOUSSA | Beast accepted being kept in pit (6) |
| U (accepted) being kept in FOSSA (pit) | ||
| 29a | DIESEL MESEL |
Loco day on track at Kentucky (4) |
| DIES (day) + EL (track at Kentucky) | ||
| 30a | TOMORROW | Brodie’s noose around Head’s future (8) |
| TOW (Brodie’s noose) around MORRO (head) | ||
| 31a | COLOMBIAN | American bo Monica L played around with (9) |
| BO MONICA L anagrammed (played around with) | ||
| 32a | ENTICE | Lead into temptation the final six on top BBC show! (6) |
| The final six on the apprENTICE (top BBC show) | ||
| 33a | SYSOPS | Extremely silly gifts for members of IT team (6) |
| The outer letters of (extremely) SillY + SOPS (gifts) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | BROKE EVEN BROKEN |
Was flat mate enthusiastic about this puzzle? (6, two words) |
| BRO (mate) + KEEN (enthusiastic) around EV (this puzzle) | ||
| 2d | RICE | Bumpkinishly twigs 5ac (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3d | DELIA | After starter’s cleared away, praised upcoming chef (5) |
| Without the first letter (after starter’s cleared away) hAILED (praised) reversed (upcoming) | ||
| 4d | GRUME | Outspoken chap at wedding is clot (5) |
| Homophone of (outspoken) GROOM (chap at wedding) | ||
| 5d | SEALINE | Current goes under fat swimmer on East Coast (7) |
| IN (current) goes under SEAL (fat swimmer), all on E (East) | ||
| 6d | ADUNC | What Isadora Duncan reveals makes you hooked (5) |
| Hidden in (what … reveals) IsadorA DUNCan | ||
| 7d | PENSILE | Hanging spaces inside stately home (7) |
| ENS (spaces) inside PILE (stately home) | ||
| 8d | LUCAN | Peer (nowhere to be found) reported toilet upon toilet (5) |
| Here LU sounds like (reported) LOO (toilet); it’s above (upon) CAN (toilet) | ||
| 11d | LUNE | For Escoffier, the No 1 croissant? (4) |
| In French (for Escoffier), L’UNE (the No 1) | ||
| 16d | KINDEST | Ultimately, sweet relationship that is non-starter (7) |
| KIN (relationship) + iD EST (that is) without the first letter (non-starter) | ||
| 18d | VARIOLE | Spot most of divers skirting middle of hole (7) |
| Most of VARIEd (divers) around (skirting) the middle of hOLe | ||
| 19d | LOST | Failed to score along bordello street (4) |
| Hidden in (along) bordelLO STreet | ||
| 20d | FLAWNS | Shilling added to pound invested in flatter pancakes past sell-by date (6) |
| S (shilling) after (added to) L (pound) inside (invested in) FAWN (flatter) | ||
| 22d | ELSAN | Portaloo has to be decorated in style (5) |
| ‘S (has) inside (to be decorated in) ELAN (style) | ||
| 23d | SULCI | In the morning these grooves could be musical (5) |
| AM (in the morning) and SULCI if anagrammed could be MUSICAL | ||
| 24d | DOOMY | By end of day, is emotional state up or down? (5) |
| By the last letter (end) of daY, is MOOD (emotional state); this is all reversed (up) | ||
| 25d | CURBS | More than one bit US flags (5) |
| Two definitions | ||
| 28d | SOAP | Series veterans giving son lift to première (4) |
| OAPS (veterans) moving S up to the first place (giving son lift to première) | ||
I enjoyed watching the first Killing Eve TV series (not so much the latter ones as I thought the format got old quite quickly) so I was happy to discover VILLANELLE and the fact that she shares half her letters with KILLING EVE.
I was then sure that Jodie Comer must go in the shaded cells but it took me forever to figure out how to do it, despite finding Die for Me and No Tomorrow very quickly.
1a and 1d went in last when I had run out of other options for the overlong answers; I should of course have realised sooner that we needed to “kill eve”!
Thank you for a hard but satisfying puzzle.