Hi everyone. This kind of EV should be banned …
The preamble:
The unclued entry (13, two words) has called for a PROTEST. Every clue either generates an extra letter not in the answer or contains a definition with a single-letter misprint. The extra letters and correct letters of misprints together, in order, spell out the focus of the protest and the names of two protesters, whose efforts should be highlighted (33 cells total, in two blocks) in the final grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
It took me a while to get a good foothold, but I then made that type of progress which is slow but not alarmingly so, never getting stuck for too long.
I twigged to the general theme while trying to work out the first part of 31d, TWITS, and scanning the message so far:
THE-AS-I-N-F-A-N-T-BU-USDOUGALMC—R-A–TEDCR–L-
I realised who Dougal would be (although couldn’t remember his full surname) as I saw that Ted Crilly would fit. I captured the moment by saving my grid, partly because of the pleasing degree of symmetry:
The sitcom Father Ted was both familiar to me and not. I was beginning my teens when it first aired, and saw some of it, but didn’t watch it religiously (sorry!).
This meant I had to make good use of the clues to uncover the rest of the message (and to reveal the name of the bishop). Eventually I had all of it:
THE PASSION OF SAINT TIBULUS; DOUGAL MCGUIRE AND TED CRILLY
I resisted any temptation to look anything up yet, because I had an inkling. Was this the source of those wonderful placards still seen in memes and protests … cue a small amount of grid-starting, and … yes! Now, could I find/remember the second one? Ah, that was it:
CAREFUL NOW
and
DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING
At this point I allowed myself to go online to fill in the gaps. This is the episode of Father Ted in which BISHOP BRENNAN orders priests DOUGAL MCGUIRE AND TED CRILLY to make a PROTEST against “THE PASSION OF SAINT TIBULUS”, a film declared blasphemous by the church. Naturally their demonstration has unintended consequences. If you are in the UK, you can watch the whole episode (and indeed series) on demand here.
It was great to have a theme of which I had this degree of half-knowledge: enough to be able to do without aids, but needing all parts of the puzzle to get there. So, it’s an “up with this sort of thing” from me – thanks Cranberry!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | ||
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||||
| Across | ||||
| 1a | SCALPEL | Sign of victory in Wild West, finally the end for General Cu[s]<t>ter? (7) | T | |
| SCALP (sign of victory in Wild West) + finally thE + the last letter of (end for) GeneraL | ||||
| 7a | OBOIST | Player adjusting his boot (6) | H | |
| An anagram of (adjusting) [H]IS BOOT | ||||
| 12a | SCARE | Rattl[y]<e>, requiring special attention (5) | E | |
| S (special) + CARE (attention) | ||||
| 13a | FULLA | Norse goddess satisfied before meal (5) | P | |
| FULL (satisfied) + A[P] (ante prandium, before meal) | ||||
| 15a | IMPOT | Rascal returned to punishment from M[i]<a>ster? (5) | A | |
| IMP (rascal) + in reverse (returned) TO | ||||
| 16a | NOWT | Scottish bull[y]<s> not protecting wife (4) | S | |
| NOT around (protecting) W (wife) | ||||
| 17a | DOME | Historic cathedral finishes holding mass (4) | S | |
| DOE[S] (finishes) holding M (mass) | ||||
| 18a | SEROSA | You reportedly overlooked significant anterior membrane (6) | I | |
| U (you reportedly) omitted (overlooked) in SER[I]O[u]S (significant) + A (anterior) | ||||
| 20a | HARM | Damage mouldy Old Master (4) | O | |
| H[O]AR (mouldy old) + M (Master) | ||||
| 21a | ELEGY | Lame[s]<n>t excuse, total lie, incurring penalty ultimately (5) | N | |
| The last letters of (… ultimately) excusE, totaL liE, incurrinG penaltY | ||||
| 22a | KODAK | I take photos to sanction lawyer from Tulsa in Oklahoma (5) | O | |
| [O]K (to sanction) followed by DA (lawyer from Tulsa) in OK (Oklahoma) | ||||
| 23a | MEISHI | Tokyo exec’s in[t]<f>o card games essentially; is he worried about ego? (6) | F | |
| The middle letter of (… essentially) gaMes + an anagram of (… worried) IS HE around (about) I (ego) (6) | ||||
| 25a | BALOO | [C]<S>loth bear in film, book and a game (5) | S | |
| B (book) + A + LOO (game) | ||||
| 28a | TARSI | Sing about monkey bones (5) | A | |
| RAT (sing) reversed (about) + S[A]I (monkey) | ||||
| 29a | BERING | Danish explorer remaining outside Royal Institution (6) | I | |
| BEING (remaining) outside R[I] (Royal Institution) | ||||
| 30a | SCARS | Wou[l]<n>d evidence lead to stolen vehicles? (5) | N | |
| The first letter of (lead to) Stolen + CARS (vehicles) | ||||
| 32a | FESTA | Factor in wife’s tax-deductible holiday in Vi[c]<t>toria? (6) | T | |
| A part of (factor in) wiFE’S TAx-deductible | ||||
| 34a | DOWN | Blue sof[a]<t> covering (4) | T | |
| DOWN (blue) | ||||
| 35a | WITHER | Dry and naked – weird (6) | I | |
| WITH (and) + without inner letters (naked) – wE[I]Rd | ||||
| 36a | MEET | Suitable to [j]<b>ump into? (4) | B | |
| MEET (suitable) | ||||
| 37a | HISS | Noise made when scoffing sushi, possibly (4) | U | |
| An anagram of (… possibly) S[U]SHI | ||||
| 39a | ORTHO | Otherwise loth to change old photographic material (5) | L | |
| OR (otherwise) + [L]OTH anagrammed (to change) | ||||
| 41a | ALOFT | Somewhat critical of Tory [M]<U>P (5) | U | |
| Somewhat criticAL OF Tory | ||||
| 42a | HINGE | She patrols dodgy gin joint (5) | S | |
| [S]HE goes around (patrols) an anagram of (dodgy) GIN | ||||
| 43a | DELPHS | Forgetting one’s limitations, cooked old sheep [b]<d>rains (6) | D | |
| Without (forgetting) OnE’s outer letters (limitations), an anagram of (cooked) [o]LD SH[e]EP | ||||
| 44a | YEARNED | Longed for somebody’s close attention one day (7) | O | |
| SomebodY’s last letter (close) + EAR (attention) + [O]NE + D (day) | ||||
| Down | ||||
| 2d | CAMEL | P[o]<u>p’s successor in Great War arrived late initially (5) | U | |
| CAME (arrived) + Late initially | ||||
| 3d | ASP | React with horror: “Snake!” (3) | G | |
| [G]ASP (react with horror) | ||||
| 4d | PATSY | Scapegoat teachers, say (5) | A | |
| PAT (teachers) + S[A]Y | ||||
| 5d | ERNANI | Cast learning abridged opera (6) | L | |
| An anagram of (cast) [L]EARNINg without the last letter (abridged) | ||||
| 6d | LEO | Division of people: Ossi or [W]<M>essi, say (3) | M | |
| A part of (division of) peopLE: Ossi | ||||
| 7d | OFWAT | Derived from brief look at regulators (5) | C | |
| OF (derived from) + without the last letter (brief) WAT[C]h (look at) | ||||
| 8d | OLD MOON | Satellite [t]<g>one? Not quite familiar low note (7, two words) | G | |
| OLD (familiar) + MOO (low) + N (note) | ||||
| 9d | SAMAAN | Huge growth acceleration in South American fauna exposed (6) | U | |
| A (acceleration) in S (South), AM (American) and fA[U]Na without the outer letters (exposed) | ||||
| 10d | TREE KANGAROO | In jungle, cl[a]<i>mber clumsily on edges of remote great oak (12, two words) | I | |
| An anagram of (clumsily) ON, the edges of RemotE and GREAT OAK | ||||
| 11d | DISEMBOSOMED | [B]<R>elieved some preferred to die in spiritual style (12) | R | |
| SOME is used in place of (preferred to) DIE in DISEMBO[die]D (spiritual style) | ||||
| 14d | LONDONISH | Held onions out of the smoke (9) | E | |
| H[E]LD ONIONS anagrammed (out) | ||||
| 19d | REISTAFEL | F[i]<a>re in Indonesia forest special trained cops somehow put out (9) | A | |
| An anagram of (… trained) F[o]RE[s]T S[p]E[c]IAL with an anagram of (… somehow) COPS removed (put out) | ||||
| 20d | HOBBIAN | Reject article supporting rustic philosopher’s follower (7) | N | |
| BI[N] (reject) and AN (article) underneath (supporting) HOB (rustic) | ||||
| 22d | KLEE | He [g]<d>rew vegetable, last to be pulled up (4) | D | |
| LEEK (vegetable) with the last letter raised to the top (last to be pulled up) | ||||
| 24d | HORS | Parisian’s out of house, then straight back (4) | T | |
| HO (house), then S[T]R (straight) reversed (back) | ||||
| 26d | HARDTOP | For Biden, perhaps S[u]<e>dan tough to placate at first (7) | E | |
| HARD (tough) + TO + Placate at first | ||||
| 27d | OCREAE | Sheaths a little mediocre – adequate? (6) | D | |
| Hidden in (a little) mediOCRE – A[D]Equate? (6) | ||||
| 29d | BOWSIE | Irish rogue that is after British cattle (6) | C | |
| IE (that is) after B (British) and [C]OWS (cattle) | ||||
| 31d | TWITS | [D]<R>ates idiots (5) | R | |
| TWITS (idiots) | ||||
| 32d | FIONA | Maybe Bruce Forsyth, in interviews, offered no answers originally (5) | I | |
| Initial letters of (… originally) Forsyth, [I]n Interviews, Offered No Answers | ||||
| 33d | TE-HEE | Occasionally they helped Ed laugh (5) | L | |
| Occasionally ThEy He[L]pEd Ed | ||||
| 38d | SHY | Unproductive [j]<l>ob (3) | L | |
| SHY (unproductive) | ||||
| 40d | TEN | Sustained a quarter of fort[s]<y> (3) | Y | |
| TEN (sustained) | ||||
Many thanks Kitty, glad you enjoyed 🙂 Hopefully the theme was fun for fans but accessible enough via Google etc (and those ubiquitous protest slogans) even for those without knowledge of the show … it seems you’re in that perfect position of knowing just enough! (One minor point, the parsing for your ‘gateway’ clue TWITS was intended as [D -> R]ATES i.e., upbraids / scolds, rather than DA[T -> R]ES)
Setter’s Blog avaialbe over at Big Dave’s for anyone interested:
https://bigdave44.com/2023/08/31/ev1604-setters-blog/
Thanks again!
For me, a perfect example of what a good EV should be: Hard, but not too hard and with a really fun theme to discover. I very much enjoyed watching the scene even if it was a but old school ‘fnarr fnarr’.
Thank you both.
Absolutely super puzzle, thank you Cranberry and Kitty. I agree with Arnold, pitched at just the right level. Ah, FT. Has anyone had their glasses stolen by crows recently?
Thanks Cranberryfez – I will update the blog now so that the “gateway” leads to the right place! Once you find something that seems to work, it’s natural to assume that must be it and stop looking.
Since the thematic episode is only the third, I watched all of the first three. It was interesting to see how it compared to memory and to watch it with modern eyes. And frightening, since the 90s doesn’t feel like long ago at all, but then I look at the calendar!
I don’t do a lot of barred thematics but make an exception for Cranberry as he’s well-known to me under another setter pseudonym 🙂
I loved this — just difficult enough for an occasional solver like me, especially as I twigged the theme about a quarter of the way in by spotting the slogans forming letter by letter down the middle of the grid. I was determined not to Google and so the final thematic piece to fall was the Saint’s name. I was a big fan of the show but the Tibulus part hadn’t lodged into my brain… but I got there in the end.
As ever I am in awe of the intricate construction behind such a puzzle.
Big thanks to Cranberry/Fez and Kitty for unravelling the ones I hadn’t fully parsed.