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It wouldn’t be a Paul if there weren’t a few multi-location entries and a bit of cross-referencing…and sure enough, on the first scan through, 26A/27A seems to get a lot of mentions…
…and was clearly going to be the key to the puzzle. However, it proved fairly impenetrable on the first couple of reads, and I decided to press on elsewhere, to try and maybe get some of the cross-referenced clues, or some crossers from the ‘regular’ clues.
Most of the clues cross-referenced to 26A/27A mention ‘actors’ (and one ‘film great’), and I soon had Glenn CLOSE from 8A/10A/24A; Richard BURTON from 4D/14A; and Tom CRUISE from 1D. And some of the Down crossers for 26A/27A started to create the skeleton of ‘OSCAR’ and ‘NOMINATED’.
So, it seems we are looking at actors who have only (so far, in some cases) been Oscar-nominated, but never actually got their hands on a statuette – close, but no cigar! And a little e-research confirmed this for the three above – plus Peter O’TOOLE, LIAM NEESON and lastly Alfred HITCHCOCK, the ‘film great’ – who incredibly, given his legendary status, never won a ‘Best Director’ Oscar!
And that was just about that – although it took a bit of effort to get there. Some typical Paul-ian fun along the way – the reverse of LIAM NEESON giving NO SEEN MAIL; Hitchcock being a ‘problem geezer’; the SIRIAN/Sir Ian McKellen homophone.
PLAGAL was a bit obscure, and needed checking, and my LOI was ORCHID. It had to be that from the wordplay, but I couldn’t find ‘orchid = purple’ in any of my usual reference material, until I found it as the third definition under ‘in American English’ in the online Collins dictionary: “3. a light bluish red, or pale purple“. And the LOP (last one parsed) was OSCAR-NOMINATED, as I only twigged the triple anagram as I was writing up the blog!
My thanks to Paul for the entertaining diversion, although I suspect Messrs Cruise and Neeson and Ms Close will not thank him for reminding them!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 7A | URSA MINOR | Lesser array of heavenly bodies melting in our arms (4,5)
anag, i.e. melting, of IN OUR ARMS |
| 8A | CLOSE (BUT NO CIGAR) | & 10 & 24 Actor only 26 27, unable to light up though, just not winning (5,3,2,5)
CLOSE (Glenn Close, actor only 26-27 – Oscar-nominated) + BUT (though) NO CIGAR (unable to light up) [Glenn Close – nominated 8 times, no wins] |
| 9A | BILL SIKES | Trials coming in cycles for literary villain (4,5)
B_IKES (cycles) around ILL_S (trials, tribulations) [Dickensian villain, to be specific] |
| 10A | BUT NO | See 8 (3,2)
see 8A |
| 12A | NEESON | See 11 Down (6)
see 11D |
| 13A | OLIVE OIL | 26s hosts as it happens ideal, though superficial and emollient (5,3)
O_O (oscar, 26, phonetic alphabet, twice) around (hosting) LIVE (as it happens) + IL (outer letters of IdeaL, i.e. superficially) |
| 14A | A BURTON | See 4 Down (1,6)
see 4D |
| 17A | AMBIENT | Background music’s first beat in impromptu (7)
anag, i.e. impromptu, of M (music’s first letter) + BEAT IN |
| 20A | ONE-PIECE | Jumpsuit for example, open flies, cooler with breeze finally coming in (3-5)
ONE-P (anag, i.e. flies, of OPEN) + I_CE (cooler) around E (final letter of breezE) |
| 22A | O’TOOLE | Actor only 26 27, winning cry’s stifled as well (6)
O_LE (winning cry) around (stifling) TOO (as well) [Peter O’Toole – 0 from 8, but he did get an Honorary Oscar in 2001] |
| 24A | CIGAR | See 8 (5)
see 8A |
| 25A | HITCHCOCK | Film great only 26 27, problem geezer (9)
HITCH (problem) + COCK (man, geezer, slang) [Hitchcock was nominated as ‘Best Director’ several times but never won, although some of his films did win Oscars in other categories…] |
| 26A | OSCAR-NOMINATED | & 27 Americans’ nod to another, and on one’s dramatic failing, with no mad reactions, unfortunately – when only this? (5-9)
triple anagram?! ‘another’ AMERICAN’S NOD TO; ‘failing’ ON ONE’S DRAMATIC; and ‘unfortunately’ NO MAD REACTIONS |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | CRUISE | Actor only 26 27 in easy win? (6)
double defn. – Tom CRUISE is an actor who has only ever been Oscar-nominated; and to CRUISE through something, usually a sporting tie, is to win easily [Tom Cruise, 0 from 4 nominations] |
| 2D | BAD LOSER | Roles seemingly manufactured, one’s less than gracious (3,5)
BAD LOSER might be a cryptic clue (anagram) for ‘roles’? |
| 3D | SIRIAN | McKellen, say, as a star? (6)
as per several comments below, not a (poor/accent-dependent) homophone, but an example, maybe even an eye-rhyme – SIRIAN being almost equivalent to SIR IAN… [Sir Ian also being an actor who has only ever been Oscar-nominated – 0 from 2] |
| 4D | GONE FOR (A BURTON) | & 14 Selected, an actor only 26 27 lost (4,3,1,6)
GONE FOR (selected) + A (an) + BURTON (Richard Burton, another actor only ever…you get the picture!) [Richard Burton – 0 from 7] |
| 5D | BLOUSE | Bee, insect in shirt (6)
B (bee, phonetic for B) + LOUSE (insect) |
| 6D | ASUNCION | Capital I invested in a tabloid scam (8)
A + SUN (tabloid ‘newspaper’) + C_ON (scam) around (invested in by) I |
| 11D | LIAM (NEESON) | & 12 Actor only 26 27 returning only unopened letters? (4,6)
if you have only unopened letters, then you have NO SEEN MAIL, which ‘returns’ to give LIAM NEESON, another actor who has only ever… [Liam Neeson – 0 from 1 (Schindler’s List)] |
| 15D | BANDIEST | Most crooked, with one opening prize (8)
B_EST (prize, as in ‘best in show’) around (opened by) AND (with) + I (one) |
| 16D | OMEN | Sign captain up (4)
NEMO (a famous literary captain) ‘up’ gives OMEN |
| 18D | IRON-CLAD | Unquestionable note in Nordic novel (4-4)
IRON-C_D (anag, i.e. novel, of NORDIC) around LA (note, in sol-fa notation) |
| 19D | VENISON | Meat thus coated with toxic substance (7)
VENI_N (toxic substance) around (coating) SO (thus) |
| 21D | PLAGAL | Delay before mountain climbing of a particular mode (6)
LAG (delay) + ALP (mountain) = LAGALP, all climbing to give PLAGAL [‘plagal’ being a musical term referring to a ‘Gregorian mode’] |
| 22D | ORCHID | Purple light skimmed over personal documents (6)
( |
| 23D | LICKED | Beaten, when lapped (6)
double defn – to be beaten can be to be LICKED; and lapped, milk again!, can be LICKED or lapped up |
Found this exceptionally hard. When I got the theme, I still had trouble finding the actors, and failed on CRUISE. Much use was made of complete a word or phrase software.
Thanks Paul and mc_rapper
I thought this was going to be impossible but then managed to get NOMINATED out of the anagram and the remaining five letters couldn’t be anything else. Relatively (!) straightforward after that.
Don’t remember agonising too much over this, though the key did take a while to emerge. No great obscurities, plagal cadence remembered from theory (lingering feel, ending on the, um, subdominant was it?). As it happens for live is a good staple, and problem geezer for the old Hitch got a grin. Fun, thanks Paul and rapper. Coffee’s arrived, now for today’s.
Pretty much went for me as it did for you MC, and it helped there have been a lot of Hitchcock films on recently, so when I saw “film great” thought of him, and yes it seems criminal that he never received one!
I hadn’t heard of VENIN, before, also never realised SIKES was spelt this way, and LOI was also Orchid, obvious from the crossers but obscure.
I too had a similar experience to mc_rapper67, although I persevered and got 26/27 early in the piece.
There were a few phrases that I suspect are unique to GB and I did not know, but made me smile. This is not a complaint – it is an English paper after all. NHO GONE FOR A BURTON, I would never use CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR, and it took me a long time to equate geezer with COCK. I congratulate grantinfreo for knowing PLAGAL. I suspect Paul had painted himself into a corner by the time he got to 21d.
I enjoyed this challenge overall, and my standout clues were the great reversal LIAM NEESON, ASUNCIÓN for its surface, and OMEN – another reversal!
Thanks Paul and mc-rapper67
Extraordinarily 26 27 was almost my last in. I had BENDIEST for 15 thinking that ‘end’ could be an opening but I was never happy with it
Lovely puzzle! a very satisfying solve. I endorse what’s been said already, I also liked the placement of list separator in 5d. 26,27 is an absolute genius, not only for the anagrams, but also for presenting them in such a baffling way. TA Paul and mc-rapper67
Once I’d cracked this one open – LIAM NEESON being my way in, plus the anagram for OSCAR NOMINATION (although I didn’t spot all the anagrams) – it went in steadily , with some research into actors and checking PLAGAL actually existed, having built it from the instructions.
I enjoyed this – thank you to Paul and mc_rapper.
My top fave: OSCAR-NOMINATED (triple anagram plus the extended def).
Other faves: CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR, OLIVE OIL and LIAM NEESON.
Enjoyed the puzzle on the whole. Great blog mc. Thanks both.
SIRIAN
I took SIR IAN as an example for Mckellen (not as a homophone).
C B N CIGAR
Read the ‘unable to light up though’ as one block (‘BUT NO CIGAR’).
A minuscule difference.
Thanks mc_rapper67. Can’t say I enjoyed this, too theme dependent, and a theme I know very little about. Actually, I got most of the SE corner first so 26/27 emerged early on but in my ignorance it wasn’t much help, other than to confirm answers. I did like 13a, I don’t suppose I was the only one who Googled those who had hosted the Oscars – in vain.
LOI was 9a because I had quite confidently entered ‘breeze’ for 1d having found there is a child actor of that name.
Yes, the theme was definitely impenetrable at first, but surprisingly in retrospect my way in was HITCHCOCK: hmmm, why film great and not actor? – must be a director – aah that’s it!
PLAGAL was a bit of a surprise – why not PLANAR or PLAZAS? Still, good entertainment, and happy that it took more than one sitting.
I guessed the theme fairly early on but there were too many non-dictionary entries for this bear of little brain.
I twigged “Sir Ian” immediately but I didn’t know how to spell it. Now I see, the answer isn’t really a homophone – it’s the exact spelling.
I like cinema but find the very thought or the Oscars off-putting, but the theme still helped a little as I was looking for actors. I, too, only saw one of the anagrams and thought the rest was alternative wordplay, which I suppose it was.
It took a while, but was well worth it. Thanks both.
Put me down as another who seems to have followed pretty much the same route as mc_rapper, including needing to check PLAGAL and worrying about ORCHID’s colour. This was a theme I felt comfortable with, and I got HITCHCOCK not long after OSCAR NOMINATED (which had to be right, and I saw one anagram, but didn’t bother to notice how wordily clever this was, I’m afraid), but LIAM NEESON took rather longer, and AMBIENT was my LOI because of the time it took me to realise ‘impromptu’ was an anagram indicator and not the definition. I did like SIR IAN, which I too took as simply literal. Thanks, both.
Thanks mc. Paul is an ace with anagrams and for me his trio at the bottom seemed to want a fourth. Having got the theme I lazily turned to Wiki’s list of nominations and looked for those ones cued by “only” ie never won.
Thanks for the fine blog, mc_rapper67, as always.
This puzzle was an odd one for me. I took quite a while to get the key clues. I had Burton, Close, Neeson and Cruise but couldn’t believe they ONLY had nominations and not actual wins. All of those finaly named have had incredible and accoladed careers, how could they not have won this particular award. But I had to trust Paul, as always. And of course he was right.
I agree with all the positive comments above and none of the negatives, if indeed there are any. I loved the whole thing and had mixed emotions when I’d finished- a little pride and self-doubt that I had filled in all the boxes coupled with some disappointment that it was finished. Too many favourites to list, but special mention goes to GONE FOR A BURTON and CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR, (knowing both expressions), the very clever and amusing HITCHCOCK and the tour de force that tied them all together, OSCAR NOMINATED.
Paul, once again you completely failed to disappoint me. Thank you for a fun puzzle and a strenuous mental workout.
I really dislike keystone clues. That said, in this case I managed to solve 26/27 when I was a third of a way through the puzzle. Things began to speed up after that, not surprisingly, and I managed to finish it on Saturday. Last in was PLAGAL which I guessed from the word play and then checked in a dictionary. I was another who didn’t know the particular definition of ORCHID, though the answer was clear. I had only a vague idea that neither Hitchcock nor Close got Oscars, and no idea about the others. Rather goes to the fact that it’s all pretty meaningless, though I’m sure the nominees think otherwise. With thanks to both.
I have been chipping away at this all week and finally finished last night so pretty hard for me and very pleased to complete. Thank you for the blog mc_ I needed it to fully understand some of the parsing. Like Shanne@8 LIAM NEESON was the way in. Always interesting how you can puzzle away trying to make sense of where to start with a clue yet return later and have a light bulb moment (OSCAR NOMINATED +). Thank you Paul for a whole week’s entertainment (and teeth grinding, head scratching…)
Thanks for a great blog and the coloured grid , I got the first two quickly which helped a lot with the Downs later on . I often say CLOSE BNC to the students when we play cards at lunchtime. LIAM NEESON was a clever construction .
Well done Amanda@18 for persevering, I remember taking all week to do the Everyman, carry it around with me and it would get very scruffy.
I am hopeless at these ‘keystone clue’ puzzles (nice coinage, nuntius) so predictably this took ages, especially as films aren’t my strong suit. The penny only dropped when I solved OLIVE OIL (possibly my fave).
I deciphered ORCHID without too much difficulty, but I don’t care what Collins says, it’s inaccurate to use it to mean purple. If anything I’m crosser having read the definition of the kind of purple, courtesy of mc – the commonest UK orchids are are a different, richer purple and, of course, there are loads that aren’t remotely purple, mauve, violet, lilac, puce or anything similar! – but I am a plant enthusiast…
I was a bit surprised at ‘superficially’ being used for both top and bottom surfaces in 13ac., but perfectly legit, even if somewhat unusual in crossword land.
PLAGAL was new to me and a nice (probably temporary) addition to my vocabulary.
A brilliant puzzle from Paul and excellent blog from mc. Thanks to both.
I got the actor theme early thanks to CLOSE and also spotted two of the three anagrams for the keystone clue (thanks nuntius). Even so it proved a tricky solve, but once you have the theme it is easier to keep going. Only PLAGAL prevented me from completing. I use ‘close but no cigar’ without ever having understood its fairground origins, which I looked up. So learned something and had a lot of fun.
Thanks for all the comments so far – much appreciated, as usual. I will be out for most of the day – cycling in the New Forest, instead of my usual Saturday morning golf! – so will monitor further comments but might not be able to reply until this evening…
I take the point about SIRIAN/SIR IAN not really being a homophone – if anything it is more an eye-rhyme? Will update the parsing later.
Looks like most people enjoyed the challenge – not too many quibbles above, even the cinema-phobes are quite gracious about the puzzle and the theme!
And we have a new phrase – ‘keystone clue’!
At first I thought this was going to be relatively easy as the very first clue I looked at (7a) went in on a first reading. I was quickly disabused of that notion as I only got a couple of the other clues on a first reading, and couldn’t make head or tail of the keystone clue. Spent ages staring blankly at the nearly blank page, without making any further headway. Eventually gave up and went off to do my usual weekend tasks.
Returned to the crossword a few hours later, in a calmer and more reflective mood., and really glad I did so. Concentrated on 11/12 (as I had the last letters of both words from the 2 other clues I had so far solved) and after only a few minutes spotted that Liam Neeson was an actor who’s name fitted the spaces, and his name was NO SEEN MAIL backwards. In a flash the meaning of only 26/27 became obvious and I quickly picked out the 3 anagrams (an impressive piece of clue-writing there Paul). It was then plain sailing all the way (with a little help from an online list of Oscar nominees who had never won, as I am not an expert in that field) and I finished the crossword in an impressively quick time. NHO plagal or orchid as a colour, but both were obvious once all the crosser were in place.
Thanks Paul for an enjoyable puzzle and mc_rapper for the blog
Fortunately or unfortunately I solved OSCAR NOMINATED early on, which meant that I quickly realised there was a theme about which I knew very little, and the temptation to use the many lists provided online was too great. Can’t say I found that part of the puzzle very enjoyable, though I liked the way some themers were integrated into answers like GONE FOR A BURTON and CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR, and NO SEEN MAIL was fun.
Of the non themers, I liked URSA MINOR and ASUNCION. And no, I didn’t see SIR IAN as a homophone either.
Agree with KVa@9 on 3d SIRIAN. It doesn’t really work as a homophone. The “say” is for example. Other SIR IANs are available, e.g.
SIR IAN Holm (1931–2020), OSCAR-NOMINATED for Chariots Of Fire (1981).
He’s “[0 from 1]“, but that could change next year. He’s appearing posthumously via CGI in Alien: Romulus (2024).
I got CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR early on which helped me get the two crossing down answers and from there I got OLIVE OIL.
I puzzled over that for a bit while realising that 26ac must have something to do with the letter O. Then it hit me and I was away – with help from google.
Enjoyed it but didn’t get SIRIAN – I thought IAN must be in the answer but never thought of the SIR.
Thanks Paul and mc_rapper67
I found this really challenging but ultimately satisfying. Thanks to Paul for a brilliant challenge and to mc_r67 for a very comprehensive explanation. As others have already said, I was surprised none of those featured got Oscars. I didn’t spot the triple anagram but that has to be clue of the month, if not the year. HITCHCOCK was very funny 😎. Off to try my luck today…
Most of what I would have written has already been said.
I enjoyed this very much, thank you Paul, and, as always, enjoyed rapper’s blog – again, thanks.
I got ORCHID as the colour from the new Cluedo character “Dr Orchid” who is depicted as wearing purple. Given that all the other characters’ surnames are colours, I took it on trust.
I hate wasting time on puzzles based on niche hidden themes which turn out to be of no interest to me. Paul made both the actor theme and its key in 26/27ac quite evident, and so I gave it a go. I spotted two of the three (!) anagrams of OSCAR NOMINATED about one third of the way through. Annoyingly, I didn’t work out ASUNCION even though I was playing with I and SUN. for a capital city. I used the Wikilist of Oscar nominations to find the last few actors. Then I deduced that ‘BLACK OUT IN FINAL’ would fit 8/10/24. It didn’t seem a good enough answer, especially as the only word fit for 6d was ‘OCCISION’ (a capital offence). Hence, I was not surprised to confirm my errors in mc_rapper’s helpful blog. All in all, I found it an engrossing puzzle with some likeable clues (BILL SIKES, OLIVE OIL, LIAM NEESON). My only minor quibble was ORCHID. I did waste a bit of time looking for an obscure dictionary definition for purple, but in the end I put it down to a mis-definition. Hear, hear, Sorbus@20.
Having only got a few answers realsed that I wasn’t going to get very far without 26/27 and tried very hard. I got as far as spotting the three anagrams and realised that the fourth would be the answer but it was only when I’d given up for the night and was on my way to bed, not thinking about the puzzle, that the answer came out of the blue. This occasionally happens, fortunately. It might have been stimulated by my having solved HITCHCOCK and knowing that he had never won an Oscar.
LOI was AMBIENT because I couldn’t parse it for a long time. I know that just about anything can be an anagrind but “impromptu”? An anagram is the re-arranging of existing lettters whereas impromptu involves starting from scratch.
Thanks to Paul and mc_rapper67
Just for balance, I thought that had all the bad bits of Paul (except the Sid James humour) but none of the good bits (except Sirian).
Rather late commenting but I wanted to say I really enjoyed this. I got CRUISE straight away which made me think that 26a/27a might be OSCAR something, which was confirmed by getting OLIVE OIL, but for a while I was trying to make OSCAR CONTENDER work. Got there in the end, and en route was quite amazed to discover that all those people hadn’t actually won.
I agree with KVa @9 that 3d is not intended as a homophone – it’s just that SIRIAN breaks up into SIR IAN.
Many thanks to Paul for a great puzzle and to mc_rapper67 for a very detailed and impressive blog.
I tried WONKIEST, KINKIEST and BENDIEST but the real answer never occurred to me. Pleased to have got PLAGAL and everything else, but Paul wins again.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I eventually bunged OSCAR NOMINATED figuring “this is some sort of complicated add-and-subtract anagram, I’ll wait for the parsing on fifteen squared” and it turns out to have been three straight-up anagrams! Ah well. My way in was LIAM NEESON and also figuring out that OSCAR had to be in there from 13A and some crossers. Enjoyable all told though I did have to use a crossword solver to get PLAGAL (for a little bit was wondering whether DORIAN or LYDIAN could be got somehow) and missed CRUISE.
[Partly because it’s a bit surprising to realize that Tom Cruise has four times as many nominations as Liam Neeson, since I think of Neeson as artier and Cruise as more box office, though Cruise does do “prestige” movies as well like Magnolia. Kinsey seems like the kind of part that earns a nomination.]
Thanks Paul and mc_rapper67!
[Martyn@5, I’ve heard “close but no cigar” a lot in the states–maybe it’s a bit old-fashioned?]
Was nearly driven mad by this one until I finally twigged the answer to 26&27, after which the rest of the puzzle fell fairly quickly into place. Such is the way with these “keystone clue” puzzles, I guess. Some pretty awkward surfaces here, especially with the recurring phrase “actor only Oscar-nominated”, which may be syntactically correct, but is just not something anyone would ever say. On the other hand, I’m not sure how else the idea could have been expressed in a crossword clue. All in all a typically enjoyable puzzle from Paul, and a fun theme. Thanks to setter and blogger!
Matt W: Yes, I’ve certainly heard and even said “close but no cigar” here a lot. GONE FOR A BURTON, though, was a complete mystery to me.
The blog is fascinating to me. Did Tom Cruise really manage to amass as many as four Oscar nominations, while Liam Neeson (objectively a far better actor) has managed only one? Looking up Mr. Cruise, I see that the most recent of the four was as a producer, and the other three were over 25 years ago.
Peter O’Toole was famous for being the most deserving actor without an Oscar, which accounts for that honorary one he won. My understanding is that he was pretty bitter about it all.
Incidentally, my way into the theme was OLIVE OIL, which I got from the definition, reverse-engineered for the wordplay, and saw that the first part of the keystone entry was OSCAR. The second part then had to be NOMINATED, but actually parsing that mess was a CQBA.
I found this a very entertaining puzzle, of the type that looks nearly impossible but each little bit of progress leads to another. I obviously saw the theme at some point, but it only helped me a little as I have no interest in Oscars, and not much interest in directors and actors.
McKellen is clearly an example of a “Sir Ian” so there was no need to struggle with a poor homophone. Given people’s dislike of “ORCHID” as a colour, perhaps Paul should have had the balls to go for some play on orchidectomy …
Well, close but no cigar for me as I had a half-parsed PLANAR instead of PLAGAR
A brilliant puzzle from Paul and an excellent blog from mc_rapper67. Great thanks to both.
I kopped the Keystone clue early on … great coinage, nuntius … but it was still a long but much enjoyed struggle. I found a particular online list of oscars nominated and awarded that could be sorted by the awarded column! Shame there was no room for a bit of Paul’s trademark toilet humour.
Including the apt expressions … Gone for a burton and Close but no cigar … was the cherry on top. Sadly I bunged in BENDIEST rather than BANDIEST and failed to notice that it didn’t quite parse.
Not sure anyone has actually mentioned the origin of the expression “Gone for a Burton” as RAF slang for someone who failed to return from a flight in warfare.
Another BENDIEST here.
The standout clue for me was the quadruple, if one includes the clue, anagram of the key clue.
Brilliant from Paul and great fun. My thanks to him and to mcr67.
Choldunk2@40.
It was the understated idea the someone had just popped out for a beer (a Burton Ale). There’s a Greek word for this rhetorical device, but it escapes me just now.
Many thanks, Auriga @42. Have recently started reading Mark Forsyth’s “Elements of Eloquence”. That will likely explain the rhetorical device. But will I spot it?
Thanks for the continued comments and feedback…keep ’em coming, if there is anything left to say!
Still mostly positive, with a little balance from Dave F at #31. I have now corrected the SIR IAN parsing…
BANDIEST seems to have been a bit chewy – with sheffield hatter trying three variations at #33.
SIR IAN Holm is a good spot by FrankieG at #25 – I enjoyed his performance in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, for which Mr Gilliam was also only 26A/27A (0 from 1 for him as well…)!
Monkey@37: “Paul should have had the balls to go for some play on orchidectomy …”
Excellent suggestion!
Monkey@37 😀
mc_rapper67@44 😉
The Omen at 16D was nominated for two oscars, winning the one for best musical score
We so liked this that we actually got round to entering the draw – and won! Yeah!
Many thanks to Paul and McRapper
Congratulations to you, Caroline at #48! (he said through gritted teeth and a not-jealous-at-all rictus grin (;+>)
Very late to this but I wanted to say that I loved it. Failed only on PLAGAL. I like the keystone crosswords… but not when I can’t work out the keystone! On this occasion I figured it out from the references in the other clues and couldn’t be bothered to work out what was going on in 26,27 itself — a clever clue but hard work to read, let alone decipher.
Thanks to Paul for the enjoyable challenge and mc_rapper67.
Oliver Reed played BILL SIKES in Oliver! and was nominated posthumously for an Oscar in 2001 for Gladiator. Do I win the prize for the flimsiest link?
Cholduck2@40
There are a number of explanations, none of which is entirely convincing.
1. Gone for a Burton Ale. This seems to me the most convincing, particularly if it’s true that there was a pre-war ad for it showing a group of diners round a table with one place empty because the occupant had “gone for a Burton”.
2. Gone for Burton suit. Those invalided out of the forces were given a suit, most likely from Montague Burton (the Tailor of Taste, out at the shoulder and in at the waist) but the phrase is usually used for those who were killed, not just injured.
3. Gone to Burton’s Billiard Hall in Blackpool which had been requisitioned to hold aptitude tests which might result i someone being posted to be a rear- gunner in a bomber, an extremely hazardous role. Tortuous enough for some setters here and going for a test doesn’t mean that someone has been killed as a result.
4. After a pilot called Burton who was one of the earliest casualties but wouldn’t the expression have been “Done a Burton” rather than “Gone for…”?
Longest post ever but I hope it” late enough to be excused.