Bluebird provides our Thursday challenge this week.
We found this to be a more straightforward puzzle than we had expected from this setter. Solving the first two across clues led us to think that we had a ‘Carry-on’ film theme, which was reinforced when we solved 6d. However, as we worked through the grid, we couldn’t find any other references to the film series other than 16ac – and we’d rather forget him!
It was only when we had filled the grid that we noticed that there were references to two other sources of risqué ‘humour’ from the last century – 23ac/ 27ac and the 1d films of the 70s, the first of which was 1d of a 22d / 5d. All part of the 13d? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!
ON (performing) after a homophone (‘recited’) of CARRIE (horror novel)
CAMP (artificial) + an anagram (‘drunk’) of GIN
NECTAR (Sainsburys supermarket loyalty scheme) IN E (middle letter of September)
ToASTY (warm) with the ‘o’ (‘doughnut’) missing or ‘disappearing’
Hidden in delicatESSEN CElery
An anagram (‘pants’) of LOOSEN round or ‘consuming’ D (500 in Roman numerals)
An anagram (‘freely’) of INSPECT, R S (‘rooms’ missing the middle letters or ’empty’) and H (hotel) – interesting definition!
cHILL (cool) missing the ‘c’ (cold) – a reference to Benny Hill of the 1ac films
cOURSe (programme) missing or ‘shunning’ the first and last letters or ‘extremes’
gOBLIn missing the first and last letters or ‘naked’ + GINGerLY with ‘er’ (queen) missing or ‘departing’
An anagram (‘spreading’) of DISEASE
A reversal (‘around’) of UP + L (50 in Roman numerals) + SA (Salvation Army) + T E (first letters or ‘leaders’ of Teddington and Ealing)
A T (last letter of knight) in BED (‘resting’)
An anagram (‘edit’) of PODCASTS round R (‘art’ without the first and last letters or ‘nude’)
ED (editor – ‘journalist’) after or ‘joining’ S (small) CREW (people in boat)
DUSTin hoffMAN (actor in the film ‘The Graduate’) with ‘in’ ‘h’ (hospital) ‘off’ (sick) missing or ‘leaving’
A clue-as-definition: CONcESSIONS (things given up) missing or ‘renouncing’ the ‘c’ (Catholic) round or ‘admitting’ F (fellow) – CONFESSIONS can also be ‘given up’
wRACKS (seaweeds) missing ‘w’ (with)
Y (first letter or ‘head’ of Yamaha) EARNING (making money)
A reversal (‘coming up’) of EVIAN (water) + ST (street)
C-LEANER (‘lister’ as in ‘leaning over’)
Another clue-as-definition? : MA (‘old lady’) T (last or ‘final’ letter of affluent) + a reversal (‘elevated’) of OR + N (first letter or ‘leader’ of nurses) – part of the wordplay being the definition
An anagram (‘translated’) of N (first letter or ‘opening’ of novel) and LINGUIST
GArY with the ‘r’ (last or ‘final’ letter of Lineker) omitted or ‘coming out’
S (second) + an anagram (‘review’) of LASSIE ONLY
An anagram (‘mobs’) of FoREgATHEREd missing or ‘renouncing’ ‘g’, ‘o’ and ‘d’ (God)
A reversal (‘up’) of SLIP round LOCK (bar)
Hidden (‘part of’) in questionaBLE EP EDited
A model might plausibly say I’M POSED
WIND (punch in the stomach) OW (that hurts)
A BurgeR (missing or ‘holding’ the middle letters or ‘filling’) I’M (Bluebird – the setter – is)
BUSt (kaput) missing the last letter or ‘back-end’
Rather a gentle theme today – though B&J have alerted me to there being more than the CARRY ON movies. So long since I watched them, I was wondering whether BUS, DUSTMAN and SEASIDE were part of the collection. You could possibly add (Benny) HILL to the themers?
NECTARINE, NOODLES, SPHINCTER (yes – I’m afraid it makes my list!), OBLIGINGLY, CLEANER and SILLY SEASON were my faves.
Thanks Bluebird and B&J
Was Benny Hill offensive? We never watched the show chez ginf, but I read somewhere that Chaplin admired him. Enjoyed the Carry Ons as a kid [Nurse always reminds me of daffodils!], but didn’t twig to them today. Nothing else too mysterious, though I can’t think if I’ve ever seen abrim in the wild — in a poem, maybe? Enjoyed, ta Bb and B&J.