Two grids for the price of one this week.
Preamble: The answers must be entered in grid 2. Every clue has a misprint in the wordplay which must be corrected before solving; the correct letter is to be entered alongside the clue label in grid 1 (e.g. for clue A next to the letter A), while the letters replaced spell a message. Solvers must complete both grids, highlighting 5 cells in grid 1, using an appropriate colour. The unchecked, unclued letters in grid 2 could spell “I ’AVE ’OPE”.
Here, grid two is on the right; grid one (with cells connected hexagonally) is lower down on the left.
First thing we notice, two of the four 9-letter entries don’t have clues; also, there are 6 unchecked cells in rows 2 & 8, and adding the barred off central cell we deduce where the 7 letters of “I ’AVE ’OPE” will go. 
And there are only two of each of the 6-, 7-, 8- & remaining 9-letter entries, which should make the jigsaw less difficult.
After solving 4 or 5 clues I noticed that the initial letter of each answer matched its alphabetical clue indicator, so I assumed that this would be the case for the rest of the clues – it was. With a few more clues solved, I could make a start on the entries, aided by that same fact – DEBT, for example, couldn’t be the first down entry because the B entry was 7 letters not4.
The message was taking shape and the columns in grid 1 appeared to form real words, both of which helped to rule in (or out) some of the misprints & corrections in the as yet unsolved clues, and slotting in the new answers created quite a strong feedback loop. When the grids were nearly complete I had a go at the two unclued rows and arrived at CAN I HAVE A and PLEASE BOB, leaving P for the central cell, all of which led me to the game show Blockbusters, which I’ve never seen and only vaguely heard of. As I now know, it’s the source of the pun “Can I have a ‘P’ please, Bob?”, the original host of the show being Bob Holness.
Given that the message reads LET’S PLAY BLOCKBUSTERS, I had to dive into the innards of the game, not a wholly pleasant experience since the Wikipedia entry is tediously long & verbose. Anyway, the finale has the winning contestant playing against the clock for a bigger prize known as THE GOLD RUN, which we can see snaking across grid 1. And there we have it.
Not that difficult at all, but I really enjoyed the puzzle. And busting blocks is definitely in Dyno-Rod’s line of work. Thanks go to Triton – good fun.
| Clue ✓[✗] | ✗ | Answer | Wordplay | |
| A | Worry n[l]ame stag activated snares (5) | L | ANGST | N(ame) in [STAG]* |
| B | Theatrical dancer accepted having no locks in co[e]llars (7) | E | BALADIN | A[ccepted] in BALD (having no locks) IN |
| C | Red car I see deni[t]ed close to Asda is abandoned (6) | T | CERISE | [CAR I SEE ¬ (Asd)A]* |
| D | Outstanding account of French physicist finally trapping bor[s]on (4) | S | DEBT | DE (of, Fr) (physicis)T around B(oron) |
| E | Henry’s brought in to g[p]reen parrot (4) | P | ECHO | H(enry) in ECO (green) |
| F | Firm rotating driver’s compartment ‘kilo[l]’ streamlined vehicle (8) | L | FASTBACK | FAST (firm) CAB< (driver’s compartment) K(ilo) |
| G | Weak Government member securing one ‘w[a]ye’ (5) | A | GIMPY | G(overnment) MP (member) around I (one) Y (wye) |
| H | Gushed about wanting European di[y]ed skirts (4) | Y | HUGS | [GUSHED]* ¬ E(uropean) ¬ D(ied) |
| I | Passed on Independent’s n[b]etting tips to Hume before service (9) | B | INHERITED | IND(ependent) around H(um)E RITE (service) |
| K | Daughter miss[l]ed by fool welcoming a notice about spicy Asian dish (5) | L | KADAI | KID (fool) ¬ D(aughter) around A AD< (notice) |
| L | Garnish? Fe[o]llow inspiring recipe (4) | O | LARD | LAD (fellow) around R(ecipe) |
| M | Fell again, picked up by e[c]ar (4) | C | MOOR | homophone MORE (again) |
| N | Exposed middle of brunette receiving wing[k]s on underground (4) | K | NUDE | (bru)NE(tte) around U(ndergroun)D |
| O | Working on a soup, I am l[b]acking upper-class obsession with food (9) | B | OPSOMANIA | [ON A SOUP I AM ¬ U(pper-class)]* |
| P | No[u]rse coming after I tucked into extreme Indian meal (6) | U | PINOLE | N(orse) after I in POLE (extreme) |
| R | Prop in[s] not seriously held back (4) | S | REST | (no)T SER(iously) rev. |
| S | Sherry cask collections very lak[t]e, butt from Harveys taking an age (7) | T | SOLERAS | SO (very) L(ake) (Harvey)S around ERA (age) |
| T | “Meth[e]s” not singular, possibly? It’s plural (4) | E | THEM | [METHS ¬ S(ingular)]* |
| U | Bent pipe even[r] so twisted replacing middle of exhaust (5) | R | U-TUBE | BUT< (even so) in U(s)E (exhaust) |
| Y | Right protec[s]ting about restraint – last to order more bubbly (8) | S | YEASTIER | YES (right) around A(bout) TIE (restraint) (orde)R |
After reading the preamble and studying the grid I decided to solve (if I could) the clues to the two 9-letter and the two 7-letter entries. I failed on the 7-letter ones, but I got both the 8s instead, to add to the two 9s, and it was then that I realised (or rather guessed) that every answer began with the letter against its clue. (But I don’t know why that information was not given – perhaps it would have been too helpful.) Progress was steady after that, albeit not rapid even though there were only twenty clues in total – I found the ‘misprint in the wordplay’ device very tricky in places.
With the grid mostly filled, and now having the complete message about the old TV game series that I never watched, I looked up the subject and duly filled in the three unclued entries, having guessed the strange-looking PLEASE BOB already. Reading down the columns of Grid 1 I saw five 8-letter words/phrases, but it took a while to find THE GOLD RUN going across, as I had not got that far in the rambling Wikipedia article on the subject.
I very much liked the compact and clever design of this puzzle, as well as the excellent clues.
Thanks to both Triton and HolyGhost.
A fun and novel idea which I greatly enjoyed. I wondered whether I had missed any second level logic in the choice of the 8-letter “blockbuster” words (such as METHINKS) – other than to allow the endgame – but I don’t think so?
Thanks to Triton for a gentle but enjoyable challenge and to HG for the blog and for clearing up the meaning of the title.
Having been on the show myself in the 80s, the grid 1 shape and the title gave away the theme immediately for me 😁 but much fun was still had with the clues and the hidden messages.
I confess on completion that I hadn’t actually noticed the grid 1 columns spelling real words but reading them now I’m not sure there’s a deeper meaning to them.
Many thanks to Triton for bringing back teenage memories and HG for the blog!
My first time playing Blockbusters, and almost all successfully navigated. The exception was PINOLE, where I could not shake the preconception that the N must be provided as an abbreviation for Nurse. Curiously, it isn’t, (or at least isn’t listed as such in Chambers), but it led me to assume that the necessary U would come from a change to “tucked”, where there are several theoretical possibilities, and to conclude that PAUNCING had to be a viable word. Ah well, one is always learning and Norse will no doubt reappear some time. Many thanks to Triton and HG.