Many apologies for the late posting of the blog – we got our dates wrong!
A fairly straightforward puzzle (fortunately for us!!) from Hieroglyph today, with a theme around the evergreen Christmas film 4d / 14d / 26d.
James Stewart, who appears in the clue for 28ac, plays George 7d, Henry Travers plays his 16ac, he lives in 7ac/25ac, his nemesis is Henry F 5d and he eventually earns his 19ac. The Director is Frank 3d.
There may be other links – no more time to look for them!!
| Across | ||
| 7 | County town girl, coming out, reversed car (7) | |
| BEDFORD | DEB (girl coming out) reversed + FORD (car) | |
| 9 | Cast plays? (4,3) | |
| ACTS OUT | An anagram of CAST with the anagrind OUT in the solution | |
| 10 | Send out publication (5) | |
| ISSUE | Double definition | |
| 11 | One-star review by Her Majesty provokes storm from a particular direction (3-6) | |
| NOR-EASTER | An anagram of ONE-STAR (anagrind is ‘review’) + ER (Her Majesty) | |
| 12 | More than one being present, I tie shoelaces inside (8) | |
| ENTITIES | Hidden in or ‘inside’ presENT I TIE Shoelaces | |
| 14 | See 4 Down | |
| 16 | An unaired gag, reworked prior to seasonal finale – for spirit (with 19?) (8,5) | |
| GUARDIAN ANGEL | An anagram of AN UNAIRED GAG (anagrind is ‘reworked’) + L (last letter or ‘finale’ of ‘seasonal’) | |
| 19 | Band‘s victory songs ignoring the 10 (5) | |
| WINGS | WIN (victory) |
|
| 21 | Once money’s disregarded, bell-ringing party’s most important (8) | |
| CHIEFEST | CHI |
|
| 23/17d | Fellow having left, festive charm’s cultivated one night (9,3) | |
| CHRISTMAS EVE | An anagram of |
|
| 25 | Drops everything in empty factories (5) | |
| FALLS | ALL (everything) in F |
|
| 27 | Glance over upon hearing Hieroglyph cry (7) | |
| EYEBALL | A homophone (‘upon hearing’) of I (Hieroglyph, the setter) BAWL (cry) | |
| 28 | Film and detailed 26 – upset in the end, James Stewart elates (7) | |
| UPLIFTS | UP (Pixar film) LIF |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Lyrics regularly displaying good sense (4) | |
| ODES | Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of gOoD sEnSe | |
| 2 | For the present, a row ultimately about European border (2,7) | |
| AD INTERIM | A DIN (row) T (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘about’) E (European) RIM ( border) | |
| 3 | Director‘s an international artist (5) | |
| CAPRA | CAP (International) RA (artist) – Frank Capra, the Director of the thematic film | |
| 4/22/14a | Fancy meeting you here – in Lilliput? (3,1,5,5) | |
| IT”S A SMALL WORLD | One could say about Lilliput: IT’S A SMALL WORLD | |
| 5 | Mammal going after Prince Harry (6) | |
| POTTER | OTTER (mammal) going after P (prince) | |
| 6 | Leading man Balls was obtrusively conspicuous (6) | |
| STARED | STAR (leading man) ED (Ed Balls) | |
| 7 | Perhaps lie by a medieval castle’s outer wall (6) | |
| BAILEY | An anagram of LIE BY A – anagrind is ‘perhaps’ | |
| 8 | Tips up public ballot boxes (9) | |
| OVERTURNS | OVERT (public) URNS (ballot boxes) | |
| 13 | Athenian character shows up in Guatemala (3) | |
| Hidden and reversed (‘turns up’) in GUATemala – thanks to WordPlodder for pointing out the error – more haste less speed! | ||
| 14 | Extraordinary starter of whelks and poached flounder (9) | |
| WONDERFUL | W (first letter or ‘starter’ of ‘whelks’) and an anagram of FLOUNDER – anagrind is ‘poached’ | |
| 15 | Experiencing difficulties, hits one up for change (2,3,4) | |
| IN THE SOUP | An anagram of HITS ONE UP -anagrind is ‘for change’ | |
| 17 | See 23 Across | |
| 18 | Former secret police section stopping circulation of claret? (6) | |
| STASIS | STASI (former secret police) S (section) | |
| 19 | Period in musical when tenor’s substituted note (6) | |
| WICKET | WICKE |
|
| 20 | Dickinson’s last verse about butterflies (6) | |
| NERVES | N (last letter of ‘Dickinson’) + an anagram of VERSE – anagrind is ‘about’ | |
| 22 | See 4 | |
| 24 | For instance, taking time to pause (4) | |
| STAY | SAY (for instance) round or ‘taking’ T (time) | |
| 26 | Falsehood obscuring French leader’s biography (4) | |
| LIFE | LIE (falsehood) round or ‘obscuring’ F (first letter or ‘leader’ of French) | |
Thanks for getting the blog up. Quite a few references to a certain film. I think 13 is TAU rather than ETA. The latter is also an ‘Athenian character’ reversed in ‘Guatemala’ but doesn’t fit with the answer to 16.
Thanks to Hieroglyph for the enjoyable festive fare and to B&J.
Woops, sorry B&J. When I first looked, the blog didn’t contain your introductory comments about the ‘certain film’.
Many thanks, WordPlodder at 1 – parsing amended accordingly
Having spent quite some time on The Spectator’s Christmas Jumbo Cryptic over the weekend, I was amused to find a similar theme in this one. I also wrote in ‘eta’ for 13 before realising it didn’t fit with the apparent solution to 16.
I too was a member of the ‘ETA’club until I realised that it wouldn’t work as the UA in Guardian would be the wrong way round. Sneaky hiding of Greek characters, young Hieroglph!
Thanks to our setter and B&J too.
Missed the theme – so what’s new? An enjoyable and fairly quick solve although WICKET was the last to fall (I didn’t see ‘in’ as part of the definition). Interesting coincidence that we had ‘claret’ for ‘blood’ from Klingsor on Saturday and again from Hieroglyph today. And a change for ‘film’ in the clue to 28ac to reference something other than ET. Plenty of nice clues, but nothing stands out as CoD.
Thanks, Hieroglyph and B&J.
Thanks Bert (Joyce had no input into the solve and blog today due to our cock-up!)
I was completely lost on the last clue – CAPRA. The theme passed me by despite rumblings that there was one.
It was fortunate that I was completing this on the app which displays incorrect letters in red.
Thanks Heiroglyph for the puzzling solve.
Thanks to BertandJoyce for the review, & for all your comments. It’s the 70th anniversary of the first screening of 4d/14d/26d today (as our esteemed editor informed me after i’d set this puzzle), and it’s still very much a seasonal favourite round at Hieroglyph’s house. A very merry 23a to everyone in crosswordland!
Spotted the theme fairly early on, which helped, but towards the end I guessed several answers but couldn’t see why, so ended up using the online checking to confirm. Even then, I couldn’t see the definition for 19dn.
Incidentally, as I recall in the film Clarence says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings, so a chime fest fits in with the theme.
Also, I recommend a short film made by Peter Capaldi called Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
Nice puzzle. Problem as ever with recycled crosswords is that the currency of the clues is lost four years down the line.