As always, a fine crossword from Punk. There are possible quibbles with 13ac and 15ac/1dn, and some of the answers have marginally less than 50% checking, but there is a nice theme that may excuse this.
These crosswords that have lots of clues referring to other ones are always difficult to start on, since one’s first read through only allows possible solving of some of the clues, and this was no exception.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
The theme, clear enough once you can solve 17ac, is the works of Mike Leigh. I wasn’t sure about a couple of them (AON, LIS) but they could hardly have been anything else. I checked with somebody about one of them but didn’t bother to look up the other.
| Across | ||
| 1 | IMPACT | Shock performance by monkey (6) |
| imp act | ||
| 4 | SHADOW | Fish that hurt dog (6) |
| shad ow! | ||
| 9 | TSAR | Emperor Tiberius, sombre and reclusive for starters (4) |
| T{iberius} s{ombre} a{nd} r{eclusive} | ||
| 10 | MIND-READER | Awe-inspiring manual worker, one with psychic power? (4-6) |
| min(dread)er — inspiring the inclusion indicator | ||
| 11 | RETYPE | Sliding back, somewhat weepy, terrifying to get down again (6) |
| Reversed hidden in weEPY, TERrifying | ||
| 12/2 | ABIGAIL’S PARTY | What a leading actor has to claim proves troublesome, ending in tragedy in 17 work (8,5) |
| (a big (ails) part) {traged}y — 17 being Mike Leigh, this is one of his plays | ||
| 13 | STONE-DEAD | Gone completely, 1D instead? (5-4) |
| st(one D)ead — nothing to do with the clue 1dn — some would carp here and in the next clue because instead is not the same as in stead (nor is inappropriate the same as in appropriate) | ||
| 15/1D | LIFE IS SWEET | 17 work, improvised we see, is inappropriate? (4,2,5) |
| Another Mike Leigh work — (we see is)* in lift [= appropriate, verb] | ||
| 16 | NITS | By the sound of it, binds a possible reason for irritation? (4) |
| “knits” | ||
| 17 | MIKE LEIGH | Spooner’s Punkish director? (4,5) |
| ‘like me’ Spoonerised— initially I thought there was a David Lean connection because of 25ac, but Punk wouldn’t have called him Lean, David surely, and in any case Lavid Dean didn’t make sense | ||
| 21 | ETHIOPIA | Taipei home, semi out in the country (8) |
| (Taipei ho{me})* | ||
| 22 | URANUS | Vessel not closing, opening for god (6) |
| ur{n} anus — well what do you expect with Punk? | ||
| 24 | FILM CAMERA | Male runner caught by rifle shot, a shooter (4,6) |
| (m Cam) in (rifle)* | ||
| 25 | LEAN | Spare director (4) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to David Lean | ||
| 26 | GUYANA | Rope also cut by a nation (6) |
| guy an{d} a | ||
| 27 | SEARCH | Back in trousers with ecstasy, cunning ferret (6) |
| {trouser}s E arch — the back in trousers is the last letter | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | See 15 Across | |
| 2 | See 12 Across | |
| 3 | COMMEND | Praise punctuation mark that’s not full stop (7) |
| comm{a} end | ||
| 5 | HEROIN | Horse, lion with it (6) |
| hero in [= with it] — this was my last one in because I was misled into thinking that the first letter was the horse | ||
| 6 | DRAMATISE | Short Satie works to adapt for the stage (9) |
| Short = dram, and it’s dram (Satie)* | ||
| 7 | WHEELIE | Small rings hard to position for balancing act (7) |
| w(h)ee lie — Small rings hard means that small goes round hard | ||
| 8 | INCAPACITATED | Deprived of strength, captain and I acted recklessly (13) |
| (captain I acted)* | ||
| 14 | NUTS IN MAY |
Work of 17 elected to punch distracted UK leader (4,2,3) |
| in [= elected] in (nuts May) [not sure how this got missed out originally] | ||
| 16 | See 23 | |
| 18 | EMULATE | Follow fast runner, behind (7) |
| emu late | ||
| 19 | GOULASH | Reported evidence of burnt spirit, perhaps, in stew (7) |
| “ghoul ash” | ||
| 20 | SPRAIN | Turn right visiting the Alhambra, perhaps? (6) |
| r in Spain — if you’re visiting the Alhambra you’re in Spain — turn as in turn an ankle | ||
| 23/16 | ALL OR NOTHING | 17 work, where navy occupies minor chamber in parliament (3,2,7) |
| The last of Mike Leigh’s works — al(lo(RN)o)thing — the Althing is the national parliament of Iceland | ||
*anagram
A few quite hard ones for me as I know next to nothing of the works of MIKE LEIGH but managed to complete this thanks to helpful wordplay and a few guesses. ‘Inappropriate’ in 15/1d didn’t worry me, though I lazily just bunged in STONE DEAD for 13a and didn’t even spot the similar device in ‘instead’. I think we’ve had ‘Althing’ before, but of course I’d forgotten so one more to the add to the vocab. The surface for 27 brought a smile and was my highlight.
Thanks to Punk and John
I really like him on the Punk label. I thought chucking another director in with a simple clue was a good red herring. And it was only when LIFE IS SWEET clicked that I saw the brilliant gateway clue.
I also liked the fact that his “greatest hits” didnt feature.I think two of the entries were for TV. I’m a big fan.
I thought 19 was classic Halpern and 4 was pretty cute too.
Thanks to John and Punk.
After usual exasperation at all the linking clues, became solvable when 17A dawned and LIFE IS SWEET fell in. LTI were EMULATE and SEARCH, which both took ages, though great clues when solved. Lots of nice stuff here and a good challenge.
How’s this for an alternative parsing? I had CHAD + OW with the definition dog (as in the CHADOW dog).
Definition and parsing missing for 14D.
Thanks to Punk and John.
Parsing of 14dn is NUTS (distracted) + IN (elected) + MAY (leader) with ‘to punch’ indicating that IN has to be inserted in the middle. Definition is of course ‘Work of 17’. Topically ironic in that Mrs May is an unelected leader and possibly won’t be leader after 8th June (we can but hope!)
This was my first themed answer which then led to 17 and the rest of the themed answers – via Google, I’m afraid, not being familiar with the work of ML (I knew the titles but not who they were by).
Some of the non-themed clues were pretty good – favourite was ETHIOPA.
Thanks, Punk and John
… or ETHIOPIA, even!
Not overly familiar with the works but a very enjoyable puzzle.
I loved 17a. A 3-word spoonerism including a setter device – genius.
Loved the wordplay in 3D COMMEND, and 7d too.
I missed 13a (non-xim obviously, with xim being all about fairness, but I appreciate the elegance) and also missed 21a and 20d. Some things to remember next time I tackle punk.
Many thanks punk and Paul
allan_c@4
Yep, I am hoping!