Mev is a relatively new and infrequent setter at the Indy, but one worth looking out for.
I thought some of this was quite tricky, with some not-very-general knowledge (scientific in particular) required in places. 27a was an obvious anagram but needed pretty much all the crossers before I could construct a plausible word to check, and I didn’t know the geographical reference at 7a, though it doesn’t seem too surprising that such a place-name exists. I particularly liked 16a (for both the anagram and the misleading definition), the amusing image of 15d, and 4d for its slightly different take on a very old crossword trick.
Tuesday is usually theme day, and Mev’s previous puzzles have been themed. This one is a pangram (the solution uses all 26 letters of the alphabet), but I stared at it for ages without seeing anything else. Then I vaguely remembered that RADIO ACTIVE was a radio comedy show, and further investigation showed up characters called MIKE FLEX, MIKE CHANNEL, MIKE STAND, MIKE HUNT, NORMAN TONSIL, MARTIN BROWN, and ANNA DAPTOR (she’s more or less there in the right-hand column). I’m not really familiar with the show so there may be other references I’ve missed. Thanks Mev for all this.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 6 | HUNT |
Big organisation involved in high tension chase (4)
|
| UN (United Nations = big organisation) inserted into HT (high tension, referring to electricity = another name for high voltage). | ||
| 7 | NEW BRITAIN |
Island north of Australia was aware of one of Thatcher’s ministers, reportedly (3,7)
|
| Homophone (reportedly) of KNEW BRITTAN (was aware of the former Tory MP and Government minister Leon Brittan).
Island belonging to Papua New Guinea, north of the eastern coast of Australia. |
||
| 11 | NINETY-TWO |
Renegade entity won a number of uranium protons (6-3)
|
| Anagram (renegade) of ENTITY WON.
The element uranium has the atomic number 92, which means it has 92 protons in its nucleus. |
||
| 12 | ESTER |
Extract of benzene’s tertiary compound (5)
|
| Hidden answer (extract) in [benzen]ES TER[tiary].
Name for a class of chemical compounds; perhaps not in common usage, only vaguely remembered from my O-level days, but even non-chemists will have heard of polyester. |
||
| 13 | ENEMA |
Insertion clue in Indy sent a man mad regularly (5)
|
| Every fourth letter (regularly) from [clu]E [in i]N[dy s]E[nt a] M[an m]A[d]. “Regularly” usually means every other letter, but I’ve seen it used for every third letter, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be used for every fourth or beyond. | ||
| 14 | MONOMANIA |
On entering NY museum, number one ace gets obsession (9)
|
| ON inserted into MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City) + N (number) + I (one in Roman numerals) + A (ace). | ||
| 16 | RADIOACTIVE |
Victoria and Ade seen tumbling together, generating a lot of clicks (11)
|
| Anagram (tumbling together) of VICTORIA + ADE.
Traditionally, a Geiger counter indicates radioactivity levels by producing an audible click for each ionizing particle detected, though generally there’s a visible display too. |
||
| 21 | OVERDRAFT |
No longer worried about wind being heard, with special provision for excess (9)
|
| OVER (no longer worried about, as in “I’m over that now”) + homophone (being heard) of DRAUGHT (wind).
A facility for borrowing from a bank when spending in excess of one’s means. |
||
| 24 | STAND |
Society function at democratic partnership (5)
|
| S (abbreviation for society) + TAN (abbreviation for tangent = mathematical function) + D (abbreviation for democratic, in names of political parties).
In cricket, stand = partnership = two players batting together for a significant time. |
||
| 25 | SCUFF |
Minor damage to surface from small blow (5)
|
| S (small) + CUFF (blow = a hit, especially a playful or warning strike to the head rather than a violent one). | ||
| 27 | ANGIOCARP |
OAP racing around tree bearing enclosed fruit (9)
|
| Anagram (around) of OAP RACING.
A tree whose fruits are enclosed in a shell or husk. |
||
| 29 | LANTERN JAW |
Notable feature of large article on bird talk (7,3)
|
| L (large) + AN (a form of the indefinite article) + TERN (a bird) + JAW (slang for talk).
Common name for an abnormally forward-positioned lower jaw. |
||
| 30 | ZERO |
Reset meter in old Mitsubishi (4)
|
| Double definition. To reset a measuring device so that it reads zero; or a fighter aircraft made by Mitsubishi for the Japanese navy in WW2. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CHANNEL |
Churchwoman’s long passage (7)
|
| We need to separate the first word of the clue into its component parts: CH (abbreviation for church) + ANNE (woman’s name) + L (abbreviation for long, for example in clothes sizes). | ||
| 2 | IN ONE EAR |
Where a trumpet might once have been placed for better sound? (2,3,3)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to an ear trumpet (early hearing aid, with a funnel to collect sound waves over a large area). I’m not sure this works because “in one ear” isn’t really a set phrase by itself; it’s part of “in one ear and out the other”, referring to something heard but ignored and/or quickly forgotten. | ||
| 3 | HEFT |
Weight of American’s male organ (4)
|
| HE (male) + FT (organ = a newspaper, especially one seen as the “mouthpiece” of a particular organisation).
Heft = weight; I hadn’t thought of this as a specifically US usage, but the dictionaries seem to think it is. |
||
| 4 | MIKE |
It can pick up five from hotel (4)
|
| Mike = M in the radio alphabet, five letters away from Hotel (H). Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike . . .
Short for microphone, which can “pick up” sound. |
||
| 5 | MARTIN |
Flapper maiden’s skill isn’t noticed at first (6)
|
| M (abbreviation for maiden, in cricket scoring) + ART (skill) + initial letters (at first) of I[sn’t] N[oticed].
Flapper = something that flaps its wings = a bird. |
||
| 8 | BROWN |
Drain beer and have toast (5)
|
| B[ee]R (drain = empty out the contents) + OWN (have = possess).
Toast, as a verb = brown = to cook the surface of food. |
||
| 9 | NORMAN |
Opera North’s English language influencer (6)
|
| NORMA (opera by Bellini) + N (North).
The language of Normandy, northern France, which had a major influence on English after its speakers invaded Britain (1066 and all that). |
||
| 10 | STRANDED |
Left stuck in bowels of rustic laboratory, blending remedies (8)
|
| Innermost pairs of letters (bowels) in [ru]ST[ic] [labo]RA[tory] [ble]ND[ing] [rem]ED[ies]. | ||
| 14 | MHO |
Unit 17 broadcast (3)
|
| Homophone (broadcast) of MOW (to cut grass), referring to 17d CUT.
Mho = another name for siemens, the unit of electrical conductance. (It’s a scientific joke: conductance is the opposite of resistance, and the unit of resistance is the ohm, so they named this one by spelling ohm backwards.) |
||
| 15 | MAILSHOT |
Many letters could be the reason the postie wears gloves? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition: a postman (postie) might need to wear protective gloves if the MAIL’S HOT.
A mass mailing of similar letters (or emails) to large numbers of people. |
||
| 17 | CUT |
Editing process changed “ultimately” to “primarily” (3)
|
| First letters (primarily) of C[hanged] U[ltimately] T[o]. As usual, punctuation in crossword clues is best ignored. | ||
| 18 | EMANATED |
Fellow dined inside, enthused hollowly, and came out (8)
|
| MAN (fellow) + ATE (dined), inside E[nthuse]D (hollowly = inner letters removed). Again, the punctuation isn’t there to help you. | ||
| 19 | TONSIL |
Regressing, until I snottily coughed out lump of tissue (6)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . coughed out), reversed (regressing), in [unti]L I SNOT[tily].
A lump of tissue at the back of the throat. |
||
| 20 | ADAPTOR |
Widget appropriate for hole in a hatch (7)
|
| A D[o]OR (a hatch), with APT (appropriate) in the place of the first O (hole?). | ||
| 22 | EQUINE |
One of five infiltrating network for Arab, say (6)
|
| QUIN (short for quintuplet = one of five children born together) inserted into (infiltrating) EE (a mobile phone network).
Equine = relating to horses, for example the Arab breed. |
||
| 23 | AGAIN |
More revolutionary Monroe film sacked artist (5)
|
| NIAGA[ra] (film starring Marilyn Monroe), without RA (Royal Academician = artist), reversed (revolutionary).
As in “once again” = “once more”. |
||
| 26 | FLEX |
60% of navy vote for Cable (4)
|
| 60% of the letters in FLE[et] (navy = ships) + X (symbol used on ballot papers to indicate a vote).
Flex = electrical cable. |
||
| 28 | GRAB |
Take canal boat nearly all the way back (4)
|
| BARG[e] (canal boat), without the last letter (nearly all the way), reversed (back). |
I found this very hard. Became stuck after an hour or so’s struggle and needed a brain resetting sleep to get started again. In the end the only one I missed out on was the JAW bit of LANTERN JAW (which I might have solved if I’d realised only the J was missing for the pangram) but several others went in unparsed. New words in ANGIOCARP, MHO and MAILSHOT didn’t make things any easier. See what you mean about IN ONE EAR.
I saw all those first names in the top right corner, but had no hope with the theme. Favourite was ZERO for ‘old Mitsubishi’.
Thanks and very well done to Quirister for working everything out and thanks to Mev
Knew I’d need Google and Chambers to parse a Mev and as usual he didn’t disappoint me. The theme was beyond me (no change there). I always enjoy the esoteric? exotic? GK he employs and today a pangram to boot which helped with the last couple in LANTERN JAW and ZERO.
Thanks Mev and Quirister.
Radio Active was both great in itself – but also a snapshot of the birth and direction of UK comedy throughout the eighties and nineties. Almost literally no one interested will not have seen one of the following – or a programme they created – even if unaware of it.
Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Michael Fenton Stevens, Helen Atkinson-Wood and Philip Pope.
Thanks Quirister for the nice blog. (I’d already typed most of this, so sorry for any repetition…)
Last year, I started listening to Michael Fenton Stevens’ excellent podcast My Time Capsule, which prompted me to go and re-listen to a comedy show he was in that I used to enjoy (and still do, it turns out). I wrote this puzzle for the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of S1E1. However, I ended up having a different puzzle in the Indy just before that, so it had to wait until now. So…
Working title: Local
“Coming to you locally, wherever you are in the Nation,
This is Britain’s first National Local Radio Station
Radio Active!”
RADIO ACTIVE was owned by Sir NORMAN TONSIL. Its presenters included MARTIN BROWN, the MIKEs CHANNEL, FLEX, HUNT, and STAND, and Anna Dapter (try reading column 15 aloud, starting from the end of row 6). No room, sadly for Oivind, Nigel, the Reverend or Ms Rabies. It ran for most of the 80s on Radio 4, before transferring to TV as KYTV.
There were lots of fab musical spoofs in the show, courtesy of the genius of Phil Pope. (Status Quid had me giggling massively once again recently.) The most famous one is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDj4paFzgMU
I definitely don’t recommend searching for “fourble radio active” if you’re interested, oh no. That would be irresponsible.
Thanks for the comments so far. Yes, 2D was a grid-filler, I’m afraid. I didn’t really love having “NINETY-TWO” in there either, until I realised I could make a uranium/radioactivity link. 13A was originally longer, but was felt to have stretched the limits of regularity, which is probably fair enough. (Sorry, Tatrasman. 😉 )
Cheers all, until next time…
My general knowledge didn’t stretch to a lot of the cluing I’m afraid, but the revelation there was a Radio Active theme did bring a smile. I can’t quite believe it was the 80s when I first heard it, but it still turns up on Radio 4 Extra.
Thanks Mev and Quirister,
Very hard, ultimately a DNF without MIKE and GRAB…having unparsed ANTHOCARP at 27a. Theme? No way!
Pangram helped with ZERO, that had to be verified.
Likes
STRANDED, BROWN, MAILSHOT
Bit above my pay grade to be honest. Managed about half & gave up. Liked OVERDRAFT best of the ones I got.
Thanks anyway
Very clever to get all that into one grid….. we’re huge fans of radioactive, and enjoyed the you tube clip, thank you, Mev.
Definitely didn’t finish the crossword, though, nor spot the the theme(d’oh! We should have done)
So thanks to quirister as well
Never having listened to RADIO ACTIVE we were totally oblivious to the theme. Nevertheless we did get there in the end, held up for ages by ANGIOCARP which is not in our Collins, nor in Chambers although the latter does have the adjective ‘angiocarpous’. Definitely a stiff workout today, but thanks, Mev and Quirister.
Thanks Mev & Quirister. Only got round to this one this morning and came here for help with a couple of bits of parsing… can’t believe I missed the theme! Was a fan when it first aired and still listen to the repeats on R4 Extra.