Gozo is on top form today.
T stands for THESPIAN throughout. I have not had media studies with Gozo before but I will certainly be attending his class again if I get the chance. It took a while to get started, and even when I had twigged the meaning of T there were still no write-ins.
Thanks Gozo, please may we have more of the same.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HOPPER | T who’s jumping on one foot (6) |
| someone who hops – Dennis Hopper, American actor. | ||
| 4 | ASHCROFT | T remains on highland farm (8) |
| ASH (remains) on CROFT (highland farm) – Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress | ||
| 10, 11 | MICHAEL HORDERN | T, man or child here, tipsy (7,7) |
| (MAN OR CHILD HERE)* anagram=tipsy – Sir Michael Hordern, English actor | ||
| 12, 16 | LIAM NEESON | Seen mail returned close to T (4,6) |
| SEEN MAIL reversed (returned) and ON (close to) – Irish actor | ||
| 13 | GOLDIE HAWN | T hailed drunk in flowing dress (6,4) |
| HAILED* anagram=drunk in GOWN (flowing dress) | ||
| 16 | See 12 | |
| 17 | ELLIOTT | Ts (Gould or Denholm) measure ten times (7) |
| ELL (measure, of distance) IO (ten) T T (two Ts, times) – actors Elliott Gould and Denholm Elliott | ||
| 20 | TENNANT | Relative under canvas, as T (7) |
| NAN (relative) in TENT (under canvass) – David Tennant, known mostly in our house as Dr Who | ||
| 21 | STREEP | Holy man has to look back at T (6) |
| ST (saint, hold man) as PEER (to look) reversed (back) – actress Meryl Streep | ||
| 24 | ELLEN TERRY | T (amateur detective) accepting books by Queen (5,5) |
| ELLERY (Ellery Queen, detective) contains (accepts) NT (books, of bible) by ER (The Queen) – Dame Ellen Terry was the leading Shakespearean actress of her day | ||
| 25 | MIKE | T Reid comes before November (4) |
| MIKE comes before November in the Nato phonetic alphabet – actor Mike Reid | ||
| 27 | See 23 | |
| 29 | ANDRESS | One garment for T (7) |
| AN (one) DRESS (garment) – Ursula Andress, the iconic Bond girl. There is something &lit-ish about this as in Dr No we see Ursula Andress famously emerge from the sea wearing only a bikini. Unfortunately this is really two garments? | ||
| 30 | SARANDON | Offspring holding a coin for T (8) |
| 31 | HOWARD | T at small house with drawback (6) |
| HO (house) small= abbrev and WARD (draw back) – Trevor Howard, British actor. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOMELAND | It stars Brody in Bantustan (8) |
| double definition – a Bantustan, also known as a homeland, was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa under the Apartheid regieme. Nicholas Brody stars in Homeland, an American television series. | ||
| 2 | PACKAGE DEAL | Offer to tourists in group having time at port (7,4) |
| PACK (group) having AGE (time) by (at) DEAL (former port in Kent) | ||
| 3 | EXAM | Test once before noon (4) |
| EX (once) AM (before noon) | ||
| 5 | SCHEDULE | Inventory from editor in German school (8) |
| ED (editor) in SCHULE (school, German) | ||
| 6 | CAREERISTS | They are keen to advance, coming first in rushes (10) |
| IST (coming first) in CAREERS (rushes) | ||
| 7 | ORE | Money for old rope. Easy – at first (3) |
| first letters of Old Rope Easy | ||
| 8 | TENANT | 20’s heartless flat dweller, say (6) |
| TENnANT (20 across) missing heart – someone who rents a flat possibly | ||
| 9 | BLOOM | Old car firm on outskirts of Orlando on motorway to Orlando (5) |
| BL (British Leyland, old car firm) on OrlandO (outer letters of) on M (motorway) – Orlando Bloom, English actor. I wonder why he is not a T? | ||
| 14 | AT THE CINEMA | Arranged matinee chat – here? (2,3,6) |
| (MATINEE CHAT)* arranged=anagram | ||
| 15 | MORNING SUN | Grieving relative, we’re told, bright early on (7,3) |
| sounds like (we’re told) mourning son | ||
| 18 | INTEND TO | Mean and keen to embrace minister (6,2) |
| INTO (keen) contains (embraces) TEND (minister) | ||
| 19 | APPEASED | Placated and imitated, eating vegetables (8) |
| APED (imitated) containing (eating) PEAS (vegetables) | ||
| 22 | LESBOS | The French head drops point on Greek island (6) |
| LES (the, French) BOSs (head) dropping S=South (point) | ||
| 23, 27 | BRIAN BLESSED | T mountaineer turning in bed, bra-less (5,7) |
| (IN BED BRA-LESS)* anagram=turning – actor Brian Blessed was an amateur mountaineer, atttempting to climb Everest three times. | ||
| 26 | EDDO | Earl turned over strange taro tuber (4) |
| E (earl) ODD (strange) reversed (turned over) – a root vegetable | ||
| 28 | EAR | Listener of The Archers (3) |
| found in thE ARchers | ||
*anagram
You are right PeeDee, a master at the top of his game. (er… Thespian not Tespian, unless I am missing something.)
Only held up today by Ashcroft being my FOI and assuming the T’s were Tories. 🙁
Maybe I should attend spelling class with Gozo too.
Thanks PeeDee
Your comment at #2 is perhaps rather apt. 😉
17ac is ELLIOTT with the ‘times’ giving TT. Both Elliott Gould and Denholm Elliott are spelt this way.
Thanks Gaufrid, I have George and T S Eliots to blame for that.
For 30 across I have Sarandon (as in Susan). A rand – a South African coin – encased in son. I’d be interested to learn which of them Gozo had in mind.
isledweller,
I think you are right. The ‘a’ in my explanation seems superfluous whereas in yours it plays a role. Susan Sarandon is also more of a lead role performer than the various Sorensons were.
I did think along the lines of A RAND in SON at the time but dismissed the idea as it did not sound like a likely surname, so I didn’t bother to Google it.
I have also just noticed that SON + SON + ORE is nine letters rather than eight, so that was never a possible explanation anyway.
With regard to 2D, I thought DEAL was the port, rather than L for port
Hi AID, I’ve fixed that too. Not my best days blogging I’m afraid.
Very enjoyable puzzle in the famous Cinephile/Araucaria style (“T has the same meaning throughout”).
Brian Blessed and (Meryl) Streep were my way into the theme.
From that moment on it went all very smoothly, even if I had never heard of Michael Hordern or Ellen Terry (but they were clearly signposted).
The fun thing is that after solving the crossword, I still had no idea what the T meant …….
Thanks, Gozo. A great romp.
Thanks Peedee and Gozo .. It was indeed a very humbling experience 🙂
Sil @ 11
Neither had I. I’ll bet we weren’t the only ones!
Mike
You weren’t!
Dear PeeDee,
thanks for all the trouble you have gone to, but i wish you hadn’t published the entire solution at the top as I was going to sneak a look at some of the across clues to try and make my way in to the crossword.
Hello grimalkin, the purpose of these blogs is to explain and comment on the solutions, so they are going to be there in plain sight I’m afraid.