Another themed one – my second this week
Having blogged Tuesday’s FT My Fair Lady puzzle, I was pleased to see that today’s also had a theme.
Today it’s Sir Ben Kingsley, who apperars in the grid as an answer, but also stars in a few of the other answers, which are either film titles and/or roles played by him.
The puzzle took me a bit longer than normal to solve as I struggled with the parsing of BELGRAVIA and didn’t see HIND PART for a ludicrously long time.
Thanks, Chalmie – a good workout.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCHINDLER’S LIST | Child listens, confused about Christopher Biggins’s last film (10,4) |
| *(child listens) about (christophe)R (biggin)S
THEME ENTRY – film featuring Ben Kingsley |
||
| 9 | OHMS LAW | I’m surprised by medium salad being something important for electricians (4,3) |
| OH (“I’m surprised!”) + M + SLAW | ||
| 10 | LOZENGE | Diamond system for living in a box (7) |
| ZEN(“system for living”) in LOGE (“box” at the theatre) | ||
| 11 | FAGIN | Dickensian description of smoker’s mouth (5) |
| FAG IN (smoker’s mouth)
THEME ENTRY – character played by Ben Kingsley in 2005’s Oliver Twist. |
||
| 12 | SEXY BEAST | Film live when following male, typically in a group (4,5) |
| BE AS (“live when”) follwing X/Y (“male, typically”) in SET
THEME ENTRY – Ben Kingsley was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in this 2000 movie. |
||
| 13 | EXODUS | Leaving old cheat to back American (6) |
| EX + <=DO + US
THEME ENTRY – Ben Kingsley features in 2014’s Exodus: Gods & Kings |
||
| 15 | UNKNOWNS | University’s new kids nursery initially has people with no reputation (8) |
| U(niversity’s) N(ew) K(ids) N(ursery) + OWNS (“has”) | ||
| 18 | HIND PART | Back down on standard content for sign (4,4) |
| D + PAR in HINT (“sign”) | ||
| 19 | AS IT IS | Things being so advanced, rest on current square (2,2,2) |
| A (“advanced”) + SIT + I (symbol for electrical “current”) + S (“square”) | ||
| 21 | BELGRAVIA | Call Saucer, as might be said in up-market area (9) |
| homophone of BELL GRAVIER | ||
| 23 | SCRUB | Cancel loan, having received credit (5) |
| SUB receiving Cr. | ||
| 25 | TITBITS | Nuggets of data on a flyer (7) |
| BITS (“data”) on TIT (“flyer”) | ||
| 26 | DRAWING | Dr Silver claims victory with scores level (7) |
| Dr. Ag claims WIN | ||
| 27 | SIR BEN KINGSLEY | Film man signs Lineker by arrangement (3,3,8) |
| *(signs lineker by) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPOOF | Nasty stuff in science fiction parody (5) |
| POO in S.F. | ||
| 2 | HOMEGROWN | It’s produced internally when groom collapses (9) |
| *(when groom) | ||
| 3 | NYLON | We leave Cornish resort upside- down to get old fabric (5) |
| O (“old”) replacing WE in <=NEWLYN | ||
| 4 | LOWEST | Disoriented, our side hides at the bottom (6) |
| WE (“our side”) hiding in LOST | ||
| 5 | RELAXING | Cancel beer in King George having turned up at ease (8) |
| <=(NIX ALE in G.R.) | ||
| 6 | LAZYBONES | Shirker with bye in zonals getting shafted (9) |
| *(bye zonals) | ||
| 7 | SANTA | Hospital volunteers seen in many places in Mexico (5) |
| SAN (short for “sanitarium”) + T.A. (“volunteers”)
Santa is seen at the start of many Mexican place names , Santa Cruz, Santa Catarina etc, although my reseacrch shows that it’s probably just as (if not more) prolific in California and Newe Mexico. |
||
| 8 | LEFTISTS | Politicians remaining on street in Iceland (8) |
| LEFT (“remaining”) on St. in IS (“Iceland”) | ||
| 13 | EXHIBITS | Shows former Scottish football team retains charisma (8) |
| EX HIBS reatining IT (“charisma”) | ||
| 14 | UPPER LIMB | Arm shockingly purple, setter’s breakdown starts (5,4) |
| *(purple) + I’M (“setter’s) + B(reakdown) | ||
| 16 | WATERMILL | Heated about clearing out the harmful grain processor (9) |
| WARM around T(h)E + ILL | ||
| 17 | GRAVE SIN | Which cemetery has pride? (5,3) |
| A cemenetry has GRAVES IN, and Grave Sin is a less common term for a Mortal Sin or Deadly Sin, one of which is pride. | ||
| 20 | GANDHI | Political figure’s grand article on democratic Pacific state (6) |
| G + AN + D + Hi. (Hawaii = “Pacific state”)
THEME ENTRY – Ben Kingsley won his only Oscar for playing the title role in Gandhi in 1982. |
||
| 22 | LATHI | Partially reveal a thick stick (5) |
| Hidden in “reveaL A THIck”.
A lathi is an Indian truncheon. |
||
| 23 | SLANG | Celebrated retaining Latin in informal speech (5) |
| SANG retaining L | ||
| 24 | BUGSY | Grammar school shown in trade film (5) |
| GS in BUY
THEME ENTRY – Bugsy is a 1991 biopic of Bugsy Siegel, starring Warren Beatty and Ben Kingsley, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie. |
||
*anagram
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
I think 21ac needs to be a homophone of BELL GRAVIER, as there is only one L in the answer.
Fair point.
Thanks Loonapick@2 for your quick response. Somewhat more pedantically, I think the mechanism in 6dn requires us to insert BYE into ZONALS (anywhere will do) before forming the anagram. There is of course no reason whatsoever why the intermediate stage should have to be a real word.
Thanks, loonapick — I too struggled with Hind Part, and needed your parsing. Great puzzle as usual: thanks, Chalmie
Thanks for the blog, loonapick, and to the commenters. Well done on spotting all the themed entries: I thought it would be off-putting if I filled it with “character played by 27” and just left the theme lying around for people to find.
Thanks loonapick and Chalmie.
Nice puzzle. Git the themed answers, and got the theme too – hurrah!
But I just couldn’t get HIND PART.
Beaten!
Thanks Chalmie and loonspick
A good puzzle that looked impossible on the first look, but broke open when the themed 27a and 1a went in. Couldn’t find a date trigger for the theme, but enjoyed it and took the opportunity to read up on some of his movies that I didn’t know.
Didn’t parse LOWEST even though it was straightforward when seeing it here. Also didn’t follow up that IS was the international registration code for Iceland.
Finished in the NE corner with LOZENGE (didn’t intItialky know LOGE as the theatre box but then remembered coming across it not all that long ago), SANTA (which I had to work out from the word play and then trace down the Mexican connection – probably would’ve been more correct to have used Spanish names) and LEFTISTS as the last one in.