tpg (Anthony Barra) has kindly provided a puzzle for the York gathering…if you want to solve the puzzle before reading the blog, it can be found here.
Some ‘Special Instructions’ are supplied as well:
“To support your solve, this puzzle includes a classic British film’s:
– title
– writer
– director
– lead actors
– and source material
– along with a memorable line of dialogue”
After a couple of initial passes, the grid started to fill up gradually, and the first PDM came when I got (David) LEAN at 5D – well signposted as the definition is ‘director’, despite a cheeky bit of misdirection with ‘German’!
Unfortunately that didn’t help much, as even this bear of relatively little film knowledge knows a few David Lean films: A Passage to India, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Doctor Zhivago. But I couldn’t see any of those words appearing in the grid…
Pressing on, I eventually got to Noel COWARD appearing at 18D – but this time defined as a playwright, which is what I would automatically associate with him, along with his witty and pithy songs, like ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’, and a cameo appearance in The Italian Job.
By this point the grid was almost full, and all the thematic material I seemed to have was these two names – no title, no stars, no source material, no dialogue.
It took a little Wiki-oogling research to establish that Lean and Coward collaborated on a few films around the time of the Second World War, including In Which We Serve, Blithe Spirit, This Happy Breed and Brief Encounter.
And the last one triggered a few face-palm moments as I realised that:
Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, the lead actors, are name-checked in 18D and 2D respectively
Coward’s one-act play ‘Still Life‘ (17D) was the ‘source material’ for the screenplay, adapted by Coward himself
the title was hidden in plain sight as an acrostic in the first letters of Across clues
those unches around the edge – which should have had Nina alarm bells ringing in my head from the start – contained the line ‘NOT EVEN LIFE LASTS VERY LONG‘, said by Johnson, as Laura Jesson
the preamble says the PUZZLE contains all these items, not the GRID, as I misinterpreted it…this needed some thinking ‘outside of the box’!
I have to confess to never having watched it (cue a Bateman ‘The Man Who admitted to never having watched Brief Encounter’ cartoon), but I was familiar with the title, Lean, Coward and the two stars. I am sure many others will be aficionados who sussed it out as soon as they saw Lean, Coward/Howard and Celia. And others more observant than me might have looked for the Acrostic straight off…
Anyway, I think all that remains is for me to thank tpg for an entertaining (and educational, for your blogger) diversion, and I trust all is clear below.
Across
Clue No
Solution / Entry
Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing
7A
TYPO
Boo-boo? Yep, on vacation slicing tomato when exhausted (4)
T_O (TomatO, exhausted of inner letters) around (sliced by) YP (YeP, vacated of inner letter)
[the first words of each Across clue form an acrostic giving the thematic film’s title]
8A
THE LIKES OF
Representatives such as Rocky ok with filth, see? (3,5,2)
anag, i.e. rocky, of OK with FILTH SEE
10A
ORNITHIC
In distress, tiny tailless choir of birds (8)
anag, i.e. in distress, of TIN(Y) (tiny, tailless) + CHOIR
11A
HANKIE
Endless gratitude to friend essentially providing nose rag (6)
(T)HANK(S) (gratitude, endless) + IE (essence, or centre, of frIEnd)
12A
NYSE
Financial market regularly tense: yen backsliding (4)
reversed (backsliding) regular letters from ‘tEnSe YeN’
[the N of the solution is the start of a clockwise perimetral Nina, giving the thematic memorable line of dialogue]
13A
BANANA PEEL
Eel, following boy’s lead, advanced near grandma with papa chasing yellowjacket? (6,4)
B (leading letter of Boy) + A (Advanced, as in A-level) + NANA (grandma) + P (papa, P, phonetic alphabet) + EEL
15A
ERASE
Nullify rule in facility (5)
E_ASE (facility) around R (rule)
16A
REPEL
Chase away salesman, rejecting terms of legal loophole (5)
REP (representative, salesman) + EL (LE, terminal letters of legaL loopholE, rejected)
19A
GREENSTONE
Oddball enters wearing departed’s Māori jade (10)
G_ONE (departed) around (wearing) REENST (anag, i.e. oddball, of ENTERS)
21A
LIMA
Unwrapped ACME’s variety of beans (4)
(C)LIMA(X), acme, peak, unwrapped from its outer letters
22A
NEEDLE
Nag Miss Lee interminably (6)
NEED (miss, want) + LE(E) (Lee, not finished, so interminably!)
24A
AMOROSOS
Tolerable Roman mainly coming back for sweet sherries (8)
SO-SO (tolerable) + ROMA(N) (mainly, mostly) = SOSOROMA, coming back to give ANOROSOS!
26A
OUTFIELDER
Extraordinary life detour defines ballplayer (10)
anag, i.e. extraordinary, of LIFE DETOUR
27A
ISNT
Risk undressing? Nice at first; in the end it ain’t (4)
(R)IS(K) ‘undressed’ + N (first of Nice) + T (end of iT)
Down
Clue No
Solution / Entry
Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing
1D
EYE-RHYME
Dewy web periodically gathered frost, wood and … food? (3-5)
EYE (periodic letters of ‘dEwY wEb’ + RHYME (homophone, i.e. gathered – RHYME can sound like RIME, frost)
2D
VOCIFERATE
Cry out to Celia, gutted, if ever struggling (10)
anag, i.e. struggling, of TO + C(ELI)A (gutted of middle letters) + IF EVER
[the Celia in the clue being a reference to the thematic acting lead, Celia Johnson]
3D
ETCH
Get topless and groove (4)
(F)ETCH – fetch, topless (for a Down clue)
4D
NIGHT NURSE
She’ll relieve you in the dark and barely clutch beneath the head (5,5)
NIGHT (dark) + (A)N(D) (and, barely, or with its outer letters removed) + (P)URSE (clutch, handbag/purse, below its first letter, or head, for a Down clue)
5D
LEAN
Pick up missing debut from German director (4)
(G)LEAN, learn, pick up, missing G – debut letter of German
[David Lean, our thematic director]
6D
IODINE
Symbolically, I eat with cow (6)
IO (Greek mythology, a maiden turned into a heifer by Zeus, so cow) + DINE (eat)
9D
EX-CONS
Some Libs freed criminals (2-4)
punning double defn. – some Liberal politicians will be former Conservatives, or EX-CONS; and freed criminals are EX-CONS; and I guess the two groups are not mutually exclusive!
13D
BEEF SKEWER
Live a little eccentrically facing loud critique as one held to the fire, say (4,6)
BE (live) + E (a little, or first letter, of Eccentrically) next to (facing) F (forte, music, loud) + SKEWER (a negative critique, or review, of a work could be said to have skewered its subject/creator)
14D
POPE LEO XIV
His Holiness, Pele, beginning to organize team into position (4,3,3)
PO_V (point of view, position) around PE_LE + O (beginning to organise) + XI (eleven, team)
17D
LAMPOONS
Still Life, primarily capturing a mop with no changes, sent up in parodies (8)
L_S (primary letters of Still Life, sent up) around (capturing) AMPOON (anag, i.e. changes, of A MOP + NO)
[Still Life being the thematic source material, a 1936 play by Noel Coward]
18D
COWARD
Howard gets cast initially to play husband’s part for larger-than-life playwright (6)
(H)OWARD with C (initial letter of Cast) replacing H (husband) = COWARD (Noel Coward, larger-than-life playwright)
[the Howard in the clue referring to the thematic acting lead, Trevor Howard; and the Coward of the solution to the thematic writer!]
20D
RUEFUL
Not entirely true? Full-stop: Sorry. (6)
hidden word in, i.e. not entirely all of, ‘tRUE FULl-stop’
23D
DEFY
Idolize heartless rebel (4)
DE(I)FY, idolise, heartless
25D
OGRE
Frog recalled boxing hideous giant (4)
hidden word in, i.e. boxed by, ‘frOG REcalled’
https://fifteensquared.net/2026/10/25/sb-2026-a-puzzle-by-tpg/
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/46dfbc950873fb7a9259805561bf17ef83a651d01adc54c6ff7983492f931c43?s=75&d=initials&r=r&initials=mc
#puzzle #coward #lean #tpg #anthonybarra #davidlean #noelcoward #grid #clue #doctorzhivago
#rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit