1-across – Catcher accepts unfinished poem: don’t talk to the messenger : TELEGRAPHIST

8-across – Little boy sees good solver’s much extended : LENGTHY

9-across – Popular protest leads to convulsion : DEMOTIC

11-across – She doesn’t say what there is : THERESA

12-across – Pet for boy from Barcelona : CATALAN

13-across – Fish has left woodwork at gate : ENTRY

14-across – Get in line, say, for game across the Thames : KEWBRIDGE

16-across – Go to a museum, perhaps, even if it’s free? : PAYAVISIT

19-across – Little one left in tower : BABEL

21-across – Slough disposal is after its first during reversion of Indian groom : ECDYSIS

23-across – Draw a model for area : ATTRACT

24-across – Philosopher abandoning both extremes for very noisy derivative : SPINOFF

25-across – Change round in the morning: phone company books men to deride innocent victim : ALAMBTO

26-across – See 25 : THESLAUGHTER

1-down – Sunburn for man like the ground to a wheel? : TANGENT

2-down – Last year’s leaders keep carnivore on spec : LOTTERY

3-down – Fellow with divisions in road, reportedly — he gets burnt : GUYFAWKES

4-down – Submarine detector sounds like small boy : ASDIC

5-down – Beast gets hot on Dutch dam : HAMSTER

6-down – Brock’s home was first to be colonised : SETTLED

7-down – Kit’s here, stupid! The man’s a journalist : CLOTHESPRESS

10-down – Rule about little room at first needing scrubbing : CANCELLATION

15-down – Successfully? It’s not the end of the world : WITHABANG

17-down – Language of heart-throb after rise of homework : YIDDISH

18-down – Sticky 6 from Liverpool didn’t finish : VISCOUS

19-down – A few lines — got some between the teeth : BITPART

20-down – Three bachelors, real weird, that will talk too much : BLABBER

22-down – Capital seat accommodating setter : SOFIA

8-across – British government went in to save battered old city? : SARAJEVO

9-across – Gallic stonemason’s award, almost the 60th : OBELIX

10-across – Ball used to appear in odd places : BLUE

11-across – Bullet loaded in Luger illegally, breaking it? : GROUNDRULE

12-across – Circle Line : ORANGE

14-across – In other versions, pilot starred with female : REDRAFTS

15-across – A priest wore outmoded suit in the past : ADAPTED

17-across – Dish of burnished regal gold a duke dumped : EGGROLL

20-across – When swimming, five catch virus — one pongs : EFFLUVIA

22-across – React to sudden pain : YELLOW

23-across – In over half of Limoges its factories make cars : LIMOUSINES

24-across – In Paris who’s first to devalue our cash? : QUID

25-across – Model doing without this writer : INDIGO

26-across – Web addict swallows drug : ONELINER

1-down – 15 followed gold blocks : TAILORED

2-down – Superior pigment? : LAKE

3-down – Nothing better than a good stuffing, if you’re this? : MEAGRE

4-down – Conscientious objector looks threatening : COLOURS

5-down – King hit Home Office and German government welcoming party : HOUNDDOG

6-down – Drunk rebel cases the Monarch pub, looking for this? : BEERBARREL

7-down – Check about 10 litres : VIOLET

13-down – Sort of code new police set about operating after an uprising : NAPOLEONIC

16-down – Fancy roast venison I nicked? : ENVISION

18-down – Cover over unit is bound to be put on a pedestal : LIONISED

19-down – Gunmen in part of east London : RAINBOW

21-down – Pretends to be from abroad or leaving Sweden : FEIGNS

22-down – They always approve head of state in Arab country : YESMEN

24-down – Treat this serpentine to make quartzite grill : QUIZ

1-across – Sculptor of decay : MOULDER

5-across – Right of officer to be wrong about court : CORRECT

10-across – Setter’s introduced to supersoft exploiter of women : PIMP

11-across – Potential butcher filleted scraggy piece of meat en route : PSYCHOPATH

12-across – Fool — character from Lear — carrying monarch round : DRONGO

13-across – Natural defence for small boy absorbing brief life in retrospect : ANTIBODY

14-across – Falling, with drink unfinished, in pub before church : INCIDENCE

16-across – Ill-humour about book, or a collection of them : BIBLE

17-across – In Africa, barter over counters : ABACI

19-across – Relate to mate shipwrecked before end of voyage : EMPATHISE

23-across – Crowds catching an unpleasant whiff of 9 : MANBOOBS

24-across – Spoil argument for vegetable : MARROW

26-across – Cheerful chime making little sense : BLITHERING

27-across – Penetrators of the mysteries of origami coming from the East : MAGI

28-across – Belittle qualification endlessly receiving publicity : DEGRADE

29-across – Play nurse first? : PRETEND

2-down – Very short distance to pursue love letter : OMICRON

3-down – Flower having risen, nothing’s rising outside : LUPIN

4-down – Go off and trudge into river : EXPLODE

6-down – Stone-baked hot pie : OPHITE

7-down – Once more bring out of watering hole in delight : REPUBLISH

8-down – Helen’s mother’s habit — erecting fortress : CITADEL

9-down – Abnormal growth of company? A nasty image, needs refashioning : GYNAECOMASTIA

15-down – Promoter of early growth in state raised 1 : INCUBATOR

18-down – Bank of Scotland provides home for unhealthy type-founder : BRAILLE

20-down – Squire’s Alfa Romeo gets government almost overthrown : ARMIGER

21-down – Military leader securing time with firearm : SHOTGUN

22-down – Do what must be done, slicing ends off butt : DOGEND

25-down – Appointed tasks concerning US seat of learning : REMIT

8-across – A compound to the east of British hall : BASILICA

9-across – Food for 13, 3, 25 and 2 etc, cryptically? : PASTA

10-across – See 24 down : ELSE

11-across – Picture battleaxe as flower : SNAPDRAGON

12-across – Brown clothes unus­ual for US president : TRUMAN

14-across – First William’s home and not the Prince of Darkness : NORMANDY

15-across – Pity hopeless state is standard : TYPICAL

17-across – Void serial number with dexterity : SLEIGHT

20-across – Contrary part of the brain welcoming naughty word, the blooming thing : SNOWDROP

22-across – Amusing chap’s decay : FUNGUS

23-across – Dear divorcee upset about publicity : OVERPRICED

24-across – Sharpen weak sounds : WHET

25-across – Welshman with the balls to leave company : JONES

26-across – Drop in price for 9 : FARFALLE

1-down – PMT, did you say? : EARLGREY

2-down – Fish dish with grand filling : PIKE

3-down – See 7 : WILSON

4-down – Drop in route for 9 : LASAGNE

5-down – Drag artist about to fade, turning up for number : EPIDURAL

6-down – Increase a lot in case requiring negotiation : ESCALATION

7-down – PMS in doll, now hair ruffled : HAROLD

13-down – 3’s leader’s publication to protect in struggle at home : MAINWARING

16-down – Perfect game concealed by bank, hard to improve image : AIRBRUSH

18-down – Employ female to feed the blessed insect : HOUSEFLY

19-down – State’s agent holding up fine diamonds : SPECIFY

21-down – Brave old islander surfacing : NAVAJO

22-down – One’s felt the Iron Lady : FEDORA

24-down – Brew Welsh tea — why choose another? : WHAT

1-across – Expert to dump moth : BUFFTIP

5-across – Fight with the Queen’s violinist? : SCRAPER

9-across – A 2 operator’s Nazi catchword : ARYAN

10-across – Piece to see with bird and smile : LOHENGRIN

11-across – City channel : MANCHESTER

12-across – City of 10’s bird? : KIEV

14-across – No matter that a fiend gets gold — so much is bilingual : UNIMPORTANT

18-across – Complaint that one could hear Forsyth greeting relative? : BRUCELLOSIS

21-across – Franciscan food? : TUCK

22-across – There’s heavenly vision, we hear, with saline solution : THEDEADSEA

25-across – Setter’s got his love removed from once threatening state : IMMINENCE

26-across – In the dark until switched : UNLIT

27-across – See 20 : SINGERS

28-across – Have you heard Have some Madeira, ___ after a term and a half? : MIDYEAR

1-down – Composer is god if he changes ends : BRAHMS

2-down – Piece working for KLM? : FLYING

3-down – Property in Berlin retained by 6d piece : TANNHAUSER

4-down – City coppers in Scotland : POLIS

5-down – Novel spectacles include hard seat backed by associate of Cadbury : SCHWEPPES

6-down – Pieces of bull, perhaps : RING

7-down – Zoroastrian river piece : PARSIFAL

8-down – Restore what may have been overeaten heartlessly : RENOVATE

13-down – Piece going to Sunderland: is it possible? : TRISTANUND

15-down – I held up joiners to the devil’s work force? : IDLEHANDS

16-down – Sailor with blemishes doesn’t indulge : ABSTAINS

17-down – See 2 : DUTCHMAN

19-down – See 13 : ISOLDE

20-down – Piece of a thousand flowers in a department : MASTER

23-down – Fancy mother entertaining king of Italy! : DREAM

24-down – Even a king may come up out of a bender : KNEE