9-across – Celebration in the first act, a problem not experienced by Miss 20 : AGALACTIA

10-across – Offensive Australian on the left-hand page from the start : ABOVO

11-across – * The sea takes a smack at Hope and Crosby : FISHING

12-across – * Opening time gong: spirit tips off Matthew to ask at pub for a mixed one : TOBEGIN

13-across – See 12 : ATTHE

14-across – See 12 : BEGINNING

16-across – A cut from Hobbema’s work accepted by Joan or Jean Harlow : BLONDEBOMBSHELL

19-across – Sandglasses, say, for a little boy in French department : EGGTIMERS

21-across – * Turn in pipe that was blind at night : HOUSE

22-across – Spoken initially, or spoken by a relative : SORORAL

23-across – See 11 : BOBBING

24-across – Some opening for an artist with words and music : OPERA

25-across – Jester to the Queen’s kept on account of having the 14 down : COALOWNER

1-down – Scots have, taking in variety of ebb and flaw, their own farthing? : HALFBAWBEE

2-down – Artificial pitch makes the flower of Cornwall fight : FALSETTO

3-down – The sea’s near and I’m off : MARINE

4-down – Beast leading nation to zero growth : STAG

5-down – 4 may perform what are played there? : PARTYGAMES

6-down – Surgeon upset by a new boss : SAWBONES

7-down – Jungle dweller gives Dr Grace a pound : MOWGLI

8-down – * Low pole, none at town tonight … : MOON

14-down – * … which is returning about the first and second bell, possibly : BIBLEBLACK

15-down – Long girdle going round 16? : GOLDENGIRL

17-down – * I have two wives and fear keeping one in the place : DAIBREAD

18-down – Hungry for Le Mesurier’s part that’s not to be shortened : ESURIENT

20-down – * Polly for the stocking she hasn’t got : GARTER

21-down – Be familiar spirit for aristocrat : HOBNOB

22-down – * The sea was so 14 down : SLOE

23-down – See 11 : BOAT

8-across – See 13 : THEPUMPS

9-across – Outside the teepee stands the Foreign Office minister, a capital fixer : HATPIN

10-across – Second visit to court has charm : APPEAL

11-across – I’m dashed – the female’s gone in to be publicised : HYPHENED

12-across – The trouser tribe? : LEVI

13-across – Held maths with laptop unsporting? The 5 is 17! : ALLHANDSTO

15-across – Particular place is required : SPECIAL

16-across – Free held, with a ring around the ‘ead and face : ALODIAL

18-across – Row 9’s back, entering the specific gravity of starch : STIFFENING

19-across – Everyone goes in for teaching : EACH

20-across – French writer entertaining model monarch on journey by 5 : STARTREK

22-across – Smarten up the parson if he’s going to take a seat? : REVAMP

23-across – Monty’s creatures get their dues without art forgery : DESERT

24-across – Not a soul keeps dry in front of the spacecraft : NOSECONE

1-down – Lofted stroke out to sea produces Franco-British food : CHIPPEDPOTATOES

2-down – Pisces could be applied to men or fish – or penguins : SPHENISCIFORMES

3-down – Join as first officer on the Morning Seaweed : AMALGAMATE

4-down – Stuff on the road makes snake stop : ASPHALT

5-down – See 17 : SHIP

6-down – Went to church, there being no need for 13 8 : ATTENDEDSERVICE

7-down – Hell’s gate, chaps! It’s time for the waving of a wand : DISENTRANCEMENT

14-down – The whole personality to be elevated by what Bunyan did : ALLEGORISE

17-down – 21 23 the Napoleon of crime to ending of abstraction : SINKING

21-down – See 23 : RATS

1-across – A row, or arrow? : QUARREL

5-across – 21’s likely successor to both 15 and 16 across : JOHNSON

9-across – Ordinal’s burden has no beginning, that is, and article no end : EIGHTIETH

10-across – Charge for cheque, a quarter : GIRON

11-across – See 21 : RUBY

12-across – Causing offence where Liberal Democrats stand? : JAYWALKING

14-across – He conditioned dogs to slaver, seeing endless dessert : PAVLOV

15-across – Continental Inn? : LINCOLN

16-across – Surprisingly, deny previous knowledge of a fiddler? : KENNEDY

18-across – Affairs settled way back : EVENTS

20-across – Reserves regular publication in advance with these payments? : ANNUALSUBS

21-across – He 23 4 with two stones : JACK

24-across – Model in spirit is kind of a dish : PETRI

25-across – Old drug dealer short of a line, bringing back perfect cups of mushrooms : APOTHECIA

26-across – Redwood inwardly was broody : REPINED

27-across – Caps forsook rhymes with maps for book : HATLESS

1-down – Queen swops Pole for her partner, giddy and odd : QUEER

2-down – Figures characterised by a broken leg needing support : ALGEBRA

3-down – Sun rises, dammit! : RATS

4-down – Ever associated with Dallas, ye who : LEEHARVEYOSWALD

5-down – In small American room, at play, it’s bloke who 23 15 : JOHNWILKESBOOTH

6-down – Scot’s up for a pound and a sovereign : HIGHLANDER

7-down – Mute, thus stifling the alternative, a lot of noise : SORDINO

8-down – Figure egg drink soon will come up : NONAGON

13-down – 1 across doesn’t involve Conservative for a change : ALTERATION

16-down – The head, we hear, is chipper : KNAPPER

17-down – Constant nightmare’s beginning on the way to work : NONSTOP

19-down – Some money borrowed, then car may be repaired : TRANCHE

22-down – Takes off with poet : KEATS

23-down – Crack and snap : SHOT

1-across – Initial payment bound to include bribe in return : DEPOSIT

5-across – Rub up, if given brush-off : FURBISH

9-across – Isle of Gold first formed in copper : CORFU

10-across – Covering prolific corres-pondent in train crash : TARPAULIN

11-across – Interlaces components, as bureaucracy may? : CENTRALISE

12-across – Flower of Conrad’s Heart read backwards : ARNO

14-across – Unfortunate outcome is about to disrupt the union : MISCARRIAGE

18-across – Posh officer has lots of pasta and in French is extremely colourful : ULTRAVIOLET

21-across – Fun with bird : LARK

22-across – Encourage return into town, pursuing stench of cant : HUMBUGGERY

25-across – Columns put a stop to new dean : COLONNADE

26-across – Turn back the clock for reference : REMIT

27-across – Being to wash and take into service : ENSLAVE

28-across – Belgian artist back about one with consonant transposer : SPOONER

1-down – Boil for two months : DECOCT

2-down – Reduce books in relation : PARENT

3-down – Group sharing ‘usband complain about hearty dish : SQUAREMEAL

4-down – Everything in Plato turned round : TOTAL

5-down – Anticipate a lot of trees – 4? : FORESTALL

6-down – Be rewarded with dialectal river in posh accent : REAP

7-down – Bad reversal of northern light for Orsino and Olivia, say : ILLYRIAN

8-down – Remnant to be suspended round middle of range : HANGOVER

13-down – Actress : GRETAGARBO

15-down – Pretend to keep time and get going : STIMULATE

16-down – Turn up prompt : CURLICUE

17-down – Surprises model kept in dark, mostly : STARTLES

19-down – Article on origin of language : GERMAN

20-down – Storey designed with delicacy : OYSTER

23-down – Approve of the second-rate and inferior : BLESS

24-down – Victim in Cortez’s adventure, initially : INCA

8-across – See 24 across : DILUVIAN

9-across – Contrarily, Verne’s captain enlisted 51 well-drilled personnel : OILMEN

10-across – Superstar left after wedding speech : IDOL

11-across – Noah’s want, wet mobility, went adrift. So how did he pack them in? : THEANIMALS

12-across – See 11 : WENTIN

14-across – See 11 : TWOBYTWO

15-across – No churchgoer is in at the Reformation! : ATHEIST

17-across – French production unit with English retail outlet : ATELIER

20-across – Application for work : INDUSTRY

22-across – A king’s ransom, say? : ARTHUR

23-across – Appropriate factions warring in church : CONFISCATE

24-across – Inundate vital disorder: no time before 11 12 14 : ANTE

25-across – Half in for a penny, in for a pound! It was in Essex once : ILFORD

26-across – See 2 : UNDERONE

1-down – Angry young man told to go here? : WILDWEST

2-down – Leave one floored, forlorn, unheld, up gum tree – devastated! : PULL

3-down – Keynes’s poetic precursor : MILTON

4-down – In 24 across – clear miss : ANNETTE

5-down – Detected bipartite castaway : FOUNDOUT

6-down – Butter-fingered colt, as it were? : CLUMSYCLOT

7-down – Roar of Saul, a literary lion : BELLOW

13-down – See 2 : THERUGFROM

16-down – If it’s right to go for Europe initially, it could be disaster for farming policy : SETASIDE

18-down – Still standing about mid-July, gets carried away : EXULTANT

19-down – Could this be combined in his lover? : PYRAMUS

21-down – Fool might get up to act in lone parts : NOODLE

22-down – Things to be done last as Miss Trollope’s range goes out : AGENDA

24-down – Flower with attitude, say? : AIRE