1-across – Passed round communists, reactionary and twisted : DISTORTED

6-across – Put money away but deliver fancy vase : SAVE

8-across – Winner by a nose: pig out on this? : VICTORIA

9-across – See 8 : SPONGE

10-across – Slight addendum for drinks : SLURPS

11-across – Tools that could make us listen : UTENSILS

12-across – It makes you sick to see ice cap melting : IPECAC

15-across – Augustus returns to besiege Italian city, as sewers working : SUTURING

16-across – Very French to approve sin : TRESPASS

19-across – Quiz programme ends with: Set up secret recipe for pancakes : CREPES

21-across – Sprinkled on the middle of pizzas left parched outside : DRIZZLED

22-across – Scrambled egg in a biological process : AGEING

24-across – Richard heard of cheap goods order : DIKTAT

25-across – By stripping, tempt that jerk to become forceful : EMPHATIC

26-across – Man possibly read out passage : ISLE

27-across – Axes elm tree that’s crooked to a large extent : EXTREMELY

1-down – Exercise monkey but not man : DRILL

2-down – Mocking report that’s highly sexed : SATYRIC

3-down – Scary creatures arising from lesser gods : OGRES

4-down – Teaching only half 20s China : TEACUPS

5-down – Suffering indigestion when extremely dirty and contaminated apple core eaten : DYSPEPTIC

6-down – Champion trail around the poles : SPONSOR

7-down – Unofficial law enforcer poet from Rome right away topped one from Florence : VIGILANTE

13-down – Primarily people of rank artist represented here : PORTRAITS

14-down – See 22 down : CHARLOTTE

17-down – See 19 : SUZETTE

18-down – Most blue West End seats not left first : SADDEST

20-down – Up at 11, almost out : ELEVATE

22-down – Strange place, with pet eating tart for dessert : APPLE

23-down – Curious about Philistine being rowdy : NOISY

7-across – Nothing left in river for sheep : FOLLOWER

9-across – China bearing in the same direction, after a little time : TEASET

10-across – Heading for trouble, cuddle gorilla : THUG

11-across – Worked like a phone, perhaps, having screwed up both nuts : PUSHBUTTON

12-across – Duck flew backwards into rat : CANARD

14-across – Bird leading fish : STARLING

15-across – Prayer books, whatever : LITANY

17-across – Six short loose dresses, Serbian, perhaps? : SLAVIC

20-across – Turkey keeps messy room cleaner : FLOORMOP

22-across – Right in bear, a little hair : STRAND

23-across – Butcher avid, target fell : GRAVITATED

24-across – Mule, perhaps, finding love in lady : SHOE

25-across – Animal on a thoroughfare, chicken or mouse? : COWARD

26-across – Ending in Germany, look out : YACHTING

1-down – Bath fluid filling other half of hood put into storage : MOTHBALL

2-down – Slimy thing one’s shot : SLUG

3-down – Southpaw’s head rubbed lightly, as hit : SWIPED

4-down – Sloth drinking bath, the little thing hammered? : STUBNAIL

5-down – Ingenious brackets against girder fixed at one end : CANTILEVER

6-down – Lion in for horse : HEROIN

8-down – Weather is embraced by spider, perhaps? : RESIST

13-down – Vanuatu or Eritrean capital’s diverse style : ARTNOUVEAU

16-down – Worm meat done in a stew : NEMATODE

18-down – Shark identified fox : CONFOUND

19-down – Eating too much, mole suffering with pimples : SPOTTY

21-down – Young male hogs run over to get a bit of bacon : LARDON

22-down – Beguile with something to chew up during date : SEDUCE

24-down – Location of some animals, it emerges : SITE

1-across – Sound of laughter from warmonger, cut short repeatedly : HAWHAW

5-across – Drive off from established place for driving practice : ESTRANGE

9-across – Attention I needed in trial, being most distressed : TEARIEST

10-across – Wise counsellor somehow errs on no test, ignoring duplicates : NESTOR

11-across – Seeing double, mistakenly means to invest : SIEGEENGINES

13-across – Things like doughnuts, consumed more than once by motorist, originally : TORI

14-across – Over extended time, splits substances in chemical analysis : REAGENTS

17-across – Narrator’s ultimate joy is storytelling : RELATION

18-across – This couple twice said to trim fruit tree : PAIR

20-across – Use bold arrangement that gender-balanced quartet plays : MIXEDDOUBLES

23-across – Dance music or rap endlessly reprised : CHACHA

24-across – Repeats excerpt from writer, a testimony : ITERATES

25-across – Zero cost for tenants, including one from distant region : ORIENTAL

26-across – Disapproval old king briefly echoed : TUTTUT

2-down – Cuts lines on graph : AXES

3-down – Greeting Rosalind, then mother, in Asian city : HIROSHIMA

4-down – Did some work on plot in short act, half-heartedly : WEEDED

5-down – OK with risky venture — in return, earn pile, possibly, after its end : ENTREPRENEURIAL

6-down – Tool wasn’t holding one up : TENONSAW

7-down – Attack incomplete, much seen in score : ASSAI

8-down – Eg concert I botched in relation to omission from The Planets : GEOCENTRIC

12-down – Heavenly body mostly struck that woman as alluring : COMEHITHER

15-down – By the way, stupidly pen stupid article on time : ENPASSANT

16-down – Covering wood with fine spray, was careless with hands : MISDEALT

19-down – Legal right in court for individual using lawyer? : CLIENT

21-down – Person who presents medal, as spelt out : EMCEE

22-down – Before university, old boys getting information on courses : MENU

8-across – A shade over the pond, a complete state : COLORADO

9-across – European city left in the midst of floods : OPORTO

10-across – Oddly, blonde is turning heads in story of life after death : OBIT

11-across – Setter describing a clanger, perhaps, as owner of large corporation : JELLYBELLY

12-across – Friendly and unfriendly types confused : HUGGER

14-across – Close relationship with British and Italian church : BROMANCE

15-across – Convert yearned for clerical office : DEANERY

17-across – Sharp instrument, point getting round to puncture you : SYRINGE

20-across – Mother does the housework? That’s attractive! : CHARISMA

22-across – See 12 : MUGGER

23-across – Reportedly, actress Elizabeth with strapping figure producing commotion : HURLYBURLY

24-across – See 2 : SUIT

25-across – Entrance, one admitting first of crew on ship : ACCESS

26-across – Democrat in flying US party : WINGDING

1-down – Still slip to lift over top of elasticated garment that’s tight : BOOBTUBE

2-down – Caged bird, perhaps, holding us up, 1940s’ style : ZOOT

3-down – Vessel in difficult situ­ation, conflict : JAMJAR

4-down – Potential wife, double trouble! : WOULDBE

5-down – Sweet, short and round : ROLYPOLY

6-down – Go with man like mad, embracing very intimate experience : LOVEMAKING

7-down – Last characters in ski lift, almost every one I see on the slope : ITALIC

13-down – Hero of the South, broadly speaking? : GENERALLEE

16-down – Cultivate shrubs with one hollow plant : ROSEBUSH

18-down – Europeans creasing pants : GRECIANS

19-down – More than one grave line in some music : BARROWS

21-down – Feeling around a buttock and thigh : HAUNCH

22-down – Old people won’t necessarily answer : MAYANS

24-down – Face among images I deleted : SIDE

7-across – Sea Eagle follows Little Cloud, initially over posh Swiss city : LUCERNE

8-across – Dirty team containing one left back : SQUALID

9-across – For an actor, breaking a leg is good! : PEGG

10-across – Tea Party’s principal threat? : MADHATTER

12-across – Fish caught by 21 down reactionary : COHOS

13-across – Brush-off outside pub leads to rows : RHUBARBS

15-across – In China, family name some garden 3 : DENG

16-across – Original letters from First Girl I Loved, now involved in brief affair : FLING

17-across – Horseplay involving a horny man : FAUN

18-across – Great bit of leg in Sun publication : SMASHING

20-across – Instruments from 5000 Spirits? 10% of them : DRUMS

21-across – Make it big before Painting Box : STRIKEOIL

22-across – Starts in Sound Techniques : STEP

24-across – The 14 man with no piano, instead getting drunk : CHELSEA

25-across – Very good gimbri intro intended, say, for Chinese White? : PIGMENT

1-down – Group showing creative inspiration : MUSE

2-down – Prickly chap in side bet­ween posts before own goal : HEDGEHOG

3-down – The writer inspired by ditty about bankers? : GNOMES

4-down – Cousteau’s source of inspiration? One of the 14 on an organ : AQUALUNG

5-down – Tibetan tradition, to some extent? : TANTRA

6-down – Storyteller as part of line-up : LIAR

11-down – Daughter committing sin with the same short, bold actions? : DERRINGDO

12-down – Best group Way Back in the 1960s : CREAM

14-down – Right people for Royal Navy? : BLUES

16-down – More playful fellow, with accident more likely? : FRISKIER

17-down – The Guardian’s in Somerset town right away for a golf match : FOURSOME

19-down – Fellow going off Gently Tender at first? Very much so : SORELY

20-down – Clue I set after final appearance of David Gray, perhaps : DULCIE

21-down – Erected very large house in London area : SOHO

23-down – Layers of the Onion on repeat for long periods : EONS