1-across – It’s impossible to manufacture a bird : FORGETIT

5-across – Latest fake ‘art’ may be seen here : LATTES

9-across – Removing bottom from lacy gown isn’t half irresponsible : NEGLIGENT

11-across – Bit of lightheartedness in western martial arts : TRALA

12-across – Squeezebox lost in a thousand pounds of Royal Albert Hall gear : CONCERTGRAND

15-across – Unexplained phenomena among retrograde moons of Uranus : UFOS

16-across – Bench-sitters shift buttocks : ALTERNATES

18-across – Former wife’s grip that’ll need painkiller : EXTRACTION

19-across – Went to neaten garden : WEED

21-across – One taking it to the edge fancifully guzzling rotten gin and a fifth of mulled wine? : BINGEDRINKER

24-across – Invitation word Don expressed? : WHERE

25-across – Deep-sea swimming,both directions,for sunken gem : SEEDPEARL

26-across – Rover was one sort of dog : SETTER

27-across – Top Android,say,goes after toxic element in hazardous material : ASBESTOS

1-down – Almost slice up rat : FINK

2-down – Joplin composition: a Bollywood soundtrack tune : RAGA

3-down – Tesla rival is done screwing around : EDISON

4-down – Photo edges cropped from crude close-up pictures of ephemeral art : ICESCULPTURES

6-down – Sophocles heroine in favour of sticking around? : ANTIGONE

7-down – Genteel affairs in which pirates ate bats : TEAPARTIES

8-down – Get out of way of bear chased by first-string team? : STANDASIDE

10-down – Wise monkeys count dogs in long baskets : THREEPOINTERS

13-down – Great Hooters contests,stateside : SUPERBOWLS

14-down – Able to contain it with internal force? It’s conditional : CONTINGENT

17-down – You can see Venus with this device externally held by eccentric Yankee : NAKEDEYE

20-down – Part of the head’s religious centre : TEMPLE

22-down – Lisa’s brother is a spoiled brat! : BART

23-down – Chains raised in child’s play : ALPS

1-across – Frightfully rich rhapsodist and musician : HARPSICHORDIST

8-across – Espionage and assassination in Japan partly his job : NINJA

9-across – Line that could have solved the issue in 1 down : BAKERLOO

11-across – They say Philistine puts on glasses or contact lenses : EYEWEAR

12-across – As a localised disease regularly seen by trained medic : ENDEMIC

13-across – Deport next spy cell,essentially : EXPEL

15-across – Fertiliser covered by offensive will : TESTAMENT

17-across – Difficult age is following obsessive medicine : ANALGESIA

20-across – Badger inconsiderately : RATEL

21-across – Not at home,predator returns for discharge : OUTFLOW

23-across – Listener gets advert for wax,perhaps : EARPLUG

25-across – Function with therapy in a cushy job : SINECURE

26-across – Bond type sarcastic? That’s not right : IONIC

27-across – What covers the 1st and 2nd of 10 as judgment day? : ESCHATOLOGICAL

1-down – Stated reason for sacking a baker? The man had to go! : HENEEDEDAPOO

2-down – Corrupt insider without papers becoming clean : RINSE

3-down – Take action and say nothing on potential leakage : SHAKEALEG

4-down – Rubbish etc about a tavern,place with live music : CABARET

5-down – Most of New York’s scattered islands not called this by their inhabitants : ORKNEYS

6-down – Challenged father to hold radioactive shell : DARED

7-down – Among saints,Rome somehow admitted one that’s least clement : STORMIEST

10-down – A Scot awkwardly making sense of the joke in 1 down? : SCATOLOGICAL

14-down – Design isn’t a different version of bananas : PLANTAINS

16-down – Broadcasting about sauté as cooking style : AIRFRYING

18-down – Result of carpentry that’s a feature of some pubs : SAWDUST

19-down – We shall mature first,as fine wine will do : AGEWELL

22-down – Scrounger and cad heading north having stolen cash to begin with : LEECH

24-down – Fell in action protecting what speeds up particles : LINAC

1-across – Comical descent of creatures that fly around house : BATHOS

5-across – Defiant,having capsized off England’s south coast? : INSOLENT

9-across – People who fall for footwear : SLIPPERS

10-across – Beggar can expose housing secret : ARCANE

11-across – Carrot and thyme salad with round fruit? : CHERRYTOMATO

13-across – Part of blind alley,perhaps,outside city : SLAT

14-across – ‘Funny business’ as sad colleagues of sacked police commissioner are heard to say? : MISCHIEF

17-across – Way one’s stricken with primarily genetic cause of disease : PATHOGEN

18-across – Bananas turning bowl over : NUTS

20-across – As usual,ice cracks and splits vessel – not a tragedy : JULIUSCAESAR

23-across – <span>Passage from </span><i>A Meeting Place</i> : AVENUE

24-across – Engrave council official’s initials on mountain top device : INTERCOM

25-across – Famous person’s not finished wearing kid’s jewellery : BRACELET

26-across – Sea-monster,Komodo dragon outwardly,swallowing playboy : KRAKEN

2-down – Cross borne by bitter Rod? : AXLE

3-down – Child’s play,so bound to be on the booze : HOPSCOTCH

4-down – Spike senior snatching week off : SKEWER

5-down – Player’s agent having celebrity status : INSTRUMENTALIST

6-down – Pain getting dimwit to be a wiseacre : SMARTASS

7-down – Almost mad Greek character stood up for deputy : LOCUM

8-down – Clubhouse extension of course? : NINETEENTH

12-down – Everyone needs a means of holding flights when quite trembly : ALLAQUIVER

15-down – Voluntary fees from ‘Little Darling’ : HONORARIA

16-down – Say Green Sapphire tops Fire and Brimstone as a paint option : EGGSHELL

19-down – Two jobs and one’s left both – dearie,dearie me! : TSKTSK

21-down – In desperation I curse like the Greeks of old : IONIC

22-down – See 8 : HOLE

1-across – Keep hoping undraped women at the end smile mischievously : NILDESPERANDUM

9-across – Getting back in time,keep at it inside : TITFORTAT

10-across – One purple heart taken affecting pelvic area : ILIAC

11-across – Watching what vandal’s doing to car which won’t start : EYING

12-across – Go for a working dinner,only the second offering meat : PEPPERONI

13-across – Begging Iran and Togo to settle : ROGATION

14-across – Clergyman heard shot at table : CANNON

17-across – Done so badly,it’s lumpy : NODOSE

19-across – Not all right,scenery in one part of England : SOMERSET

22-across – Pick up contents of nappy by river! To what purpose? : APPREHEND

24-across – One son in clear – it’s not the full picture : INSET

25-across – Bashir’s odds slashed? Mental! : INNER

26-across – An elite fighter shortly entering very small country : SANMARINO

27-across – Idle,so I applied to perform with those I might come across : LOLLIPOPLADIES

1-down – Negotiate in war shamefully showing disrespect? : NOTWEARINGATIE

2-down – What am I doing,increase in size permitting? : LETTING

3-down – Increases confusion involving the very rich : ELONGATES

4-down – Mate with sweetheart in bar – it’s been arranged beforehand : PUTUPJOB

5-down – Again put down Romeo’s iconic car : RETYPE

6-down – Balls left by top seed – and racket : NOISE

7-down – Horny individual in college with my name : UNICORN

8-down – One visiting London’s North,South,East and West : ACTIONSTATIONS

15-down – Culture represented by apple pie,baseball,roots music and er- a maniac maybe? : AMERICANA

16-down – Criticises GP over accepting 50 and change in conditions : COLDSNAP

18-down – Selectively read point I’d made : DIPINTO

20-down – Is being sent back – like that bloke maintained it’s not cooked : SASHIMI

21-down – Make a mistake transitioning and come clean : FESSUP

23-down – Councillor never showing up to register : ENROL

7-across – More work defaced with your flipping clipart? : TOPIARY

8-across – Blubber on the belly of Basil Brush? : SWEEPER

9-across – Terms of economic policy address insufficient growth : CYST

10-across – Nova Scotia almost botched missions : VOCATIONS

12-across – Elle Macpherson in retreat holding a cigarette : CAMEL

13-across – Determined expression of girlfriend tackling a Brockwell Genius : GAMEFACE

15-across – Son admitted to lying about police record : DISC

16-across – Exeter’s wingers go after draw in defensive formation : TOWER

17-across – Kitty’s back to stay : STOP

18-across – Jockey regularly steers Tiger Roll : REGISTER

20-across – Bill Clinton’s original hell : CHECK

21-across – Industry quarrel about Keith Chegwin’s No.1 hit : WORKETHIC

22-across – Group typically made up of runners heading to finish : KISS

24-across – Avoided Europeans on vacation dressed like Superman : ESCAPED

25-across – Tense over following injury : WOUNDUP

1-down – Spooner’s house-elf is stiff : BODY

2-down – <span>Day for Cristiano Ronaldo to meet international comms leaders,like O</span>₂ : DIATOMIC

3-down – Pass time with composer : TRAVEL

4-down – Tango with Oti Mabuse exhausted Romeo and love rat : TWOTIMER

5-down – Selection of Waitrose toffees in foil : SETOFF

6-down – Calls on arrest for dictator : SEES

11-down – Business mogul essentially throws out 14 from Disney Castle : COGSWORTH

12-down – The writer is restricted by red ring : CHIME

14-down – Notice male snorting line : CLOCK

16-down – Reeled in trout at sea intermittently on date : TOTTERED

17-down – Poseidon embracing power of conversation : SPEAKING

19-down – Welshman pulled up over occasionally narrow encroachment : INROAD

20-down – Absent parent to throw husband out over nothing : CUCKOO

21-down – Sensible questions in audition : WISE

23-down – Lazy person getting the bullet : SLUG