Clues

9-across – For example, Peter Ustinov can: true or false? : RACONTEUR

10-across – Hardy casually removing lead from dog : OLLIE

11-across – 8’s dog tooth : GNASHER

12-across – Fruit’s zest : PASSION

13-across – Potato sound in the orchestra : TUBA

14-across – Sport, we learn, isn’t made up : REALTENNIS

15-across – Causes irritation with eyes? : NEEDLES

17-across – Paul, perhaps, threw wobbly – blimey! : STREWTH

19-across – 5 down from 10 may be routine : NINETOFIVE

22-across – Shop around for transport : TRAM

23-across – One unwillingly held underwear with mark inside : HOSTAGE

24-across – Regarding Enigmatist being only half-drunk: therapy’s required : REGIMEN

26-across – Virtually repugnant, 51 hair-like projections : VILLI

27-across – Purgative offered when Moggy car hit Rolls : CATHARTIC

1-down – Side of the brain having no blood circulation : BRIGHTONANDHOVE

2-down – To hurry for a plane, race on a motorbike : SCRAMBLE

3-down – You’ll get not very far in Finchley : INCH

4-down – Brave and strong, not entirely like Van Gogh : FEARLESS

5-down – Drive right, right becomes left at the end : PROPEL

6-down – 21-man’s croak, we hear? : MONSIEUR

7-down – See 1 : ALBION

8-down – Strip shown in scene and suspicious motive involved : DENNISTHEMENACE

16-down – Libertine 1 : Harlot 0 : LOTHARIO

17-down – Harshness evident and almost all see the truth : SEVERITY

18-down – Colleague’s pain heard over collapse of market : WORKMATE

20-down – Settle for some honest leadership : NESTLE

21-down – Expletive to be pardoned could be knickers : FRENCH

25-down – Eat Chinaman up : GNAW

1-across – Incontinent cows showing lack of power of voluntary motion : AKINESIA

5-across – Flier to obstruct venture : BARBET

9-across – Person in poem is a painter : VERONESE

10-across – Patch together a fishing boat touring Belgium : COBBLE

11-across – Unfaithful lover in novel is scared : CRESSIDA

12-across – Finished one small drink : PASTIS

14-across – Sportsman embraced old workman : PLATELAYER

18-across – Deception begs future involvement : SUBTERFUGE

22-across – Banker transfixed by English brigand : REIVER

23-across – Caroline’s nasty chemical : ACROLEIN

24-across – Time to interrupt credulous resident : NATIVE

25-across – Work the land in infamous prison : BASTILLE

26-across – Old journalist and artist in seated room : EXEDRA

27-across – Enthusiast is after trunk of tree : CHESTNUT

1-down – Failing to support a director’s recommendation : ADVICE

2-down – Serial broadcast in the country : ISRAEL

3-down – Bloke with bird on the street : ERNEST

4-down – Fashionable team went forward : INSIDELEFT

6-down – Is skilled at getting round girl; that’s charming : ADORABLE

7-down – Weave corsets producing tension on ship : BOBSTAYS

8-down – Initially teachers half-heartedly comfort trusted servant : TREASURE

13-down – The drama teacher’s carriage? : STAGECOACH

15-down – New sergeant is set at odds : ESTRANGE

16-down – The sailor’s to go astray when on the drink : ABSINTHE

17-down – 22 surrounds church fence : RECEIVER

19-down – Footwear worn by Oriental stars : BOOTES

20-down – Wizard often having a stoop : MERLIN

21-down – Against separating unreactive type of sugar : INVERT

1-across – A representative is admitted back in the old country : PERSIA

5-across – Place containing microwave emitter, or place containing monks : LAMASERY

9-across – They are hot and cold – that is the start of something : CHILLIES

10-across – Fellow turning round on the way to fall asleep : NODOFF

11-across – Living together in love abode I read about : COHABITATION

13-across – Dire misprint: Three of a Kind? : DREI

14-across – Instruments playing fanfare for alien in best suit : TRUMPETS

17-across – Score in a motion picture script : SCENARIO

18-across – Celebrated Chinese dynasty : SUNG

20-across – In Islam, cider manufacture is made illegal : CRIMINALISED

23-across – Growing trees for a stunt makes one a snob? Just the reverse! : BONSAI

24-across – Novel about a furious revolutionary saint : ADAMBEDE

25-across – David Jason’s heart is captured by a fortune-teller : PSALMIST

26-across – The First Lady left in New York without hiccups : EVENLY

2-down – Languishing nymph needs some more chocolate : ECHO

3-down – Pick boundaries for lake district environs : SELECTION

4-down – A craftsman heard correctly : ARIGHT

5-down – Tantalus tortured with bottles – non-minimal after all : LASTBUTNOTLEAST

6-down – Bully Cretan, making child carry first letter from Tartarus : MINOTAUR

7-down – Unhappy with Arab leader : SADAT

8-down – Getting off sandbank, possibly, or other flat region : REFLOATING

12-down – Insecure beloved clutching a Romeo : PRECARIOUS

15-down – A bold pose fit for bullfight music : PASODOBLE

16-down – Most salt water I would return to South Island seaport : BRINDISI

19-down – In Rome it is consumed – or what you will : ESTATE

21-down – Characters from Los Alamos, Ulan Bator or a city on the Tigris : MOSUL

22-down – Vow by Liverpool’s first pop star? : IDOL

1-across – Find one hole in vestry: is Father Brown in it? : DETECTIVESTORY

9-across – For fliers with oxygen left behind : AIRPORT

10-across – Present Eastern box to rope-maker : ESPARTO

11-across – Love to be with friends – they’re precious : OPALS

12-across – Such a mill could be converted into a theatre : MUSICHALL

13-across – Stale spice – it’s not wet now : DRYSEASON

14-across – Phoney issue, but if only you knew her! : SUSIE

15-across – What’s happening in Deventer? : EVENT

17-across – Backtrack to origin of sponsor at baptism : GODPARENT

20-across – Deciphering chronology in prison? : DOINGTIME

22-across – Setter, perhaps, to travel without moving : DOGGO

23-across – Not fighting fair : NEUTRAL

24-across – Paper modelling originally made with friend in Paris : ORIGAMI

25-across – Notice on gate: how to grade beef anyhow : BEWAREOFTHEDOG

1-down – Celebration of card partnership : DIAMONDWEDDING

2-down – Two sailors, unknown in old Eurasian empire : TARTARY

3-down – One hundred columns retreat from look-out platform : CROWSNEST

4-down – Breathes in this fashion round maiden’s narrow neck : ISTHMUS

5-down – Poet picks me up, being topless : EMERSON

6-down – To pick up half the question : TOPIC

7-down – Again interprets what’s right before needing notices : REREADS

8-down – Tedious individual breaking down : SOULDESTROYING

14-down – Smooth sole could be changed for calf’s dish : SCALDFISH

16-down – Mince pie and kipper for bon vivant : EPICURE

17-down – Grand elevation that is made by gamekeeper : GHILLIE

18-down – Fido fed poorly – languished : DIEDOFF

19-down – It’s no good cutting up an antelope in the country : ENGLAND

21-down – A bore found upside-down in Italian lake : GARDA

1-across – Copper’s helmet may go flying : CUSHAT

4-across – H is for alcoholic capacity : HOGSHEAD

9-across – Pole on a Hebridean island : STAFFA

10-across – It may be insufficient for a slam at bridge : HEADROOM

11-across – Two of a kind if not fraternal : IDENTICALTWINS

13-across – Sanctimonious crowd swot for preliminary assessment : PILOTSTUDY

14-across – Priest entertained by female vicar : LEVI

16-across – Eastern half of 13 across in the garden : EDEN

18-across – Perhaps the worst disease in living memory : ALZHEIMERS

21-across – One given to relate incomplete verity in a fashion : INVETERATELIAR

23-across – Double gin and it could be playing with fire : IGNITING

24-across – Port of Spain, an old city brought to life : VIGOUR

25-across – Caught setter with that woman in the end : ENMESHED

26-across – Mushroom growth of eastern dignitary, getting almost wealthy : AGARIC

1-down – A lot of it flows between banks : CASH

2-down – Disgrace of boy brought up after search : SCANDAL

3-down – Attraction that could lead to incest : AFFINITY

5-down – Hands out pen from a simple case : OPENANDSHUT

6-down – One could get teased for being staid : SEDATE

7-down – I’ve got to book up before moving : EMOTIVE

8-down – Millennium project endures losing royal servants : DOMESTICS

12-down – Ran election chaotically, showing inability to endure possible consequence : INTOLERANCE

13-down – Epic change in cost – a huge drop : PRECIPICE

15-down – Writer who is not in at present? : FIELDING

17-down – Poison makes space for a number to move freely about : ENVENOM

19-down – We get a bad name with our charm : ENAMOUR

20-down – Whatever America claims … : STATES

22-down – … he shows the Queen is in command : ERIC