9-across – Little fellow’s house sending many a relative round the bend : HOMUNCULE

10-across – Foreign friend holding a square violin : AMATI

11-across – Grassland on which navy loses heart to flier : LEAFLET

12-across – Return of fabled bird vexed Scottish pirate : CORSAIR

13-across – Leave note on painful condition : GOUT

14-across – Way finder with an atom of sympathy : COMPASSION

15-across – Container for drink – mother’s ruin? : THERMOS

17-across – Proposition third parties receiving aggregate : THEOREM

19-across – Strange free goal in strange communal decision : REFERENDUM

22-across – Love to shove Unfinished Symphony, say : OPUS

23-across – Festival owned by knight : GALAHAD

24-across – Battered old tabloid model’s gone on the game : DIABOLO

26-across – Depicted looking stressed : DRAWN

27-across – It’s unimaginative of ants to take heart from gulag : FORMULAIC

1-down – Chargers get drunk, grabbing Loki’s girl, and old god’s covered with cheese : THELIGHTBRIGADE

2-down – Shut up about a time to be green : IMMATURE

3-down – A love for indigo : ANIL

4-down – Glistening passions half-roused inwardly : LUSTROUS

5-down – Incompletely train up as drink carrier : TEACUP

6-down – Game casserole almost cooked : LACROSSE

7-down – Exciting excursion for a fellow in women’s clothing : SAFARI

8-down – Artist unexpectedly buys Cornish home : HIERONYMUSBOSCH

16-down – Business person’s Gallic sea shanty? : MERCHANT

17-down – Sultry old solver’s kept below : THUNDERY

18-down – Original recipe to overlap with admonition : REPROVAL

20-down – Stuff about one article from the Sun, reportedly : FILIAL

21-down – Remove number beforehand and slip into oblivion : NODDFF

25-down – Plant held up by Samurai : ARUM

1-across – Occasional butt from goat following girl : APRILFOOL

9-across – Easter display – of troops? : PARADE

10-across – Fast finish : EASTERDAY

11-across – Capital investment for Easter : BONNET

12-across – Retaliation concerning April’s odd tricks ultimately : REPRISALS

13-across – Cuts and shares out : SHEARS

17-across – A fool to be taken for a ride, not only today : ASS

19-across – Equivalent to 15 : VIRTUAL

20-across – A Look Back in Anger sort of play? : PASSION

21-across – Non-professional way to provide a 31? : LAY

23-across – Fierce storm on the coast of Brazil : RECIFE

27-across – Five hundred wrongly laid off on Sunday – they are out now : DAFFODILS

28-across – Stored face backwards in the end : LAIDIN

29-across – Marsh plant providing a variety of materials : MARESTAIL

30-across – Second thoughts about offensive jokes played today : PRANKS

31-across – Segregate something that may be present : EASTEREGG

2-down – Plea to the pleader : PRAYER

3-down – Confine one after another, we hear : INTERN

4-down – Softer sort of wood : FOREST

5-down – Carole’s making announcements : ORACLES

6-down – He takes pains to provide pleasure : MASOCHIST

7-down – Cook’s vessel, one seen in rain, beam obscured : BAINMARIE

8-down – Fast plane is not re-ordered, so initially gets rid of the cargo : JETTISONS

14-down – Did not turn out as intended : PRACTICAL

15-down – Realistic sort of joke for today : CUFFLINKS

16-down – Belt buckles worn by men : ALL

17-down – A couple of pounds for the lot : SPY

18-down – Look for a mole : ALABAMA

22-down – State of a student gaining a degree, then another : AFFECT

24-down – Pretend to have influence : EDITOR

25-down – He’s in charge, but has a leader : FLYING

26-down – Taking flight, running fast : OVERSLEPT

1-across – This woman, they say, needs my body : MASSEUSE

5-across – See 2 : SQUARE

9-across – Original Koppites, given to wit, round on exploiters : SCOUSERS

10-across – Outlet where Samson was eyeless, headless and confined by lawyers : BAZAAR

12-across – No opening for cyber-physiological style? : IONIC

13-across – Contract bidding : TENDERING

14-across – Cave in Bethlehem, one up a diversion, taking one hour : EATHUMBLEPIE

18-across – Slaying one gannet; one tern revived : ENTERTAINING

21-across – Kicked by departing Inuit, was it? : ICEBUCKET

23-across – Joe of 18 26 : ORTON

24-across – Last attempt to go out with it : TRENDY

25-across – Like a fiddler’s elbow in a donut blender : INANDOUT

26-across – What-d’you-call-‘im’s spray gun? : MISTER

27-across – Bound to give the baby a squeeze : SWADDLED

1-down – Maverick, valedictory Western role for Monroe or Gable … : MISFIT

2-down – … disaster – so ran a sequel: Here Come the Rangers! : SLOANE

3-down – Soft spot for bosun or midshipman? : EASYCHAIR

4-down – Evidence of confinement with hard labour : STRETCHMARKS

6-down – Tremble at fault’s failing : QUAKE

7-down – What inspired pin-up to enter love feast? : AGANIPPE

8-down – Roger eagerly brewing tea for this prime minister : EARLGREY

11-down – How soon will women combine with unity? An enigma : ANYMINUTENOW

15-down – The first murderer slept here? : LANDOFNOD

16-down – Progressively elevating sloth in episcopal joints? : SERIATIM

17-down – Society meeting the objective in Merseyside : STHELENS

19-down – Hot, wearing bikini in Scotland : ATHOLL

20-down – Eleven as one : UNITED

22-down – A French precipitation, they say, is hardly the thing : UNDUE