7-across – My US car number on the front shows independence! : AUTONOMY

9-across – Volunteers to return sombre tunic : TABARD

10-across – Endlessly asking to see film : SKIN

11-across – Someone doing a balancing act? : ACCOUNTANT

12-across – Taking a little time, seek to be modest : CHASTE

14-across – Decorate a raced vessel : TRIMARAN

15-across – Admits one may be punched on a train : TICKET

17-across – Excellent couple of fellows quitting church office : CHOICE

20-across – Hurts Les badly, lacking pity : RUTHLESS

22-across – When Sister Elizabeth goes to find help : ASSIST

23-across – Treasury supply Head Office with employment : STOREHOUSE

24-across – Final artiste in strip show : BEAR

25-across – Write name on flag : PENNON

26-across – Old and feeble pet cried to be put out : DECREPIT

1-down – Pellets obtained with US money, stolen : BUCKSHUT

2-down – Blue drink : DOWN

3-down – A good place to live without showing respect : HOMAGE

4-down – Fatty alcoholic drink is hard to get : STOUTISH

5-down – The things people say about you when you’re late! : OBITUARIES

6-down – US agency managed to split skulls! : CRANIA

8-down – Stop raising putting central heating in boats! : YACHTS

13-down – Extremely sweet arsenic concoction with tea in it : SACCHARINE

16-down – Then leap out of jumbo? : ELEPHANT

18-down – Engineer stands still, enraptured : ECSTATIC

19-down – Susie opened front door and emerged : ISSUED

21-down – No longer bound to take auntie dancing in it : UNTIED

22-down – Means business : AGENCY

24-down – Raised by Black, looking angry : BRED

1-across – Declare girl has put weight on : ANNOUNCE

5-across – Author holding leading post at university : CAMPUS

9-across – It is stirred into barbiturate in parts : SECTIONAL

11-across – Queen having to keep silent about American president : SHEBA

12-across – Cult that is, perhaps, about to apply restrictions to network : RETICULATION

15-across – Travel back to Georgia in eager excitement : AGOG

16-across – Offspring of central figure in Dante”s Inferno? : DESCENDANT

18-across – It may be tactful to take degree with small movement : DIPLOMATIC

19-across – Queen accepted by no emperor : NERO

21-across – Weapon that would be deplored by the RSPCA : BATTERINGRAM

24-across – Girl : LINDA

25-across – What players often hear from wings sounds bad : NOISESOFF

26-across – Staggered by Spanish article about grass : REELED

27-across – He is there to protect back, for example : DEFENDER

1-down – Recess found among cheap seats : APSE

2-down – Fastidious resort : NICE

3-down – Made one of the team : UNITED

4-down – Taking into account motive : CONSIDERATION

6-down – Refrains from making sailors accept taint of guilt : ABSTAINS

7-down – Foretold about one that made affirmation : PREDICATED

8-down – State of inertia in country without females? : STAGNATION

10-down – One having meal out at spot where nuclear attack might start : LAUNCHINGSITE

13-down – Relating to the jaw featured in bird manual : MANDIBULAR

14-down – Enough to live on comfortably, given fitness : COMPETENCE

17-down – A hundred too old to get press write-up? : COVERAGE

20-down – Fellow, for example, getting early start in art of horsemanship : MANEGE

22-down – Band requiring agent : BOND

23-down – One seeing flyers return from a good way off : AFAR

1-across – A nation fell for her … : FRANCESCA

6-across – … love rejected with irritation : EROS

10-across – Title tag from La Belle Helene : LABEL

11-across – Leading voice in choral setting of Western Bride Snatcher : LOCHINVAR

12-across – This one is associated with motor racing : FORMULA

13-across – It’s mostly worn above the Tweed, or river with bridge over : SPORRAN

14-across – Transport by air is cheap and flexible : CHAISEANDPAIR

17-across – It may need tissues – about 500 sheets costing roughly £500 : STREAMINGCOLD

21-across – Idle quiche seller? : FLANEUR

22-across – Skittish, like Shaw? : PLAYFUL

24-across – Coin disposed through channel laid down by the church : CANONICAL

25-across – Dicky traps a modest catch : SPRAT

26-across – Foreign currency used to square rent : TORE

27-across – Clinical insight : ENDOSCOPY

1-down – View before a brimming mug? : FULLFACE

2-down – In my absence a member is seen in a cautious light : AMBER

3-down – Man of rank paints silver, they say : COLOURSERGEANT

4-down – Fruit and nut, alas mixed : SULTANA

5-down – Charged a hundred spent on account : ACCUSED

7-down – Vain error corrected in Galileo’s towering view : RIVERARNO

8-down – Newsprint when used for a quick run : SPRINT

9-down – Do they help one to contemplate a double Scotch? : BIFOCALGLASSES

15-down – One could swill Brian’s tea : ABSTAINER

16-down – One Tory lad stirs up misplaced veneration : IDOLATRY

18-down – Part of the audience may hear the voice of the prophet : AURICLE

19-down – Stuck like a politician in false ideal : IMPALED

20-down – Deal possibly set aside : OFFCUT

23-down – Wells’s partner had a long way to travel : FARGO