1-across – Something of a canard spread about one sleuth? : MAIGRET

5-across – Berry’s description: graduate, county councillor and mischief-maker : BACCATE

9-across – Begin following her, eventually : GOLDAMEIR

10-across – Style of King Herod utterly regressive : TUDOR

11-across – Offside player’s lapse : SLIP

12-across – Instruction to Cromwell’s nanny? What a cracker! : BATHOLIVER

14-across – ‘e left bits of garlic for one who conquered Paris : CLOVIS

15-across – Hiss at first-class return to the state : ALGERIA

16-across – Whisky might flow faster, that is, without soda initially : WATEROF

18-across – Birmingham’s pronounced posterior? Hang about! : LOITER

20-across – Just what the doctor ordered? My lips are sealed! : NILBYMOUTH

21-across – See 13 : BODY

24-across – Communicate like a Cicero or a Lawrence : ORATE

25-across – Anger in turning cold is male pacification : IRENICISM

26-across – Society stayed on line – while he built the Oxonian theatre? : SHELDON

27-across – Thaw out now from this rapid response team : SWEENEY

1-down – Greek characters bearing silver, or man from the east bearing gold etc : MAGUS

2-down – Hostility shown to the ailing Bard : ILLWILL

3-down – Hardly a counterfeit coin : REAL

4-down – Laureate’s dicta – or unfinished Newton maths folio, perhaps : THELAWSOFMOTION

5-down – Laureate’s valediction on the cards? It hardly fails among speculators : BIRTHDAYLETTERS

6-down – No neat passage here : CATTLEGRID

7-down – Let ’em ‘ave it in ‘ampshire : ANDOVER

8-down – Pure air contaminated as time replaces power at Wedgwood’s plant : ETRURIA

13-down – Not on your life – or, rather, mine! : OVERMYDEAD

16-down – Gates opened these? : WINDOWS

17-down – Payment to pupils on time : TOLLAGE

19-down – Waterloo winner collared and cropped? : ETONIAN

22-down – My, my! You sound awfully attractive! : YUMMY

23-down – See 16 across : LIFE

1-across – Stop for a time, having finished the development : BREAKTHROUGH

8-across – Retired friend of Pythias in charge of travelling : NOMADIC

9-across – NT liar nearly declared grandmother to be backward : ANANIAS

11-across – Newspapermen could be so tired : EDITORS

12-across – Education will switch it in and out : TUITION

13-across – Petty cash needed but none in a bedsitter : FLOAT

14-across – Russian port calls for chief backer : ARCHANGEL

16-across – Desperate for telephone system, one held by fastening : LASTDITCH

19-across – Farm operated by church : RANCH

21-across – Athlete in cellar, turning again : VAULTER

23-across – Urn is as translated into this language : RUSSIAN

24-across – Much alcohol puts king in wrong : SKINFUL

25-across – American tree goes headlong : NUTPINE

26-across – Churchman turns dry ready-mix in church festival? : REDLETTERDAY

1-down – Graduate takes a moment to keep particular wine for child : BAMBINO

2-down – Most distant destruction reaches the majority : ENDMOST

3-down – Gives up pastry as initial impetus : KICKSTART

4-down – Find out time from ticker : HEART

5-down – Wind instrument uplifts company using aria without a name : OCARINA

6-down – Not losing when batting twice in silence : GAINING

7-down – Henry’s fourth wife, plainly! : ANNEOFCLEVES

10-down – Char passed round lake without help : SINGLEHANDED

15-down – Carbon once put outside this place for sticking together : COHERENCE

17-down – Bess needs IOU to get change for onion sauce : SOUBISE

18-down – Beautiful rhyme like Your Obedient Servant! : DUTIFUL

19-down – Broken reed about to pose when moved : RESITED

20-down – Lion’s tail is wrapped in fat with a deafening roar : NOISILY

22-down – What’s kindled again in obscure literature? : RELIT

9-across – Entertainer going through the newspaper for meronyms : PERFORMER

10-across – The language of the City – money : LATIN

11-across – Girl calls for a large beer : ABIGAIL

12-across – Moi gets construed as conceit : EGOTISM

13-across – Duck noise, by god! : ODIN

14-across – Methodical distribution of city’s steam : SYSTEMATIC

16-across – Early reading-desk found in back furrow with drum : TAMBOUR

17-across – Trick hard to verify : CONFIRM

19-across – Growing red during brute scene in play : ERUBESCENT

22-across – Companion I begin to cherish has style : CHIC

24-across – Speechless about a bishop taken aback by misprint : ERRATUM

25-across – Sound transmitter with whiskers doesn’t start? That’s odd! : EARDRUM

26-across – Bit of a wimp, Elmer; you’ve got to push forward : IMPEL

27-across – Dry sort of person to place marker at the back of a book : ABSTAINER

1-down – Invocation to Beelzebub : SPEAKOFTHEDEVIL

2-down – In Celtic practices Idris gets mud-spattered : DRUIDISM

3-down – To keep changing channels should come up with a gem : TOPAZ

4-down – One whose hands are gainfully occupied : EMPLOYER

5-down – Minister can be a nuisance about the teaching of scripture : PRIEST

6-down – A good deal signified, they say, by a piece of ground : ALLOTMENT

7-down – Rigorous way to limit endless fiddle : STRICT

8-down – Commercial enticement for the acquisitive : ANDMUCHMUCHMORE

15-down – Anticipate everyone’s after lots of trees : FORESTALL

17-down – Paddler on his own may be an independent type? : CANOEIST

18-down – Native to this place entering local, the Turk’s Head : INHERENT

20-down – Green, straggly juniper must be lopped : UNRIPE

21-down – Search for volunteers to turn up and fight : COMBAT

23-down – Chance to split : BREAK