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I am almost there. The top left corner (1A,10A and 3D) are seemingly beyond me.

As for 23A, I have two possible answers, one of which I much prefer to the other but still cannot see why it is correct.

Hi dizoz - change the last letter of Becky to make half of a pairing; 8d sadly is not Lee Mack. There's only one other thing that fits comfortably in there- put 'and' after it and finish the well-known expression!

hi angst and mrs t
angst - 10a "perform" read "do".
mrs t - thanks for 16a, will work on 8d

Hi angst, 1a -take 'kid's starter' from synonym for prefers, then its partner goes in the grid. 10a is another paired one - cleu is straightforward, then partner goes in grid.
3d is a 'normal' clue - incredibly convoluted (i had lots of help from this forum) - you need a soundalike for 'highly' (yes really), then think of the only famous person with that name (discounting the distance runner), and you've got your 'admirer'! - and if you can be bothered, the letter-play is to do with 29a See what I mean about convoluted? Very clever though.
23a - another paired answer, No.10 is usual cross-word fodder in synonym for 'union' reversed. Usual partner goes in the grid.
I suspect that like me you've found it tricky separating the clue from the letters you see in the grid for the paired answers - I would never have got there without the help of some clever folk on here :-)

hi mrs t,
thanks for 8d. I thought it through:-) and I fixed 16a. all done now. yee-ha!!!

aka dumb and dumber! Having struggled with this on and off for days, came on here to look for help and laughed when I saw the number of posts, obviously I wasn't alone. I thought I had finished but a hint given for 4dn has made me think again. Is this a normal clue, answer meaning consumable? If not help please.

Correction, meant 6dn.

Yeh--sadly, Lee Mack is just not a double act.

yes teenie-leek you are correct with your consumable normal clue!

Thanks Sudokulover, will now turn my attention to the Speccie, well tomorrow I will. All crossworded out for today.