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I agree but smartie seems to think differently.

Maybe they can help us?

Apologies I miscounted there are 5 blank cells.

Hi DJA, S_Pugh. A very brief look-in - I'm going to have to park this in a few minutes. I'm behind you I think, there are still a couple of clues I haven't solved on RHS. But... for the down clues with extra words, I have 2, 8, 9, 13, ?, 28, 35, 39. The extra words I have correspond with AROR?ASR

I only have 4 blank cells so far, but as said before. I still have a couple of clues to solve. So far I have cells 5, 29, 43 and the last cell of 23D/44A.

FWIW I only have 4 blank cells, and agree that “prime” must be part of the wordplay in 23d to indicate insertion

I’m confusing everyone- apologies. I was writing a neat copy out for folding and missed out a character so there are only 4 in mine!

I have the same phrase as the rest of you and prime isn’t part of it.

I wonder whether smartie has seen something we haven’t and that prime is part of the phrase? It doesn’t make sense to me but perhaps he/she can enlighten us?

I resolved the 5th down extra word (in 19)...Prime doesn't feature as an extra word.
23 is : prime (ie fill) expert (ace) with dv (drive), an(d) (and lacking d for degree).

42 is a poor definition. The Listener professes to pride itself on accuracy. A bug is a heteropteran, not a coleopteran. Anyone still puzzled - don't look for a bug, look for a beetle.

After discussing with a friend there is a plausible answer for the 2 symbols

Square root symbol and 2 which is what the aspect ratio comes to.

I have to say though this is another ambiguous one unless I’m missing something. Which I often do!

Another look at 23d and I think it could have been constructed a little better. I took the word "with" to indicate an inclusion but I can see it could be parsed either way. I'll go with prime as part of the clue.

I think you have to smartie or the message is gobbledygook