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Planks, I'm not sure, but I think they might have been referring to the twins, Cora and Clarice, from Gormenghast.

ionacarr, thanks for your help and encouragement. I shall press on, but the prospect of staring for ages at potential letter pairs doesn't exactly thrill me.

unclued, you have the right answer to 7d. HE needs the answer (read as two entities) to make 'that lady'.

orson, the old word for know is sometimes used whimsically today - 'I ___ not' for 'I don't know'.
For 29d, if you have Chambers CD Rome version enter Hebrew in the all-text search, then scan for a word that is equivalent to 8 or 12 logs. If you don't have that, then consult Bradford's list of measures (3 letters).

ah, thanks cloverjo. Not related to the theme then.

Grrr, still can't fathom this one. Can someone give a slightly less subtle hint for what's going on with the replacement letters? ;-)

Struggling with 17A and 18D. Any clues would be helpful!

Thanks for the various nudges. 29d isn't in Bradford's (or at least not under shrubs, bushes, plants, etc) which held me up. I also think "extremely jolly" in 36a is misleading. Just one of those words would have done, but then the clue wouldn't have read so well.

supersub,
17a - 'all of Dior' is a french word for all. Be careful to pick the right one out of the various forms (masc., fem., plural). It's a container clue.
18d - look up the second 'rum' entry in Chambers, then think numbers.

I'm coming to this very late in the day, having spent the Christmas holiday far from the internet (makes a change!). A solid day's work sees me still needing 2D (there's an obvious answer but I can't get the wordplay to work) and 17A which leaves me baffled. Am I right in thinking that once the unclued light has been worked out (done that) and the 4-letter coincidence found (done that) then the tedious business of gazing at pairs is unnecessary? And in my house I have many examples of the central coincidence: in some the longer part completely obscures the shorter while in other the shorter, being fatter, remains visible. I'm inclined to enter the central column in the manner of the second possibility - what do others think? (And a pointer to the two elusive clues would be welcome.)

Overlapped with Dryden - 17A now clear.

Thank you . Just the job. Ray