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I am new to the Listener having started at the end of last year but have just joined the Times crossword club so I can access older puzzles.
I tried a few from 2008 and I agree with Dryden. The average difficulty seems about the same with some very hard and some, like this weeks, pretty easy.
I think I have completed all the puzzles this year correctly - though sometimes have needed help from this forum. Last week took about 6 hours. This week was less than an hour.

Ozzy, there wouldn't be much of a theme if the thematic items in the puzzle never moved. As it is they are both hidden (behind the grid?) and unclued in the upper part of the grid, so have been pushed up there presumably.

I have everything but the theme word and it’s driving me crazy. I am pretty sure of 11 letters too. Can’t see the misprint in row one at all. What’s that letter and how many words is the theme.

rrobbo - last letter fourth word 1A and looking for 9,4

Cheers. My other 11 were right and I see the other one I could not get in 23. Maybe I would have got the theme words with a bit more self-belief.

I know the replacement letter for 23a but can't see where it goes. Help please?

The last word.

Can anyone please explain to me the relevance or otherwise of the last 3 letters of 18 down? Are they simply to be ignored? That can't be right, surely?
Finally not having a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English would I be right in assuming that I would find the answer to 38 across there?

Thanks Malone but I'm still confused. I can't turn up any word in BEN or ODE that makes any sense with the apparent answer.

Gosh - these spellcheckers want to rule the world! For BEN read BRB!