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No problem, mersault. I agree it was slightly over engineered, and I largely ignored the names. Spotted the author and the circled message about a third of the way through the grid, then it was all fairly straight forward from there. I guess I could have got the wrong location without the names, but given it fitted and left real words ( and the e unchanged) I was pretty confident.

As an aside, the theme uses the same author as was used in a puzzle about three years ago which regulars complained was way too easy but which first tempted me into the listener, on a transatlantic flight with time on my hands.

AC has been a theme many times over. I don't condemn a theme merely because it's not my personal interest : I'm sure that there are many regulars who aren't interested in physics. But what I do criticise is a preponderance of puzzles on a few themes. This year we had 5 puzzles on children's literature. Why, with so many possible themes in the universe, do we have this 'clumping' effect ? I feel sometimes that I'm condemned to spend my whole existence in a virtual Blue Peter land.

On your flight experience - I had something similar on 13th May. No online access, no TCD. But a Listener puzzle to occupy me. So, imagine my disappointment when it was solved in little more than 20 minutes. Nothing for it but to hit the bar...and (shock) talk to people...

Do you not have the chambers app? Someone on here recommended it a year or two back, and it’s the best app I have on my phone. Wherever you are, internet connection or not, you have the full chambers experience to hand. I rarely get the hard copy off the shelf now.

For me, this is all a worrying area. I'll never get an app to do something I can do myself. So, if I take a journey, I've already familiarised so much with the geography that I know where I am every minute. And people who use apps and satnavs say this to me, : that they lose the ability to navigate for themselves. And with books I'm similar. I love to pick up a book, feel it, open it, even smell it. The relationship is personal...so, eventually, no - I couldn't bear to relegate my reference books, some of which have connections to those no longer here.

I was thrilled to finish this without resorting to help here - doesn’t happen often. I got about half way over the weekend and was delving into the Magna Carta from the names I had. Went to the movies Sunday night to see a current remake. Wasn’t bad but I realised today I would have failed in Screen Test when the penny finally dropped and I had to look up the names! I am a bit surprised nobody has mentioned the flicks already......

Here’s a pedantic point. In the original novel that inspired this puzzle, the first name of one of the thematic characters is never given. The name hinted at by the extra word in 12A is used once in the book to refer to a character who is part of the “back story” and does not appear. Oddly, this character had been called “Toby” in an earlier place in the book, and had the same military rank as the thematic character.

I think that the name in question was used in the 1974 movie for this thematic character, but all the other names in the puzzle are as in the book - in the movie, at least one other thematic character was given two different first names from those used in the book, and some other characters had different surnames. As I understand it, the 2017 remake takes even more liberties with names, ranks and titles.

This was one of my better days – it may be that the clues were easier. Certainly the theme was easy to detect and one that I had encountered.

I am, however, still baffled by the extra words that produced the first T and the final E in the second word of the hint. Can anybody help me?

With thanks

Hi, Martyn, the first T is given by “griddle-heat” in 23A, which leads to a female Germanic name. The final E is given by “upholder” in 34D, which leads to a rather seasonal male Germanic name. This name has an alternative spelling, but the version to which the extra word in 34D leads is the spelling used in the original novel.

Thank you Wintonian.

The second answer leaves me a little red-faced

Martyn, apologies, you were asking about the first T in the second word of the hint, weren’t you? This is in 8D, the extra word is “notation”, and you are looking for a common Italian male first name.