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williamseal, if you don’t wish to download a program like TEA then Quinapalus’ Word Matcher is a web-based alternative:

https://www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/match

It’s more modern usage is probably in mountaineering, rather than sailing. To do with ropes.

Thanks I have that one now thanks to a mountaineering terms search.
Looks like all perimeter words are synonyms then. I was thinking more five word clues to a five word title.

Very hard puzzle. It helped tremendously getting all of the perimeter answers straightaway. I too thought it was the American show which I know nothing about, but, as usual, Google came to the rescue. I only have two queries, 24 and 35. I think I have the correct answers that fit the wordplay correctly, but I don’t understand the definitions: last four words of 24 and 35. Shouldn’t 35 be three years?

Starting to make some progress thanks to the big hint from drxx above. If all the five perimeter words are synonyms then that suggests a show that appeared in 1994 and ran for 20 years. Please tell me if I am on the wrong lines. Although retired to an easy life on a Norfolk sandbank I don't want to waste my time on a red herring (ho!).

Also I can't get the four letter perimeter "content to get a move on reflection" - Any nudge welcome. This one irritates, particularly if it is a well known synonym.

Thanks foinavon and quisling. As far as I can see TEA is no longer available but have obtained the 'Q' tool.

Williamseal, you're on the wrong track with the TV show. The theme is a book that became a film - and I don't think either could be classed as hugely well-known.

The last four-letter one - it's the usual 'on reflection' stuff.

xij - re 35 - it’s the *plural* of the word you probably have. So as a minimum [2.3] = six.

A bright sub-pdm in an otherwise somewhat painful solving session - as other posters have noted, the upper left hand side degenerated into a brute force attack on seven or eight letter words with two known letters, but in unknown positions.

Thanks all the same setter.

Thanks so much Malone


I was about to ring my niece who was obsessive about the TV show (and probably get a reluctant teenage pup out of slumber). Back to the drawing board. Is the last four letter one a well known synonym for the others? Two of the perimeters were obscure and so far the four letter one is not obvious to me.

I will battle on and am grateful to you. I would have wasted lot of time.

Williamseal, glad that helped.
Yes, the four-letter one is a common synonym.

ws - it’s the commonest four-letter synonym you could think of. ‘Content’ does double duty in the clue.