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Well done femme noire

I just checked in to see if I could help anyone before going to bed, but I see Brendan, Chris and Geeker have been supplying the goods.

Brendan - do you ever sleep?

I do Roof but at very odd times:-)

Well done Femmenoire:-)

To those counting the references, there’s one that’s neither in the clues *nor* the grid.

A sort of ‘one reference to rule them all’, as it were...

That's too cryptic for me HW7, can you be a bit more direct:-)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092026/characters/nm0000229

Described as a love note to Spielberg by Pegg and Frost.

He plays a cameo role - as literally himself - which they apparently asked him to read for...

Kudos HW7, Oh that is absolutely brilliant:-)

Speaking of reading for a Spielberg, have you seen the audition tape of the young boy who plays Elliott in E.T. - if you watch the last 60 seconds or so where he goes from crying to smiling when he hears the immortal line "you've got the job, kid"..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA5giyG8E7g&ab_channel=UniversalPicsSweden

I have two left. It's been a struggle because whatever is going on with my app it doesn't save it so I'm on my fourth rewrite.

I have answers for 18a and 24a but I'm not sure so help required.

I have 25a but I just can't see the parsing.

I need to put this one to bed and move on before it clears my answers

HW7,
That’s brilliant, thanks for sharing. I was Paul’s zoom call last night and no one mentioned this so I’m pretty sure he didn’t intend the reference.
As an aside he said the the puzzle was inspired by him meeting Stephen Sondheim in a curry house in London and someone mistaking Sondheim for Spielberg. He also confessed to having never have been able to complete the Listener!

Hi Rocky,

18a, - 5 letter "survivor" minus its last letter/"cut" inside 5 letter word for a "duel" definition is "shiner"

25a - first word is "something with hole" (think of a sport loved by middle aged men) the 3 letters for "back" as 'to and ...' + G(rimy) - definition is "jumper"

24a - (nove)L + 6 letter word for "gained by working" - definition is "academic".

Right. Ok. Because what I had in my mind for 18a was slightly different it affected my thinking on 24a. All clear now thanks Brendan. I shall be tackling the Everyman later this afternoon now.