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I had to come back in from the garden to finish the NW corner.

I'd struggled, trying to give Tina Turner an IUD!

I'd heard of the theme but wouldn't have recognised it.
A fair enough crossword this week but it didn't excite me particularly.

It would have made 2 very easy if it had been linked to 17 (his homophonic name is much cleverer in French I think) and I too struggled to fit Tina with a suitable device. I still can't parse 3 and 16d.
Are the titles academic?
Also I don't have an answer for 12 and would appreciate a hint about the paramilitary force or even the underwear market. All I know in UK is M&S.

3,16 is an anagram with a word for "essential" (have to) inside.
12 the market is more generic. I wouldn't have described the force as "paramilitary" (though I'm not sure exactly what that means)

Chrise, I agree, I wasn't comfortable with the paramilitariness (paramilitude?) of the body in question, but quite a neat clue otherwise.
A neat synergy between today's theme and the second leader in the paper, in praise of picture books!

Thanks ChrisE. I found the answer to 12 using Quick Solve and agree this brutal force didn't come to mind as paramilitary. I missed the anagram in 8 26 but it's clear now.

12 is a slang word for underwear.

Para in a military context refers to troops carried by air

but they wren't airborne, were they? i may be thinking of the wrong ones, though.

...that’s what the ‘a’ stands for I believe

i haven't got an a in mine - it's preceded by Waffen