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Hi Chris

I'm still confused by the theme. I've tried Doctor Spock and Doctor Doolittle to no avail.
The good news is that the thunderstorm has finally arrived bringing with it some desperately needed RAIN. My husband just tried to electrocute himself mending a standard lamp. The good news is the box with the fuses switched off the electricity and he is undamaged, but the job just got much harder as the flex has now disappeared!!!

Back to puzzling over this chap. Is he a comedian?

He is a doctor, but not one of the ones you have found yet! Children's stories, very USA, as I've said.

Many thanks for your hints MPRS

I got both, though not quickly. The synonym for please was unusual and I mistakenly thought the river must be German too!!

The rain didn't last long - oh dear. We never get a decent thunder storm in Exeter.

It occurred to me that it would be a nice touch if the Doctor's name was concealed in the grid as some kind of Nina. But Paul (afaict) doesn't go for those, and indeed I found none. :-(

Roof, I suggested in an earlier post that 18 might be the gateway to the theme. It's an unusual name, but the wordplay seems basic enough.

You will all be pleased to hear that I finally googled American doctor who writes childrens books and found the chap!

I've barely heard of him and knew none of his books, but at least I could google a list of his books. This has helped somewhat as I'd never have guessed them, but has not led me to the answer to 18d. I've tried taking the head off scalpel, but am none the wiser.

Time for my glass of white wine. The standard lamp is now working.

I've no doubt I'll be back

I thought this was hard. Got the theme from 8D.

Had to use the missing letters solver on this site for 27A and 24A (even though I have seen that device used before in the Everyman).

No way I would have got 17D without coming here and I thought it was a weak clue.

I read 7D as 2 3-letter words for "kind of funny" (as in nonsense) reversed but I also see the repeated definition as well thanks to a post earlier, maybe it was intended to be read both ways?

19A was my favourite clue since it was very topical after his performance the other week (which I did not see or hear, probably for the best that, but I saw everyone complaining/laughing about it on twitter.

A company I used to work for (now defunct) did a Playstation 2 game about one of the '7's more famous characters (not one of the answers in this crossword though). Was a feline wearing something large and distinctive.

While researching the American 7 I was amused by the title of his first book though :) I don't think anyone would use that as a title nowadays, lol.

roof
18d remove the head (scalp) and put the remaining two letters inside a word for the chest (anatomical)
(theme )

Weirdly 7d was our LOI, but luckily had an inspirational guess on 1d that opened up the theme.