I variously loved and hated this! Hated the odd grid, which made it so much harder to see possible words, and the difficulty finding the themed clues in the story (eventually solved by writing out a separate list, as others seem to have done). Loved some of the clues though, esp 52a which reminded me of one of my favourite compilers when I first got into crosswording: harder than Rufus but not as hard as Araucaria. COD is 6d though, which my wife got, in a moment of inspiration. Fortunately we had watched the Producers a few weeks ago. LOI 58, which I still can’t parse (got the defn, but can’t see the mountains).
Anyway, happy Christmas all, and thanks for all the hints!