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Loved the puzzle. I love the prize puzzle when it last all day of dipping in and out. I have a right good scour for a theme/Nina post solve and today's looks like all the down answers have a certain characteristic that is given by one of the across answers. That is with the exception of 8 which I am taking as indicating that there is more to unravel.

I know I’m very late to the party here but I can’t see 25ac at all. It must be an anagram of sitars, surely?

Yes it is. Rather obscure.

Yes. Ancient Egyptian instruments, I think.

Thank you Chrise (and jono). I had the word but Google kept giving me a pop duo. Maybe because it’s a plural… singular form gives the instrument every time.

That's very well spotted for the theme Mackania, and makes the construction by Brendan all the more remarkable. I had started trying to find significance in the preponderance of some letters in the completed grid and had actually counted them all (!) but hadn't made the link. For those like me who like numbers as well as words, there are 137 letters in the grid, two-thirds of which are in down clues (58% excluding 8dn). The characteristic that Mackania has spotted confined Brendan to using just 10 letters in those down clues, and explains why just two letters account for 35% of the completed grid!

Twit, I’m intrigued, I also spent some time staring at the grid on Sat but didn’t find anything concrete.
You’ve obviously seen something I haven’t…

Jono, mackania’s post @61 indicates that all down clues except the central one have vertical symmetry. A very good spot

And given that the central answer means even-handed, I think it’s plenty theme enough

Oh, now I see it, well spotted!

There is one other letter that could have been deployed in the down clues though I think.