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I have nothing and every clue is brutal.

Out of interest, how do you approach 1a:

Deputy’s role in recidivist’s scam? (6,6)

This is one of several very tough clues from the puzzle.

Defn. "Deputy", 2-word slang term
Parses as 6, 6 where the first 6 is suggested by "recidivist" (I originally guessed DOUBLE but that's not it) and the latter 6 is "scam".

I approached it through the "recidivist", figuring that one of the solution words had to be something suggesting repetition. As posted, first guess was the incorrect DOUBLE, but something not far off worked.

Similar approach here, I started thinking REPEAT (that’s not it) might feature, as in repeat offender, or even CAREER (not that either), as in career criminal, but was eventually helped by the first letter of 1D…

Thank you all.

Yes I agree, quite a challenge for a midweeker. I must say I liked the 17/20 D combo.