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Occidentals

I found this pretty tough for a Doc crossword. I really struggled until I twigged what the unclueds must be.

The instructions weren’t very clear, e.g. “three words” is really three entries assembled together - but more than three words when assembled.

Enjoyed it though.

Ignore me, the instructions DO make sense. I normally do the Spectator with coffee, not beer!

There is a red herring (deliberate?) at 24 which caused me much trouble with what was my last entry.

Absolutely, the opposite of the title of the puzzle. Ironically that was the first unclued that set me in the right direction!

I wondered about that too. Though if you read the Wiki page for 24 it says that many reviews have compared it to the genre of the other unclued entries. Still a little tangential though.

Also, the related definite article seems to be redundant.

Clearly my red herring isn't anyone else's red herring. Mine is #39 on the rotten tomatoes site, which fits but leaves 45 without a partner.