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Well, I think I've finished it, but I'm not entirely satisfied I have the end-game correct. All my highlights are thematic but only four of them are convincing. Perhaps my thematic knowledge is too limited. But then, some of the clues were abstruse and unconvincing, too.

I'd say that the intended endgame is unambiguously correct. All the thematic items are in Chambers.

Then, I'm probably stuck. I only have a hard copy and I can't be bothered to hunt through it any more.

Another approach would be to look for symmetrically placed pairs of letters which can be changed.

I did that but it led to one of my unconvincing answers. Changing 8 letters led to three of the long highlighted words and one shorter one, which are definitely correct, plus one symmetrical long word which is questionable. That still leaves two shorter ones to highlight apparently unaffected by any letter changes and with only one obvious candidate.

Mack, perhaps less helpful than you'd like, but imagine how you would illustrate the connection between the (two) key players. That might tell you where to look.

Thanks, RHSL. I did that and all my definite answers are there. I think I'll just have to wait three weeks to find out what I'm missing.

I'm late arriving at the forum, as usual.
I'm stuck on 13A and 3D---could someone help please.
Also, I've got 34D, 35A and 41A, but doubt my parsing; advice please.

13a is one of the tenuous ones, in my opinion. Definition is the last 2 words. Wordplay is a loose synonym plus an abreviation.
3d Another dodgy one. Definition is the last 4 words. Wordplay is one word removed from another. It's easiest to think what the first 3 letters might be.
34d I assume it's another one where a word is removed but I couldn't be bothered with it.
34a Assuming you have identified the excess word and definition, the wordplay is a common synonym plus an uncommon one.
41a This one defeated me too.
Too many tenuous clues and synonyms in this puzzle for my liking.

13a: the definition of the answer in Chambers may be unexpected.
3d: the wordplay is just two words concatenated
34d: 'dropping' does not indicate that something is removed
41a: the magistrate is classical

I think the clues are fair.