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Themes seem to come in threes15,1d,17d.9,10,8.23,18,3,and perhaps 7,14,24d

Thanks, teraub. I agree with that. It appears to reflect 20d's predilection for elaborate titles (one that you point out, 9, 10, 8 is particularly famous). There is also 19a. Presumably, Qaos ran out of clues to add the other two words in the title, but one of them appears in the clue to 1d. And the beginning of 13a appears a few times. I hadn't thought of the end to 3d, but that would take the number of thematics to 15.

As someone pointed out earlier, an interesting theme to research. I've seen some of them in the flesh as it were but when you see the extent of the quality of them all, incredible really.

I know almost nothing about 20, other than the one basic fact, so I thank you all for the comments on the theme. Gives me some things to look up. I had thought that the 15/17 reference was self-contained.

Finished, earlier than often. (Having a quiet day after a very late night caused by West Coast Main Line delays, so our day trip to the Andy Goldsworthy show in Edinburgh turned into a bit of an epic).

Foi: 27a
Loi: 18
Cod: perhaps 7, just a simple, clever, homophone.

Had to look up to check the Thunderbirds reference, and used CrosswordSolver for a couple, and couldn't parse 1d until I read the forum for a nudge.

Hi everyone

Started very late today as I was visitng my favourite garden or its last opening time this yearand stormed through many, but am now stuck on the NW corner. I see from the thread that I need to do some googling perhaps.

I am a bit puzzled by 1ac. The first word could be spelt two ways, but neither affect my inability to get 1d and 2d notwithstanding hints above. So are my crossers right - 1d B?????n?? and 2d R?????0?. I can't get the 18s either. Any hint for 18d would help. My husband has just put my dinner on the table, but I'll be back.

Hi roof
I don't see two spellings for the first word in 1a. Your crossers for 1d and 2d are correct.
18a is fairly straightforward - you and I are ?, inside a two letter word for "times".
Is your favourite garden Knightshayes by any chance? We named an area of our garden after it; rhododendrons and dog's tooth violets in spring!

Hi Roof,

18a - 2 letter "times" goes around/'describes' 2 letter "you and me" - definition is "engaged"

18d - 3 letter "difficulty" reversed/'standing up' + i from the clue + 2 letter "state" reversed/'upset' - definition is "funeral"

Your letters are correct for 1d and 2d - I think I parsed both of those in earlier posts.

1a - definition is "French letter" (it's a slang term so you might not have heard of it)

1ac is tricky. IMO definition is "French letter", although the first word is ambiguous. It's a homophone ("delivered") for "Management of bed on board".
1d is difficult. Definition "houses", parses as [1 "lunch time", 1, 3 ("long row")] inside 4 ("listening devices").

I've finally got theme, very clever; well done Quos