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Clever construction, but it would be tedious to search for the correct column by hand (so I used Excel). It's bad enough doing all the actual grid shading, when you know which cells they are.

Still, I enjoyed the puzzle and the PDM at the (relatively painless) emergence of the final solution. And I think that I've parsed everything, which is a bonus.

Thanks, Miles.

Shaded and done but for some parsing, I think. Grateful for Excel's Format Painter function. Was there a way to organize the search for the correct column other than trial and error?

Some nice clues. Difficult to stop until it was all done! Thanks, Miles.

As with several recent puzzles, the grid fill was straightforward. However, not being an Excel expert, it seems the only way to proceed is to try each column in turn, which seems a dreadful slog. Is there an elegant way of spotting which column is the key?

Hi Dylan, perhaps I got lucky but the dimensions of the grid and an assumption of how the shading produces the required answers means you can quite quickly discard column options.

Unbelievably I have managed to complete this and have the three words to enter below the grid. I WAS very apprehensive of needing a lengthy grid staring session (again), but got lucky with a resounding PDM. Just a few clues to fully parse now.

I am happy for you, Gitto. I am yet to achieve enlightenment. I have a full grid and the three removed words and a mind as blank as an unaddressed envelope….

Hi Jack, if it helps, you need to shade in just under 2/3 of the grid. Then, with a little lateral thinking hope for that PDM. You are looking for three words, and they use all of the shaded cells.

That is really very pretty.

It's an ingenious construction, but perhaps more satisfying for the composer than the solver.

So I'm down to just 26d in terms of not understanding the wordplay, plus I don't understand the relevance of the fox hunt servants collection in 7.

But I only have 2 words removed from across clues, the numbers totalling 49. All the other across clues seem to work fine as is to me?

Any enlightenment welcome

Ta