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Setter checking in to say thanks to everyone having a go at this puzzle. No spoilers though ;-)

Hi Rob, many thanks for the challenge!

Jono, thanks for the interactive grid you kindly make us every month!

thank you for checking in, robt, and for an enjoyable solve - which I could not have managed without the internet ... am now in the middle of blogging - hope you will approve - publication midnight 30th

Hi Prospero — looking forward to it 😁

I enjoyed the challenge of filling the grid and identifying the surplus words. I’ll leave the endgame for tomorrow and get on with making the beetroot and feta lattice for dinner. I am meanwhile trying very hard to shake off the terrible consequences of the cumulative middle letters for my internal ear….

I don't think I will (can) enter this month. I have (more or less) 5A and 5D, but have no idea about 20A / 20D. The missing letters make three words and a fourth separated by Roman numerals, the first three words of which suggest a song, which I have at least heard of, if not actually heard. The word in 4D suggests a type of wind that relates to the song. 19D could be a type of spectacles, but makes no sense at all with the first word or the song. And I haven't even started considering replacing some letters, as the theme makes no sense to me at all. Time for bed?

Pendragon

20a I first went to church and wasted time; think of more playful activity

20d striaght from the horse's mouth, maybe

I've completed the initial grid and have the theme, and have created 5 of the 6 new entries happily enough but for the one remaining I have multiple letters to change and I'm not entirely sure I've got the right answer. My new words are symmetrical, but the exact location of the changed letters is not.

I have another option where the changed letters are symmetrical but in the context of the theme this other word usually has an extra letter so this seems dubious.

Mafu, the changed letters are symmetrically placed. I think I know which word you are thinking may have an extra letter, but Chambers shows the modified grid entry as an alternative spelling.