Spectator N0 2614 - "Monkey Business" By Lavatch

[Matakari]

Good morning, my gentle Spectator run seems to have come to an end. This week’s is quite challenging. Assistance with the following would be appreciated to help elucidate the “monkey business” theme. Many thanks in advance!

( Unclued lights (one of three words and one of two words, singly or paired) form three groups. Group 1 is three words of a kind; group 2 is two names and a title; group 3 is a name and part of a title. The word that links them must be highlighted in the grid. )

11a Man with publisher, old fool (5) : ??B??
23a Expelled journo pens adventure story (7) : ET?????
27a Plagues reported in goosefoot plants (6) :
39a Keralan people with a currency (5) : ??IR?

7d Film poster – shout it bags Oscar (5,6) : ??L???L??O?
9d Measurer – it’s merely wrong (9) : X?S???P??
21d Still clinging to first fact (9) : ??I??S??C

[JJ109]

7d Film abouta young male ballet dancer

[JJ109]

9d anagram it's merely

[JJ109]

21 definition fact, 6 letter wordfor still around Ist

[JJ109]

39 4 letter Kerala ethnic group + A =currency of Nigeria

[JJ109]

27a homonyms - begins with B
23 adventure story (Beau) _ _ _ _ _ surrounded by usual abbreviation for a type of journalist
11a your B is wrong. 3letter abbreviation for a certain university publisher + a two letter word for a male

[JJ109]

9d All your letters are wrong!
21d your A is wrong
23a your T is wrong

[Neveracrossword]

Matakari, I don't think I'm alone in saying I'm glad the run of 'gentle' puzzles has come to an end! I hope the AB answers help and that
your errors are easily fixed. You might come to enjoy this one if you persevere...

[FleshpotsOfDevon]

I wouldn’t want it to be this hard every week, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want it to be as easy as “Grounded” from a couple of weeks back, which had a very easy unclued theme of flightless birds and gentle clueing. Somewhere in between these two extremes would suit me fine.

[Neveracrossword]

Fleshpot... true, I'm not sure I'd appreciate this level of difficulty every week. Matakari is like me, has been doing the Speccie puzzle for around 15 years - we've had all sorts of easiness/difficulty levels in that time. I'm quite happy when the easier puzzles attract new solvers, not quite so happy if there's a run of the simpler ones!

[Farrwest]

A bit at sea with this one. I need help with two unclued: - 1a BY-O-AT- and 28d S-A-ANG

[Neveracrossword]

Farrwest,1 A doesn't start with B. Those two unclued entries are in the 'three of a kind' group, 'Monkey business' is an additional clue.

[Farrwest]

Thanks NACW. That's me finally done!

[Matakari]

Back from an afternoon stroll, thanks to the coolness of today’s weather. Grateful for your comprehensive hints and parsing, JJ109! With Google’s backing, I learned quite a lot as the Unclueds all fell into place and I am happy I persevered. I enjoyed this part of the monkey puzzle, especially the discovery of the word to be highlighted.

[Neveracrossword]

Matakari, glad to hear the help fom Google (and AB, of course) meant you got this one finished. You might be back to the simpler stuff next week...

[Tilly2]

Anyone heard from Kaz lately?

[Neveracrossword]

Farrwest, glad to hear you got this finished off (my help was a little meagre, but I wanted you to have the satisfying feeling at the end of a puzzle!).

[Neveracrossword]

Tilly2, re Kaz - not here, but in similar surroundings, similar subjects....He's still solving well!

[Tilly2]

Thank you, NAC. It's good to hear that he's ok.

[gourami67]

Lets hope we stay at this level much more interesting than some recent offerings