Listener No 4392: A Conversation By Kevgar

[AHearer]

Nice straightforward clues, and a theme that never fails to raise a smile. Familiarity with the theme, guessed early, made is possible to see where some clashes were going to be before both contributing clues had been solved, but never mind. I enjoyed this, so thanks KevGar.

[IainGrace]

Agree with comments. Good fun, with theme readily spotted.

[icynorth]

Thanks Kevgar - nice puzzle for passing the evenings in a caravan on a Dorset clifftop - no reference books needed this time.

[fyellin]

So as I'm rechecking my answers, I notice that I don't have any abbreviations, though the instructions indicated that there should be one.

One short answer is commonly an abbreviation, but wasn't in the context of the clue. Are the instructions incorrect, or am I missing something obvious?

[Ruthrobin]

Check again fyellin - one 'hidden' answer is an abbreviation in Chambers.

[sunny-dave]

Surely the abbreviation is an en clair answer to an across clue, RR ?

[perseverer]

I think RR was referring to the wordplay in the relevant clue, although it did worry me for a moment.

[tbayliss]

No nice PDMs for me in this one. I didn't guess the theme straight away but it was there about a quarter way in and not really hidden. Some nice clues though like 37d and a few easy ones which I like to get me started.
3 days after filling the grid I look again and still one or two clues I can't get because of the clashes like 11d. I have 8 clashes at least (that's more than "several") and there must be at least one more than the one I've got in 11d to give a meaningful answer.
The abbreviation answer is pretty clear Fyellin - across clue in top right area of grid. Not that tricky.

[Scree]

Enjoyed doing this last weekend during a family birthday reunion in Hathersage.

Disagree that the short across answer is an abbreviation - not so in Chambers 2011 at any rate. I'm with fyellin on this one (though there's probably an abbreviation elsewhere that I haven't spotted!)

While the instructions ask us only to highlight six cells (so the grid with clashes resolved is the final grid) I'm intrigued that there is an area of the grid which contains the appropriate letters, some repeated, all contiguous.
As far as I can see there's one way of removing the six required letters which would still leave all real words (though it would top one thematic item).

The more straightforward location of the six cells would not leave real words after removal. I wonder if the original idea was to ask us to remove the cells (and if so, why change it?)

There is one other puzzle - why six cells? From the source material, I'd expect seven.