Ft Christmas Crossword

[Dominique_J]

I've just printed this off. Seven squares in the grid are highlighted in red.

The instructions state "The seven highlighted letters will reveal the theme and they precede thirteen thematic lights. The remaining nine thematic lights are featured there. None of these twenty-two clues contains a thematic definition."

Please could somebody translate this into plain English for me? What are 'thematic lights' for goodness sake? It says 'nine thematic lights are featured there' - where is there???

I must say this is this first time a crossword has go me wound up before I've even started!

[Dominique_J]

An Israelite is a Jacobean tribesman (in Gozo's mind, that is).....

[Dominique_J]

I've finished it.
I pity anyone born after 1980 who attempts this. If they manage to work out the theme, it's unlikely that they'd have heard of any of the themed 'lights'!
Gozo has now been added to my list of banned setters.

[barnaclebill58]

I'm still baffled. What do the instructions mean please? if the theme was Premier League Football Teams (and I guess it isn't!) how would they "precede thirteen thematic lights"? And how would the remaining nine thematic lights be featured there?
I addition 26 a says "See 4 across" but 4a has no reference to 26a. Baffling.

[Dominique_J]

It ia baffling until you get some clues and it falls into place. The theme is a film franchise, and some of the themed solutions are the film titles and some are the names of their actors & actresses.

[barnaclebill58]

Thanks - I'm not going to waste anymore time on this. I'll see if it makes sense when the answers are printed. I'm surprised the FT Crossword Editor didn't insist that the instructions were made clearer.

[Dominique_J]

Don't give up, carry on!

[barnaclebill58]

Thanks for the encouragement but I really don't understand what the instructions mean.

[JJ109]

Say the 7 highlighted letters spelt "Road to" then there are 13 words that complete the films names eg Singapore, Morocco, "anywhere else". The words are not "road to" that is just an example.
The other 9 are actors and actresses that appear in those films
eg Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in my example.

It is a completely different franchise and the 13 words all follow on from the word(s) given by those 7 letters

[Mamyalynne]

Dominique, 6d - Israelites works fine really.

Not a bad clue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_of_Israel

[JJ109]

If you look at Mamyalynne's answer at 12.30 you will see one unclued answer is Jack Douglas. What franchise of films did he appear in?

[JJ109]

^^undefined - not unclued!