Cryptic crossword No 212

Wow! What a brilliant pay off when the penny drops — an amazing find, expertly deployed. Words, words, words...

This is a bit of an experiment, be good to hear people's thoughts

Really excellent Phantom, thanks, and that’s without the bonus material! So many ingenious clues with cunning misdirection. If I had to pick favourites: 12A, 25A, 26A, 27A, 8D and 29D. Spoilers in reply

Very nice! There's method in your madness!

That really is clever. I ended up needing to crack the Special Instructions to solve one of the clues in the grid; it took right to the end for the penny to drop. [SMALL SPOILER IN REPLY]

I thought this was a great puzzle, worthy of wider publication. My favourite clues were 17a, 25a and 30a. I thought 12a was really clever although didn’t realise how good it was until I saw the annotation. I wasn’t sure about the clues for 3d (due to obscure cultural reference) or 22ac due to definition of one part (as suggested in annotation). I really liked the special instruction and was so close to solving it!!

For anyone needing help with the bonus clue, the answer is amongst the replies (also a warning for anyone not wanting spoilers)

Great work, Phantom. A couple defeated me (I would never have parsed 25a) but it was all enjoyable. Favourites were 9a, 10a, 18a, 13d. I think 12a is a bit cheeky, but I like it - you had me mentally running through Tina Fey's back catalogue until the penny dropped. I didn't fully solve the bonus clue, but I got the general gist of it... very good.

Thank you Phantom! I enjoyed this a lot - laughed out loud 12 12a and 29d, thought that 27a and 20a were very clever amongst many other good'uns. Failed to parse 25a, hopefuly the annotation will help. I didn't unpack the Special Instructions until after I'd done the puzzle, but couldn't quite see the connection - I must be missing something. Thanks again!

Well done Phantom on creating this - no mean feat! My favourites are 17a, 20a, 30a, 8d, 13d, 24d.