Cryptic crossword No 258

Hi! 👋 I hope you enjoy the self-imposed constraint, which started as a little experiment, and ended up being unimaginably irritating to obey (and presumably to solve, too). Still, this should be a bit of fun, and if nothing else, serves as my Christmas recommendation to watch Peter Jackson's excellent 'The Beatles: Get Back', which put me in mind of the theme. Goodbye! 👋

Amazing stuff Quince. 1a et al, of course, but 10a, 7d, 14d... all superb.

Howdy you manage to come up with such inventive ideas? Adieu a lot of spare time on your hands? Hi praise for 16d, 5d, 18d, 11a & 21a, although I think 7d might punch you for call it a "Monkee"!!! Bye and large, though, very impressive ;-)

Nice misdirected definitions in 8D and 18D. Particularly enjoyed 4A 9A and 5D. Kudos for the Bunthorne style long one. I'm afraid it did get a little irrating in places, but I admire and applaud your self discipline in not abandoning it. Spoiler in reply

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That was tough. Made so much tougher by deciding from the outset I needed a Beatles song for the first solution. 8dn, 24dn and 24a were my pick of the bunch.

After a few moments pondering how one might get NORTH SHROPSHIRE into 10a, this was brilliant from start to finish. The long one is concise, absolutely sound and with a superb surface. Especial favourites apart from that were 9a, 24a, 7d (the "perhaps" surely makes it acceptable), 8d, 18d, 19d. I wasn't familiar with 26a or the word form in 6d, and didn't quite parse 2d successfully, so once again the annotated solutions were invaluable. Thank you for a delightful puzzle.

Nice one, Quince. A couple of slightly clunky surfaces, but forgivable considering the constraints of the theme, which you’ve handled admirably well. Really liked 21a, 14d, 16d, and the long clue is especially impressive for how concise it is, given the length of the solution, and for the smooth surface.

Fabulous! The sort of puzzle that is fairly straightforward to set and follow your own rules for about 60% of it, then gets absolutely horrible to finish - well done!

As others have said, this was remarkable. 1a of course is magnificent, but lots else to like. And as I type, the definition for 18d clicks into place...