Cryptic crossword No 294

Nice one Gollum - that’s some dedication to the cause of 13A 24A! Knowing what was going on did speed up the solve dramatically, of course, so I don’t need to witter on about subsidiary anagrinds and the occasional stretched indicator! Favourites: 10A, 12A, 20A, 4D and 8D. A few minor spoilery niggles in reply.

Thanks for some good fun there, @Gollum! @Coot's right - the initial heads-up makes for a much speedier solve (8a, 12a best in show). But the wordplay is a delight in almost every clue. 3d, 6d, 14d, 15d very clever! 1d, 19d, 21d were a bit too obscure for my capabilities... Some spoiler/comments in reply.

Great fun, Gollum - I would say AMUSING rather than 8a. What's most impressive is that you've managed to make the themed clues nicely varied - they could easily have become very samey. And they don't feel too forced either. 20a is a particular favourite - very neatly done.

2a! Very clever.

Well frankly Gollum I'm appalled by this, just doing the across clues in the required format is simply lazy!

This was great fun, even if over too quickly (because the theme made it easier). Loved the across clues, for their ingenuity and variety, and most of the down clues were good as well. I'm another one who was defeated by the parsing of 19 down!