In regards to negative comments, I completely respect the opinions of others on this site. If you don't like a puzzle, then fair enough. That's your view. But I would like to offer my own opinion on what people regard as inferior puzzles, if for nothing else than to expunge it from my system and get it out there and into the wind.
I, for one, take great pleasure in solving these puzzles, no matter what the quality. More pleasure comes from cracking a well constructed, well loved toughie than a more straightforward, simpler thematic crossword, that's undeniable, but for me there is always pleasure of some degree to be had from solving a clue a cleverer person than me has written and filling in empty cells with letters. At the beginning of solving the anticipation of what's to come and what needs to be done is the same every time, no matter how tough or superior the clues are, and with the highlighting or manipulation of words and cells and letters and who know's what else, the delight in solving the endgame is simply satisfying, mixed with the feeling of having achieved something. I take pleasure in solving a puzzle that the setter and editors of one of the most highly respected crossword series presents to me to be solved. Yes, my pleasure in solving Samuel's Spiral recently was greater than that experienced from Jago's offering, but now and again I like to fill a grid quickly because doing that brings its own satisfaction.
Some of you think this one is inferior? You're entitled to that opinion and no, it wasn't of high quality, but it was still a Listener. And a crossword with a blank grid to be filled by tapping into our intellect, however deep we have to go, is a pleasure every time. And I'd like to think that if a lot of the solvers out there who thought this to be disappointing were presented with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and were asked to create their own thematic crossword from scratch, they would do a lot worse than today's.