Listener 4441 It's Dark Up Here By Colleague

[Hagen]

I loved this. The PDM really made me laugh, and I’m a great fan of the secondary element of the theme. Excellent clues and a tidy final stage that progressed logically from the theme without a trace of grid staring, GWIT or ambiguity. Great title too. I was sad when it was all over, and that doesn’t happen often. Bravo, Colleague!

[starwalker]

The secondary element is also popular in this household. A very tidy (and amusing) puzzle. Many thanks Colleague.

[Encota]

Great fun! Thanks Colleague! Great theme, great treatment. And I've still got time to pack for the Listener dinner in Newcastle, ready for a 6am start from East Anglia tomorrow. Phew!

[AHearer]

Agreed - a nice Listener. I've never been a fan of the secondary theme, but it was a nice ingredient of the overall puzzle. It took me a while to see how the words from the down clues were meant to help.

I was late getting started on this, as I was at an event where a 2016 Nobel Laureate (one of those who turned up!) was visiting his alma mater. All very low-key, and such a modest individual: very pleasant.

[perseverer]

Took a while for the penny to drop after I had filled the grid, but all the elements are cleverly worked. Have only vague recollections of the secondary theme and wonder if it will be too obscure for some solvers - perhaps why you don't have to show you have found it

[Ruthrobin]

I had to grid stare for a while but smiled at the p.d.m. and found all the clues so fair and solvable. Perhaps a relatively gentle puzzle as this is the weekend of the Listener setters' dinner and a lot of setters and enthusiastic solvers will be travelling to or already in Gateshead. Thanks to Colleague.

[contendo]

Does 5 down really have 6 letters?

[upsetter]

Theme 1 to theme 2 was the sublime to the ridiculous.
Like the much nastier reference to the antisemitic Banks a few weeks ago, it took the edge off a very good puzzle.

[contendo]

I see the answer to my own question is yes.

[sunny-dave]

Nice one - I should have been doing all sorts of ghastly DiY chores, but thought I'd just have a quick look at this instead.

Lots of fun and a very tidy finale - a much better way to spend a Saturday afternoon, even if it doesn't leave me any further forward ...

Thanks Colleague

[HappyUncle]

Thoroughly enjoyable, with an amusing final stage. The several references by other solvers to the tidiness of the puzzle may (perhaps) constitute a nod to one of the themes, which passed me by at the time.

[icynorth]

Another fan of the puzzle here. Great theme, fine clues, and I learned a few new words, too. Thanks, Colleague!

I challenge myself to slip new words into my conversations in the following week, but I think 13A might be a problem...

[Dear-Doris]

I can't see why, icynorth?

[Philoctetes]

A theme unfamiliar to me, except I vaguely remember my dear, late father (WW2 RAF) mentioning it. The secondary theme came at a time when I was distracted by careers. But I really must research 30d, as we are expected to know without the internet

[olichant]

Very nice puzzle. The theme was completely new to me, and the final grid-stare took me ages - but that was my fault, not the grid's. Really good fun, and I loved the way it came together in the end.