We were surprised to discover that we didn’t have a Phi today. We thought there must be a good reason ……..
……… and there was!
It is David ATTENBOROUGH’s 100th birthday today. The grid features some of his famous TV documentaries (PLANET EARTH, BLUE PLANET, FROZEN PLANET, LIFE on EARTH) as well as acknowledging his interest in WILDLIFE as a NATURAL HISTORIAN.
We enjoyed the puzzle and the theme helped us on a couple in the SW corner. Our last one is was JEER which took us a while to parse. We had completed the grid and then thought about 12ac which we hadn’t parsed but we were sure we were correct. It suddenly came to us and we wondered why it had taken us so long.
Thanks Coot and a Happy Birthday to David Attenborough.
DOUr (grim) missing last letter or ‘largely’ BLEU (French for blue – ‘navy’)
TAN (brown) reversed or ‘rolling’ rURAL (characteristic of country life) missing first letter or ‘unopened’
WHIrl (turn quickly) missing or ‘succumbing’ RL (right and left – ‘both sides’) FF (very strong)
An anagram (‘wretched’) of RISHI NOT A
A homophone (‘in auditorium’) of BLEW (panted)
X-RAY comes before YANKEE in the phonetic alphabet
Alternate letters (‘with only intermittent availability’) of cAlL vIrGiN
ATTENd (visit) missing last letter or ‘cut short’ ROUGH (difficult) with BO (personal problem) inside or ‘intruding’ – a reference to David Attenborough’s older brother Richard, the renowned film director
An anagram (‘barking’) of I’M G (initial letter of going) and STATESIDE
SIR (teacher) reversed or ‘returning’ around or ‘clutching’ L E (first letters or ‘heads’ of lettuce and edible)
kERNEl (seed) missing first and last letters or ‘shelled’
WIeLD (handle) missing the ‘e’ (last letter or ‘backside’ of Robbie)
ZONED OUT (stopped noticing surroundings) around K (last letter or ‘end’ of walk)
Hidden (‘bordered’) in nEAR THe
N (new) and an anagram (‘transformed’) of TUTOR + E (English)
PREFECT (trusted student) with ‘re’ (about) reversed or ‘suffering a setback’
Double definition
U (homophone – ‘heard’ – of you) with I QUIT (I’m leaving) replacing ‘o’ (love) in BoY
Hidden in (‘cuddled by’) vitaL IF Expecting
US (American) and an anagram (‘staggering’) of OTHERS around U (university)
SAN (hospital) reversed or ‘withdrawn’ and TherapY (first and last letters only or ‘following discharge’). I had to check this as we had never come across ‘discharge’ used in this way. However, checking in Chambers – under 4 (intransitive verb) I found – ‘to allow escape of contents’.
An anagram (‘failed’) TRASHY MAG round (‘taking’) O (over)
bRAISINg (slowly cooking) missing first and last letters or ‘peeled’
L (first letter or ‘leader’ in Labour) IN (popular) IN G (Government)
An anagram (‘drunk’) of DENTURES and hERe (middle letters only or ‘exposed’)
An anagram (‘fighting’) of ANGST inside (‘during’) an anagram (‘broadcast’) of POOR
F (fine) and an anagram (‘fancy’) of LInGERIE missing (‘needing’) ‘n’ (navy)
HEAD’S (senior teacher’s) HOT (attractive)
ZERO (‘love’) with the first two letters moved to the back (‘cycling’) in F (France) and N (Norway)
PLAy (freedom of movement) missing last letter or ‘curtailed’ by NET (remaining)
griEVing blOKes gEt (middle letters only or ‘hearts’)
JEstER (fool) missing ‘st’ (street – ‘way’)
And, not content with delivering us a birthday tribute, Coot has produced a pangram. Neat job. I needed the blog to parse UBIQUITY.
Thanks both
Thanks Coot and B&J.
Excellent puzzle. Enjoyed solving it.
My picks: DOUBLE U, WHIFF, ATTENBOROUGH, ZONKED OUT, PERFECT, UBIQUITY,
FROZEN and JEER.
An excellent themed puzzle which was a fine tribute to 15a.
Many thanks to Coot and to B&J.
I was delighted to see this remarkable man celebrated in such a fine puzzle.
[Last week, I was privileged to attend an awesome illustrated lecture given by Alastair Fothergill of Silverback films, recalling his decades of working with Sir David and since then I have enjoyed watching daily re-runs of his most memorable programmes on television, so he has been very much on my mind. He grew up very close to my home here in Leicester, where the whole family is held in high regard and affection. (My two sons spent an Easter holiday, I think, in the ’70s, with their Scout/Cub groups, clearing out the pond where the boy David collected newts.) It was nice to see his brother Richard highlighted at 15ac (I was at our Little Theatre yesterday evening, where he made his stage debut) and I’ve decided I want to read more about his remarkable mother, Mary. ]
https://le.ac.uk/about/history/attenboroughs
LIFE, EARTH. PLANET and FROZEN emerged quite early on. My favourites exactly coincide with those of KVa – DOUBLE-U was a great start and I really enjoyed teasing out UBIQUITY, then realised what an apt inclusion it is: much has been said during the week about the fact that Sir David has visited every single part of the planet and brought it right into our living rooms.
Many thanks to Coot for a most enjoyable tribute (I missed the pangram but, to be honest, it never occurs to me to look for them – well done, anyway!) and a blog to match from B&J.
excellent crossword illuminated by an excellent blog. I couldn’t parse JEER or UBIQUITY so stopped by for help and realised there were more Attenbugger references than I thought. I knew Dickie a bit and once was close friends with his son, but what an achievement to reach 100 and still be filming, campaigning and telling us about the beauty of the world most of us will never get to see …
An excellent puzzle, and blog, and comments.
I had a few quibbles, but on this occasion, I will zip me mouth firmly shut!
A pangram, and a theme, combined, a performance worthy of the man.
Hats off, to Coot, B+J, and of course, to our National Treasure, DA
Many thanks to B&J for a super blog, and to all solvers/commenters. The only themer not identified is PERFECT, from the 2001 series, A Perfect Planet in 2001.
I went to the same school in Leicester as Sir David (just a sixth form by then). And a few years later I found myself sitting across a table from him on a train to Bristol. I forced myself to respect his privacy and it was only as he was leaving at Bath that I saw in my paper that it was his birthday (63, I think, so 1989). Too late to wish him a happy birthday, which has been a regret ever since. So I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to create a puzzle in honour of his 100th, and I will raise a glass this evening.
What a lovely story Coot. Thanks for dropping by.
Thanks Coot for a great crossword as well as a fine tribute to a remarkable man. It’s impressive to have a pervasive theme (which I saw) and a pangram (which I didn’t catch) in the same puzzle. Favourites included ZONKED OUT, UBIQUITY, USHERS OUT, NASTY, and RAISIN. I revealed JEER and couldn’t parse X-RAY. Thanks B&J for the blog.
Thanks both. Had to do this to a deadline today, so didn’t quite do it justice. I have a vague recollection of said Mr ATTENBOROUGH using an expression along the lines of ‘the ubiquitous refrigerator’ on his programmes and maybe also a TV advert, so perhaps UBIQUITY is an additional if unplanned part of the link.
A great tribute puzzle accompanied by an especially lovely setter anecdote from Coot @7 — it seems very fitting that you got to publish this puzzle today!