I have received the following from Alan Conner (the blue italics are my additions):
“A quick heads-up to say that there’s a programme on BBC Two tomorrow (28/2/17 at 10pm) which I suspect will be of interest to all people 225. It’s a one-off episode of Inside No 9 (a 30 minute dark comedy): the lead character is a cryptic setter (Professor Squires) who is visited by a woman called Nina, and the whole thing is based around a puzzle. (Disclosure: I feature briefly and needlessly in the credits as “crossword consultant” or similar.)”
Episode title: The Riddle of the Sphinx. Hmmmmm.
For “dark” read “jet black” … I would recommend caution for the faint-hearted.
There’s speculation of a link with today’s (rather odd) Guardian crossword, set by an apparently new compiler called “Sphinx”.
Thanks for the alert, Gaufrid and Alan. I’ve set it up to record.
Interesting, Muffin, thank you, also.
Excellent stuff and a great idea to tie a great show in with a real-world crossword. Looking forward to solving the puzz later and then watching the episode tonight (rather than on catch-up which is wot I normally do to fit it in with my busy drinking schedule). Cheers to Pemberton and Shearsmith for entering crossworld and to the admin and Alan Connor for putting the word on the street.
Hohoho – a cryptic Midsomer Murders with jokes. Loved it. Any good anagrams for anthropophagy?
Apologies for the gnomic notification before. I hoped as many people as possible might have as close to this experience as possible: https://twitter.com/rjcorry/status/836703438356512768 (or maybe better still to have solved hours earlier…?)
@Gaufrid
Links to blogs say ‘no comments” even when comments are there. FYI please.
looks like already fixed?? Sorry.
@7AC – Being an Indy solver who only does the Guardian occasionally, the early announcement was a must for me otherwise I would’ve missed the Sphinx altogether and would’ve watched the show on catch-up at a later date. As ever, I loved the show and really dug having the in-character crossword (bloody hard though it was) – very post-modern and a lovely idea. Great entertainment all round and a good advert for crossworld, too. Cheers to everyone involved.