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Ithiught the 'French' was a bit misleading in 6.
Meanwhile, stuck in the SE. 19d/20d/26a all intertwined. Any hint for a way in? I don't know any famous Swiss rivers.

The Swiss banker isn't a river this time!

No Swiss rivers required. The characters are letters. What’s heard is a language.

Thanks Jono for the language, that was new to me.
That helped me with 26a, although I had to search for the answer given the crossers. I had been imagining a couple of Ole English or Greek characters reversed .. mistake.
And that wraps up 20d. (Which, incidentally, is the title of an awesome book by Nick Harkaway, son of John le Carré - must re-read that).
Cheers - and thanks to Picaroon for the workout. I think my favourite was 14a.

HI everyone

Started late as usual and to my surprise filled in the bottom half quite quickly; I didn't think I could do Picaroon. 18ac was FOI!

But now I am stuck on NW corner. I haven't got 11ac or 1d, 2d and 4d. I think I need more hints.

Must get the washing in and prick out some plants (should have done it earlier).

I'll be back hoping for hints. I may just have got 2d, but haven't fully parsed it yet

1d and 11 are clever but difficult.
1d: defn "looked angry" (uncommon word), drop 1 letter from the 2-word name of a US singer. The singer was in a group that had affiliations with Nico and Andy Warhol.

11: defn "a wheeze, say" (uncommon word). Parses as 2, 2 followed by [1 inside (3, 2)].

Roof

If you get the two letter 'old' which is standard. Think of Tom Selleck for the next two and you'll get it.

After deliberation, 8 is COD. It was at the top of my (long) short list and is one of my favo(u)rite words.

Thanks Geeker and Rocky

I got the washing in, but it was cold out there now, so I've put off my pricking out until tomorrow morning. What a lovely day it has been here in the south west. I'm very jealous of your walk Rocky. Unfortunately, I have a bad back and am now finding walking painful. I have to pace myself. But lunch outside was delightful - the first of this year, despite the noise from the M5 when the wind is from the south east, which it always is with high pressure.

I think I've finished. I've got answers for both 1d and 11ac. I wasn't sure about 11ac as I couldn't find the shop, but thanks Geeker I see it now. That just left me with 1d. I've got an answer that fits the definition, but I still have no idea who the singer is. My GK around singers matches my GK around football. I've just worked out the parsing for 4d. I still can't explain the parsing for the second word in 3d. I had trouble with 16d as well, but that may be because I don't play golf.

I don't usually like Picaroon, but I enjoyed this one - some stunning clues. As I said earlier, my COD was definitely 18ac which was also my FOI, my LOI was 1d.