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I am stuck on this one today. 1 down Charlie swam in sea, serious actor (7,8) M?L???? ??G?A?E. Thank you.

Michael Redgrave.

Should have explained.
Anagram of Charlie, Med (sea) + grave (serious)

Interesting clue, what aristo calls a 'ghost anagram' - he says they are not valid?

i don't think that this is a ghost (aka indirect) anagram.
Charlie is anagramed inside the word Med (not anagramed) for sea.

I stand corrected, trevor.

Hello, rambler. I just happened to check in here and saw your post. Actually, this isn't one of those, I'd say, since MED isn't part of the anagram; Charlie is jumbled inside M-------EDGRAVE. There seems to be a lot of disagreement about what I often complain about, but I strongly feel that all letters of an anagram should be present in the clue itself. What's your take on it?

Sorry, missed trevor's post. Still curious though.

I'm convinced by your argument and agree.

from wiki;
"in some older puzzles, the words to be anagrammed may be clued and then anagrammed. So in this clue:

Chew honeydew fruit (5)

Chew is the anagram indicator; honeydew clues melon, which is to be anagrammed; and fruit is the definition for the answer, LEMON. This kind of clue is called an indirect anagram, which in the vast majority of cryptic crosswords are not used, ever since they were criticised by 'Ximenes' in his 1966 book 'On the Art of the Crossword'. Minor exception: Simple abbreviations may be used to spice up the process; e.g., "Husband, a most eccentric fellow" (6) for THOMAS, where the anagram is made from A, MOST, and H = husband."

i don't like them either Aristo.