I'm stuck in the bottom left corner. 18dn, a veto overturned on cultural body providing coffee. I have just an I as the fifth of the seven letters. Then 23ac: Staff pluck endless fruit (8 letters) Guess it ends in ORAN and I have an A before that. Will start there to tidy up the corner.
Have you got the fruit now?
Ending (last 5 letters) make a noun meaning pluck but also an adjective meaning plucky, minus the last letter. Whole word originally meant a figure in Chinese hierarchy.
I see that my GENDARMES for 15dn was preventing me from seeing this familiar fruit. It's always those answers that don't make total sense of their clues that throw one off. BTW what's the connection between Cockney and the answer for 13ac?