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Thanks rogissimo. Haven't spotted the secondary theme yet (assuming 20d, 3d and 7a are part of the primary theme, from 25,14)

Hi Chrise,

Simon didn't give his parsing, but I went with 'boil' as the definition, 'the' followed by half of 'rice' inside a word for party...

Right, just the two left. Could I have hints on these please?

17a Broadcast story of 8's mistake (4)
??A?

17d Weed's finally pulled up after busy period in 8 (4,4)
??L?,S?O?

Unfortunately I can't really give the answer to 8, as it's central to the puzzle (I'll just say that I don't think it's a real usage!)

Hi jo
I took "party" as the definition, though "boil" fits the new clue better!

I was blindsided by trying to find a significance in the square brackets - looks as if they were intended to indicate a provisional clue!

I was also going with 12/15 being 50 years ago? Any hints for the secondary theme?

17d The English equivalent of an American 'period.'

Yes, 12/15 is 50 years ago. Curiously the printout I'm working on actually says ""To mark a 50th anniversary", whereas the paper and the online versions just say "anniversary"

I think rogissimo was commenting on how long ago the dog was on Blue Peter.

Thanks jo

17a Definition 'mistake', an American 'story'.