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Crucifer - chacun à son goût. If what you describe was the whole challenge then I would agree with you. What I admire is the additional complexity of achieving the exact number of down clues to correspond to the letters of the names of the other members of the group and then - after removing that letter be able to re-arrange the remaining letters into new words after the machinations concerning the apparatus and the final victim. And all done within the confines of a symmetrical grid. It's that extra depth that I applaud.

I am generally not a great fan of multiple word anagrams but the denouement in this case made it all worthwhile. An excellent puzzle and my thanks to Elgin. Think we have been spoilt with the standard so far this year - can it be sustained I wonder?

I have the title and the characters from the dropped letters, but I really need help with the anagram for the two word phrase. Is it a common phrase, or just two words ?
Thanks.

Thanks Smartie for your advice at post 130.
I had both the solutions (to 34d and 41d), it was the entries I didn't have.
I now see (I think) that the entry words actually have 7 and 5 letters, not 6 and 4. Therefore I am complete but I do think the two letters in one cell thing is a bit of a cop-out. Maybe its not unusual in Listener? I don't do it often, Speccie and Azed being my normal pastimes.

Samovar, yes 5,5, a common phrase. I was thinking 'Kings Cross' but that's not it, but connected!

Thank you, Lumen. It is an anagram of some of the letters in the title isn't it?

An anagram of all of the letters of the title, samovar. What do you find at King's Cross? What letters are left?

Lumen - blanks and double entries are not uncommon in Listener crosswords. Sometimes it's the only way to get all the thematic detail within the confines of the grid.

Thank you Orson. it's obvious I have made a pretty bad mistake. The two words I have as the title are 3 letters and 11 letters respectively.
and as I understand it the two word phrase is 5,5. Where have I gone so terribly wrong ?!!

Hi Samovar

Your title is the correct one.

The 5-5 goes at the bottom but as per preamble does not take up all of the spaces. The first and last cell of the row contain the first two and last two letters respectively of the 5-5. Something thematic then fills up the rest of the row making non words.