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Thanks so much, Malone. All clear now.
I expect you don't, but do you need a pointer to any of the 3 groups I've got?

Thanks, jazzlover, but I'm happy with it the way it is - I quite like finishing without needing every scrap!

PS Sunray's help appeared just before mine.

Thanks so much, Sunray.

Though having "completed" the puzzle much earlier I haven't looked in before now as being anal I couldn't parse 14a. Talk about Doh ! moments; once the penny dropped a big smile appeared.

Just completed this, and another fine puzzle it was too. Took quite a while for the final pennies to drop, which it shouldn't have because, as I was scratching my head, I was distracted by a programme my wife was watching. A noisy documentary about a very famous musical and it's maverick composer....

After looking back through this thread, seems like I’m not the only one watching BBC4 (though I watching on Catch Up)!

Bubber, I had the opposite experience to you. Glancing at the tv schedules on Saturday morning, in a little break from Inquisitor, I saw the relevant programme - which clicked with two of the answers I'd recently entered. I was a little disappointed that the theme had come to me, rather than working it all out by myself.

Malone, it was very odd. My wife was watching and I found it very distracting, as I was scratching my head looking for a connection beyween the four groups. Then it suddenly clicked - when it was almost over. I thought it was a remarkable coincidence till I figured out the rest of the puzzle.

Like ginge I was very late parsing 14A and when I did I laughed! I had been fixated on Mrs Dale(y) of Mrs Dale's Diary until I realised!

However I still cannot see the wordplay in 39D. "Note: the highest Ice Queen (4)". I do have the thematic entry but not the wordplay. Although I have "finished" the grid I am not sure of the missing letters so cannot deduce which is the missing letter in 39D.

39D. "Note: the highest Ice Queen (4)"
e-la = highest note missing "s" makes elsa