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That was a bit of a struggle and there are still a couple I haven't completely parsed....

1a 'People seen in church' paper reported (6)

The only way I can make the answer work is if I split it in to CH(urch) and then a homophone of a word describing the plural of an old fashioned method of sending messages and news - but I'm pretty sure that's not what the setter meant!

17d Admitted being frustrated about part of Superman costume (6,2)

Again, the answer is pretty clear (although it's more a fairly new type of slang phrase) but, assuming 'being frustrated' is parsed by a common 3, 2 expression, I'm left with either ESS or SSE to be derived from 'part of Superman costume'.

In 2d I did wonder if the three letter word in the answer was a valid abbreviation for 'toilet', but Chambers gives it so that's fair.

Other than that, there are a couple of fairly obscure (at least to me!) place names (12a and 21a), a very long anagram, and a couple of homophones including my COD - 22a, which did make me laugh.

I also thought 16d was very clever, well constructed and fit in well with the clues that were film names (I saw at least three), not to mention the famous theatre (I was working for the MOD in Southwark when the original site was discovered by builders and used to go down there at lunchtime to watch the all the work going on).

All in all I thought this was a fun puzzle and a good challenge. As always, feel free to leave a comment or ask for a hint if you get stuck.

Hi Brendan,

1 Group of people you may see in a church, which sounds like a paper measure.

17 yes, ess = S

*groupS and measureS...

Thanks Jo, that's excellent. I was unfamiliar with that paper measurement term and I don't think the 'ess' = S would have occurred to me in a month of Sundays! Thanks again.

PS What did you think of the puzzle overall, Jo?

17d was ok, since the letter S is written big on his costume.

12a was popular during the Iraqi war, but for the correct spelling I had to look up google.

21a is obviously an anagram, so there wasn’t much difficulty in looking it up.

For 9a also, I had to look up google to verify the rare word for the Italian fashion house (the answer was easy to guess).

For 24a also, the name required some looking up.

Hi Mathi, for some reason I know the king in 24a as being synonymous with 'Unready' and I think the fashion house in 9a is one of the most famous in the world - not to mention that my younger brother has a pair of boots by them that are quite beautiful:-)

Like you I remember 12a being mentioned quite often on the news in relation to some middle east war but the clue for the very large S on Superman's costume went right over my head!

Yes, I knew they were famous for their leather handbags, but couldn’t associate their connection to Milan in Italy here!

It is easy to see that 24a is an anagram. But it needed verification.

The actor in 16d also needed some looking up.

Re 16d, I think he's one of only a very few actors who have won 3 Academy Awards - I know Jack Nicholson has but I'd have to Google the other/s. Luckily I've seen the first few seasons of Homeland and I watched 'Teacher's Pet' just a few weeks ago so I managed to get the answer quite quickly.

Hi All
Tricky but fun this week, I thought. Loved 4A. Like Brendan, I'm a bit flummoxed by 1A, simply because there doesn't seem to be any hint in the clue that the answer should be plural. Can anyone help?
Cheers

Hi Phil,
'paper' can be a quantity of paper, so could be several '?????S".