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I hope everyone is well and not finding this isolation too much of a drag.

After last week's stellar effort, this Everyman is much more like we have come to expect.

There are a few clues that reference Easter, but, if there is a theme, I'd have to say it's a 'flower/shrub' one. I'm no expert in this field (or any come to think of it!) but I counted seven of them - or maybe the flowers are related to Easter?

There are the usual mix and match of clue types, and a combination of the anagrams, partial and complete, hiddens, cryptic definitions, charades, homophones, a Spoonerism and combinations of them all.

Assessing difficulty is never easy because it's such a subjective thing but, if I had to say, I reckon this is very much at the easy end of the scale.

My COD is the witty and current (geddit!!) 22a.

Please feel free to ask for hints and/or leave a comment.

In the meantime, stay safe and wash those hands!! :-)

Hi Brendan,

This was easier than normal I thought. I cottoned on to the Easter theme early on and that helped frame my thinking for the remainder of the puzzle. My favorite was 1 down although for ages I had it in my head that the “rocker” did a remake of stairway to heaven in the 70s. Just goes to show so much in life is generational. I’m not a huge fan of floral clues simply because I’m hopeless with names of plants, but I managed to struggle through. 7D I have no idea what the answer has to do with Murdoch. Time to google that one.

Got the 7D reference now.

Hi Matador,

who did a remake of Stairway? I must have a listen:-)

It's not Rupert - it's the novelist. I'm not sure I understand the parsing of 26A though.

Sorry - I just noticed that you had already worked that out.

Hi Rainman,

There's a type of primate from Madagascar that has the same pronunciation as a large city in Peru.

I remember doing a clue very similar to 24d a few weeks ago. Compared to the yesterday’s laborious jumbo Prize puzzle, this one is much easier.

Hi Mathi,

He certainly seems to be a favourite among setters, in addition to today's Everyman and yesterday's prize, he also made an appearance in this week's Listener.

I was glad that this was available to do online, given yesterday's Prize.

It was Heart Brendan. They did a remake in the 70s but performed an amazing version of it in 2016 at the Kennedy Center tribute to Led Zeppelin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFxOaDeJmXk. John Bonham's son was playing the drums. Superb.