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jif73,

Sorry for being too explicit.

The first three letters are "abbreviation" for a reference source and that is why I moved D.

I could be wrong.

I think you're right about the word to move, sunray.
You're right about Shenanigan's generosity with the regularity of the extras, jif73 (some punctuation marks would help with the first few letters).

...and even more generous than you think.

...but it's 3 letters + 9 letters (unless you were adding 1 for the hyphen, sunray).

...and you need 2 more from across clues.

Thanks drxx.

All done now.

All done, with thanks to a variety if tips, for which many thanks. The one which finally cracked it was getting the letter for 18d. Several missed opportunities before that -
I had the 4 th and 5th letters of the message, but couldn't make sense of them
I guessed who the ravishing actress was, referred to earlier, and mentally thought of her films but didn't hit on this one. There was, incidentally, a stage musical as well, which was dire!

An hour after finishing, I suddenly clicked as to how the 24 clues were thematically placed! A nice pdm!

I'm still baffled by the wordplay for 45,46ac

46 is just an anagram of 45 and the tail of youngisH - the answer being the leader of the pack

45 is a mystery to be but I supposed Hyena came into it and settled for that

45: short word for "frantic" with the last letter removed, + reversal of a large (or "great") dog. Think Greek myth for the answer.

46: Anagram of the answer to 45, after the tail (last letter) of the word which moves.

Like others, I can't see any thematic significance in the two unclued entries, but it's a long time since I read the book so there may well be a connection that I don't recall.

I have a random seven letter thematic word for part (a) and two random anagrams for part (b). If I am correct this was a tame ending to a smashing puzzle. I hadn't parsed 1 across until checking in here!

Thanks Shenanigans for a cracking challenge.