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Ok. Lots to ponder on there. Thanks both.

Ah! I thought there must be more to it. I took the first 3 letters off 43a rather than 3 within (got the same answer) and did a similar thing with taking 3 out of 40a (and got the same answer).

That makes the whole thing much more satisfying. Thank you.

I’ve now got both conditions and the word ladder linking them. I also have the word removed from the last two rows. But, still not seeing what happens in two rows... granama implies that 13a is a thing that can famously ‘row 1 theme word’ - is that the direction I need to work on?

All of the top rows thematic answers are capable of doing (top word in your ladder) and these parts are what are affected if you get the (top word... ladder) thus giving pain.

...this might be inaccurate (my 'research' was minimal, to say the least) but it appears that gas collects in these areas, displacing them and causing pain (the displacement we can see in the grid).

This might be fanciful, because the very nature of the parts might be enough to justify their inclusion (they can all do the...!) but as this is one of Ifor's, it's the kind of detail we might expect. And I like this one, but it could go the same way as those 'thematic names', of course.

Hmm, I think it’s all pretty convoluted, and the preamble is unfairly obscure.
However, I only have 22a left to crack, non-thematic. Any help appreciated.

'Some housing' is the def - 'no longer in favour' = [minus 'pro'] - [pro]MISES anag.

Very clever puzzle, I made the same wrong removals as granama1 initially. However, if someone hadn’t suggested looking up the last four letters of the instruction I would never have sorted it out, never heard the phrase, was looking for a nine letter word akin to diversity and was convinced I’d gone wrong somewhere. Was this phrase famous?

I agree, teenieleek - very clever but a bit tortuous in places (worth the effort, though... I think).

Can't remember hearing this phrase but a few others were still being bandied about when I was very young (''I go, I come back'', was heard quite a lot). Reading about the show via wiki gave me a few laughs - so I might have absorbed more of it than I think!

Teenieleek, the programme of the last 4 letters was before my time but I had heard of it. So I googled **** and a key word in the 'advice' and found the phrase. Couldn't have solved it a) without google and b) without help on here, particularly drxx.

I kept pondering divertimenti or something like that.

I guess it was famous at the time.