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Jaypeedee, concentrate on the first word of the clue in relation to the letters of the fourth word.

Agreed it was easy - thought 39a very lazy given 33a...

Thanks loge, I see now where the entry comes from. Only problem is, I was hoping that was one of the 12 altered answers, but it obviously isn't. Back to staring at the grid again!

Unclued is that number 55 from that book? If so I have the same book. I don’t think I’d know where to start with that!

Grunos, yes that is the puzzle. I have been working on it for two days on and off and I am still only on the first part.The normal clues have to be coded by bell ringing. There will be a re-solution to come, I fear, where a lot of the letters will have to be changed in the grid possibly to leave a message.
I recommend anyone who can get hold of it to give this classic puzzle a try. The current Listener took me two hours and I am not an expert - this one will probably keep me occupied for two weeks! Thank you Dimitry!

For those who found this relatively gentle (observation, not criticism) may I recommend today's EV as providing more of a challenge?

As someone fairly new to Listener crosswords I found
this a delight, and ,for me, challenging but doable (4 hours). Its important to have a balance between the easier and the harder to allow new people to enter this elite club. Without the odd easier one I would have given up on the Listener, so I think its a shame when people are so sniffy about the easier ones, calling them 'ridiculously easy' etc.

Hi - As a lover of cryptic crosswords for decades - As I have made my position clear previously - I'm in the camp of 'draw them in' rather than 'keep them out'. You tend to find that more difficult puzzles suddenly become less difftcult the more you attempt - Good Luck.

Stephen, I'm a relative newcomer to the Listener crossword. I too like there to be a balance between easier and harder puzzles - but I also feel that people who've been doing Listeners for 10, 20 and 30 years may well find a particular puzzle 'ridiculously easy' . If you're used to a challenge and you don't get one, I don't think there's anything wrong in saying so. It may not be 'sniffy', it might just be disappointment!

Malone, as ever you are spot on. The problem is that the balance has altered significantly in the last couple of years. There are many more entry level Listener puzzles than there used to be, which experienced solvers may complete in under an hour and which provide them with precious little in the way of a challenge. I understand why as a newer solver you don’t appreciate comments such as “ridiculously easy”, but the Listener used to pride itself on being the premier thematic crossword, and many old hands feel that it’s rapidly losing any claim to be that. That’s the context in which such comments tend to be made