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That was fun. Finished, but didn't actually solve one thematic clue -
Bear going round Californian city's fair game. (6) Starts HO I think but I can't fit LA into Hold so am a bit baffled.

Turn a famous bear round and add the city to get a fair game.

Oh, that's good thanks. Never occurred to me that LA wouldn't be within.
That means that the thematic character is real rather then fictional? The only one I think?

No, there is at least one more. And one I can't identify.

There are two real ones, one of whom was also immortalised in fiction, if that helps

Would you like a nudge?

It's certainly "an eclectic bunch", and a good half were an esoteric bunch.

It was an excellent puzzle, and more challenging and enjoyable than a rather disappointing Listener. However, I would have enjoyed the last stages of sorting out the pairs (and back-solving one half of a pair) if there hadn't been so many obscurities. Five were instantly recognizable. Most of the rest were obscure or very obscure and needed internet research. In two cases all I found were Facebook pages of anonymous thematic practitioners, and in one case I couldn't find any confirmation that my subtraction was indeed thematic, whhich means I can't be absolutely certain that my entry is correct. I don't submit entries so it doesn't really matter, but I don't like ending up with queries or uncertainties.

Obscurity is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I'm surprised you needed Facebook, murky. One of them (conceivably two) is admittedly from the last decade, and not on terrestrial tv.

Here's my list, if it's of use. I don't want to spoil anyone's fun, so please don't click unless you want to see them all.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l10rk6re007lzx9/IQ%201680.pdf?dl=0

I didn't need Facebook, Quisling. All I meant was that entering a name plus the theme word got all sorts of rubbish, including dozens of Facebook and other pages from complete nonentities.

And thanks for the list. The one I couldn't confirm in a Google search was the hyphenated one. Perhaps the omission of the hyphen was the reason it didn't show up. Perhaps I should have known it but it's not a work I know, and it's not been dramatised on film, TV or stage as often as the other work, where the practitioner is iconic.