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Norah - I stand rebuked and (a bit) contrite – I’ve been conditioned by a couple of year’s weekly expressions of gratitude to Tatters, and hadn’t registered any negative behaviour, so I thought, with Drxx (post #37) that your rebuke to him/her in the Group Therapy thread reported by Orson (#34) was a bit OTT.

This may have been unobservant of me, but I don’t really think that the apology I suggested should now come from me – but if you think so, it’s yours:
I’m sorry to have flabbergasted you.

I didn’t name names because I was trying to be tactful – but I did implicitly include you as a ’valued member of the group’ – and I confirm that is my continuing and sincere opinion.

Quisling – I really don’t feel like a ‘pompous humbug’; I may have been somewhat naif in the context of the arcane sociopolitical relationships of the Listener Forum - although I’ve been observing this for what feels like decades – but my intervention was with the best of intentions – so go easy on me.

In the matter of possible breach of The Times’ copyright by the publishing of the early access links on Fridays, I confess to being rather flabbergasted myself that I had had no scruples in using this service – which has been gratefully welcomed by me and most other members for well over a year.
To explain my flabbergastedness: In a long career as an artist craftsman I have depended on copyright law to protect my designs from deliberate piracy and inadvertent copying - as well as copyright acting as a ‘keep off!’ warning, I have actually taken successful legal action against infringement of my designs on several occasions, to protect my livelihood – I earn my living by my designs, and copying without my permission is real monetary theft.
I’ve lectured to design students and written articles on the importance of copyright, and have advised my son and grandsons, who are all creative artists/ craftsmen/musicians, on their legal rights.

So here’s me cheerfully downloading a maybe pirated Listener every week. Mea maxima culpa?

My punishment for all this loquacity is that while watching the A-Team bound off over the horizon with Roger’s bony staghounds in pursuit of IQ and other prey, I’m mired up to my neck in incomprehension, with the penny firmly jammed in the slot.

Amended by Admin to remove two sentences.

Quixote, thank you very much for your lengthy reply. I'm sure all our Forum Users appreciate your stance in the matter of copyright in view of the fact that it is your livielihood.

Apology accepted for your flabbergastation and thank you for your kind words.

I have removed two sentences and will email you about the reason for their removal.

Can we please stop the discussion on copyright of the links to the Listener, in view of all the circumstances I think the less said about that the better.

Post removed by Admin. I have stated I want no further discussion on copyright issues. All future posts will be deleted.

Fair enough - if the link no longer appears.

Best Listener I've encountered in ages.

Had a first look at it this morning and finished by midday. At one point the left hand side was very empty but once I got the theme and solved a couple more clues it all snowballed. I didn't realise just how good the thematic clues were until I deciphered the hidden message.

Pebble – I wish I could agree, but I remain sadly benighted and penniless; I think I have no choice now but to request the gentlest of nudges towards the finishing line – if such can be given without blowing the gaff.
Where I’ve got to:
• I have a full grid, with all the 10 unrelated thematic entries identified, robust, meshing and correct as far as I can tell, and all the entries as answers to normal clues equally correct and meshed and all checked several times with the BRB app.
• I think I’ve identified all the extra letters correctly.
• I think I understand the title and how it relates to the thematic clues and entries, in a general sense.
• The extra letters I’ve identified in all the across clues and the first four down clues make perfect sense as the first part of an instruction to resolve the theme; but end in a cliffhanger, as the remaining down clue extras that I've got, if read in order, are gobbledegook, with a tantalising glimpse of fragments of improbable words.
• Doing the obvious by applying the legible first part of the incomplete instructions to the thematic clues (which does work in each case) doesn’t leave me with any residue that I can see that can give any meaningful result, whether in the class suggested by the solved title or not.

So – is this nudge request permissible?:
"Do the remaining down extra letters in order spell out a message, that I’ve evidently missed? ; OR, are they a simple list of letters in random order, as in last week’s puzzle - if so, at least two are duplicated?"

Please answer ‘Message’ or ‘Random’.

I hope that the answer given like that will be a sufficiently gentle nudge to be permissible.
If not, I’ll just continue to hack away at the rockface.

Message.

Thanks, Malone - that helps a lot - I'll go through them again.

Quixote. It was the full name of the first location that was my stumbling block. It was identifying the third set of three letters that opened the curtains!

Sorry all - wrong bloody puzzle (Inquisitor). My head is frazzling with the Crossword Centre monthly puzzle.