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I can't count - the one in the other category has a 10-letter surname!

I've found your 9-letter one - probably a better bet but still pretty obscure but still pretty obscure (to me).

I was happy with the 9-letter theme word - at least I'd heard of some of his oeuvre. Not so sure about my 20 across...

My 20a is very current - I'm certainly no fan but hardly a day goes go by without seeing/hearing it.

I must admit to being a little out of touch...

But if I'm right he's associated with my home county, and probably does little to enhance its already tarnished reputation.

...hope I didn't give away too much there. Oops

I found the 9-letter one drxx was referring to; equally obscure to me as the 6-letter one, and of course it's not necessary to find either to have a correct grid. There's something slightly unsatisfying about that type of endgame to me. You should always have to show your work to get full credit! What's true of math exams should also be true of crosswords....

I think Drxx is more likely to be right than I am (as ever, see Listener threads passim!) but yes, both seem pretty obscure to me. All the others have a Wiki entry or are in Chambers so searches for them proved fruitful without expending too much time. Still, it didn't spoil an enjoyable puzzle with a nice penny drop moment.

I very much doubt I'm ahead on that score, loge.

buddy, I don't think the 6 letter word is enough for the thematic context - it should start with the theme word to be the theme word, and not something else within it, but that's a pedantic point (and you're right - it doesn't matter anyway).
I agree that the 9 letter word is too obscure and it wouldn't surprise me if other candidates could be found by switching the categories around - there's plenty of scope here.

...but I enjoyed the puzzle very much - lots of levels to tackle it on (apart from maths, thankfully).

Re the one drxx and Loge discussed, I started out, before I got the thematic word, with a UK (NI) person from a major British crime drama!