excellent puzzle, all finished,
BUT
in 1d my anagram ends in s, agreeing with the definition. This gives 3 letters in one cell, and ruins the "possession. So what happens to the superfluous s? (of course I could be totally wrong)
All of the down clues have a surplus letter and here it's the 's' from the anagram, once 'n' and 'd' have been removed - 'doings' is another slang word for a ... (singular).
Thank you, Ifor. A great challenge and, as ever, masterly construction. Having reached my (advanced) age knowing of but somehow never having experienced the thematic material, it was an educational voyage, too!
As usual I am well behind with this and have ground to a halt despite having read about the theme and all the helpful hints on here until I'm blue in the face. I thought I had the second AIRCON (6, 5) and can see a forename which fits but not a surname. If I have the right person I know what his repetitive activity was and what he used but that is 8 letters unless he gave it a name. I can see the 7 letters of appropriate shape which need to be joined but it is the highlighting part of the endgame which is completely eluding me. Any hints or violent shoves in the right direction would be appreciated.
The “posture” of Aircon 1 is appropriate. So maybe also for 2, perhaps? Part of the preamble about 1 cell having 2 letters may be useful in the second part of the highlighting.
Thank you for that Jack. I see what you mean about the 'posture' and if the forename I have is right and is read downwards I can see the surname going up at an angle from it. That would give me D as the fourth letter and not T as I would expect. Assuming I have the 2 letters in the right square (at the end of a down entry) I still can't work out what the possession is although its trajectory is clear enough. Back now to reading up on the theme.