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I think the shading is (literally) a grey area, but the wife appears to be treating it as a grid bar; the final condition for ''real words (two reversed)'' appears to support this.
The wife has been a bit cavalier with Arcadia's original grid and bars throughout, but her ''new info'' should be sufficient - without the nine original clues/definitions - to complete the puzzle.

So I thought this was challenging and very enjoyable apart from the undefined letter, which is a pretty fundamental flaw in the whole thing.

As seems to have been the case for several others, the last thing I solved was the first clue, and spent a lot of time looking around that letter as I assumed it wouldnt be possible to have a letter completely undefined like that. Especially as the only answer that fits is somewhat dodgy.

Very enjoyable and all workable through other than that. Shame about that pretty fundamental flaw IMV.

As Mrs Arcadia said, we had enough information to complete the crossword as no other letter could go in that unchecked cell so I think it’s fine and I appreciate the setter trying something a bit different.

Enjoyed it.

I'm at a loss to understand this talk about an undefined letter. When I first read of it I checked carefully, and having now done so three times I can't see anything undefined, either in the normal clues or the traced ones. Where is this mystery letter?

Candledave, are you giving something away in your post 40? (Last 4 words of the post?)

Don’t think so, the preamble references two columns

Candledave, so it does, my apologies.

Well, i think i am nearly there, but somehow can only see 8 clues to delete. I also cant parse:

Turn volume up several notches in bucket dispute

Study character for scarlatti catalogue, giving way to soprano in wig.

andyp - the def. for "Turn volume up ..." is the last word of the clue. The wordplay uses a word I didn't know (although Anne Bradford did) for bucket in which the middle two letters require alteration. Took me a while but made me chuckle when I saw it

For "Study ..." the def is the first word.

thanks will37 - agree with you re the turn volume up one!