Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

The clues...
Requests for help should normally include the clue itself, the number of letters in the answer, and details of any you already have. Any additional information or special instructions, common in Listener puzzles, should also be included.
Hints only, please, no answers.

The theme...
Help towards the theme may also be sought here. The help should be of the 'gentle but useful' type, just a nudge, a pointer in the right direction. What shouldn't be given is anything thematic that would spoil the puzzle for others. Any posts which, even inadvertently, reveal too much of the theme are likely to be removed.

The Listener is a unique puzzle and should be treated with respect.

As this is the last Listener of 2023, I'd like to wish all Forum members another year of happy, challenging, satisfying solving.

PS An early start for the thread, I won't be around later.

Bit flummoxed by this. Filled the grid reasonably quickly apart from 10d and have spotted three characters (by moving a couple of letters). The first message is crystal clear. By contrast, the second one looks like total gibberish. So I'm stuck.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

Happy New Year. Perhaps you've noted the wrong letters from the pair? I thought this was a fun puzzle despite being unfamiliar with the theme. Cheers, Seps.

I don't think the 1st message helps at all for the endgame, it gives thematic information only. Everything required is in the 2nd message (2nd in as far as it's the second one mentioned in the preamble, of course).

...Happy New Year (yes, it was fun but there was an awful lot of gimmickry involved... again!}.

Struggling to finish this. I have a full grid and the two messages (I think). Just to see if I have segregated the clues into the right 3 categories, is the sum of the 6 clue numbers leading to the extra words 175? If so I cannot see the extra words in the last 2 (in normal clue order.

i have that sum as 173

oops, no it's 175. sorry.

Thanks buddy, I now have the film, cannot see the cryptic clue leading to it, and currently grid staring.

gitto, the cryptic clue in the grid doesn't give the film title but the result of the first 19 letters as in the preamble. (hope this makes sense}