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If you haven't given up yet 0pt0, what finally got me over the line was trying to enter some letters. Here's Dave Clark's online grid designer again:

https://codepen.io/dcwarwick/full/wvdebxB

It's very quick to get a rough idea of bars there, and you can add some bars and compare its Down clues summary to what's in the puzzle to see if it matches up.

(Vague warning: watch out that you haven't assumed an incorrect row partitioning. I made an assumption about rows 2 and 3 which held me up for a long time.)

That doesn't let you enter letters so my next step was Qxw by Quinapalus (to be installed on a computer):

https://www.quinapalus.com/qxw.html

Enter the same grid, and just start entering what you've got. Before I understood how to enter the short answers, I just tried pencilling in the options allowing for a gap somewhere (I'm not saying whether that is or isn't the entry method!), using shift-I to put multiple possibilities in a cell. That let me look for places where I could be more definite thanks to crossing letters (the preamble didn't mention clashes), and it was surprising how quickly I got a lot of the grid filled at that point, from about two thirds of the clues solved. If you can't use Qxw, pencil and paper can do the same thing more messily. :)

I am in awe of the puzzle's construction, but I found the cold solve a real slog; I'm not a great cold solver anyway, and these clues seemed harder than average. Almost gave up once or twice but am very glad to have seen the end.

Thanks 'Eck. Pretty much 30 years of Listener solving and that was just about the toughest challenge yet - Sabre notwithstanding.
Nothing's perfect - but that crossword just about was.
Easy run now please Listener editors!

Better late than never. This tortoise has beaten the hare just in time for the next race.

Still plodding on with this one but I've now hit a wall. I know the person and have the 12 letter phrase but am flummoxed as to which of the four main contenders the quote may originate.

I'm thinking of two works with MM and two with JL, one of the works contains both. The other work is has GS and WH.

My problem is that despite looking through the entire wiki-quotes pages for all four works, I can't find a quote that could be construed as a possible entry method, let alone two entry methods.

If I'm not on the right lines, can someone nudge me onto the right path please.

Many thanks in advance.

It’s the last one you mention

Thanks candledave - I'll have to reread the wiki-quotes page a bit more carefully

Oh my! For various reasons I’ve been snowed under this week and could not start this puzzle with any seriousness until yesterday morning: gosh, this wasn’t a good week to choose for that! Especially as I know I’m one of those who struggles more with the cold solving ones…

I’m glad my little grid designer has been helpful again :-) I used it myself to crack the grid, and started playing around with grid entry when I’d crawled my way painfully to about 15 or so answers. Had a PDM about the long answers: not sure how! I think there’s an ambiguity though in 8d? I’ve gone with the one that’s not used anywhere else for now. Maybe the endgame will help.

I then started to make a hypothesis about the short answers, and it all started to come together. Once I had checked letters to help with the remaining clues I motored on a bit better. Spotted things about the locations, and the letters in the vicinity, but not sure what those signify yet. Got pretty much a full grid now. There are some tricky clues in this! And some really nice ones.

I guessed the three word phrase, which helped me find the last few extra words. I think I’ve solved the name clues and got a name, but someone mentioned ODQ and there’s only one quote from him in there and it doesn’t look helpful. Need to ponder the quotation and what to do with the 12 letters now. Then I will have a nice calm lie down before picking up this week’s puzzle!

While I do my pondering, could anyone give me a nudge for my final grid entry: Come into trouble. That would really help my tired brain! Also, I don’t see the wordplay for the penultimate down clue What makes Andy, although I have the answer of course I from checked letters and see the definition ok.

Actually I have the Come into answer now — it was 2d that I’d entered incorrectly that was throwing me off. I’m sure of my answer for that (Pulpy flesh), so now don’t know how to enter it… Maybe when I get the quotation all will be clear — the hunt continues. Would still like to understand 38d.

Read the first 4 words of the clue. Then break your answer down into a 2 and a 1.

Haha! Ahahaha! Ho ho ho. Hee hee. Thanks EsPeBe :-)