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re the farceur - I was trying for ages to make Frayn or Travers fit ... then realised the answer. I fell off my seat aged 14 when my father took me to Reluctant Heroes. Then they used to put a camera in the circle and show the second act of the Whitehall farces on the old b/w steam BBC. Later in life BR became a Lord, for his work with Mencap - and I got him to direct Simple Spymen for me at Oxford, which showed everyone that Arthur English (whose spiel I would hear on the radio as a boy) could really act and revived his career ...

Finished with a huge amount of googling and the odd bit of outright cheating. Some words I just didn't know and a good few I still can't parse! There's a website that publishes the parsing a week later isn't there? Off to the garden now.

I was expecting the undefined answers to be seasonal, but I guess there aren't that many Easter-related words. The connection between them is rather loose, and some of them were utterly unknown to me. The 11-letter one is the sort of thing I say when I've had a few and am in a bit of a grump.

@Prospero, that’s very interesting, many thanks for sharing.

[Btw, this has nothing to do with this thread, but as a Genius aficionado, I wanted to ask you if you saw the thread relating to Genius 13, from 2004. Between us we solved the puzzle, but not satisfactorily. What we lack is the original preamble which might disclose a cypher or code of some sort. It’s a long shot but I wonder if you can shed any light? I even wrote to the Guardian editor to see if we could access the archive but no reply as yet.]

Have read the thread and I suspect that I'm in a small minority, but I found this to be a real disappointment. First of all there was little, except the obvious, to connect the theme words. Why 'physical and human'? I also didn't think that the answer to 'role which includes Romeo...' really fits into the list of theme words. Further the clues at 21 and 22 down were simply not very good. I too fell into the buckets and why not? The clue was ambiguous. I'm not ashamed to say I need Dan Word to complete the puzzle.

Sorry folks but's that how I feel.

hi jono - I didn't see a thread but have looked at Genius 13. It does seem there is some sort of rubric (which has disappeared). I can hardly remember the current Genius when I read 15squared at the end of the month - so there's no chance I would remember what's going on. There is clearly a clash or two - the first letter of 22 should be a P but has to be a J for 18d. Also looks like a clash at the end of 21d ... and 25 doesn't seem to be defined. I'll keep glancing at it but am not hopeful of being of any help ... I suppose, as sometimes happens, the rubric was only on the PDF - and that doesn't seem to be preserved on the site. Good luck with the editor - is it Alan Connor now?

Williamseal I wouldn't apologise. I'm still going purely because I like crosswords and it's become a challenge now. But I'm finding the theme a bit uninspiring. I like the half clues half jigsaw format but I'm at the point where it's a bit of a grind now and I'm also stuck frankly because the clues unfilled, I've either solved but can't say for sure where they go, or I'm totally bemused by them after hours of head scratching.

Very grateful to Maskerade for the effort but there's no buzz about this one.

[ Thanks Prospero, I’ll post the link to the other thread below, it’s worth a read to see where we got to. I solved the Shakespeare bit but Quisling did all the heavy lifting when it came to what seems to be a cypher. Hamish even popped in. Here it is…

https://www.crosswordsolver.org/forum/895765/guardian-genius-13-july-2004/

… and yes, it was Alan Connor I wrote to. ]

Sorry to derail this thread, everyone.

The first time I've attempted something like this. Found it tough but fun. Am confident that I have solved it correctly, no little thanks to the discussions below, but I don't really understand the 'human' element of the theme words. Could someone please explain?

Hi Geting

I'm glad you asked that question. It has puzzled me. I assumed that you can add geography to both words.

I've done most of the numbered clues (1d, 19d, 21d and 25ac still to do, could I have a hint for 25ac please), but am still puzzling over most of the themed words. The ones I have got (8 out of 36) are all towns/cities. I've put some in the grid, but can't be confident I've got them in the right place without more answers.

Jono, I think I found the one near me. I've numbered all the undefined clues. I'd like some hints for the first three and the 13th which is the 11 letter clue (yes, I've read the thread and seen the previous hint).

I'm sticking with it a bit longer, I did my gardening this morning - mainly pricking out my seedlings.