Cryptic crossword No 3,774

Thank you Pentman, up to your usual high standard. Very well developed theme and some fine clues; my faves include 10a, 14a, 2d, 15d. (Quibbles for what they're worth....Not sure that 23a is entirely fair - nho the actress - though obvs I can see why you wanted to include it! And in 9d, shouldn't it be the French (le) rather than the Italian (il)?)

Thanks Podger for generous comments. , I pondered over 23a knowing that the actress might only be known to those of a certain age and thought of introducing some fodder to process and maybe should have, to be fair. In 9d, "Le" is the feminine plural definite article as in "Le donne" and since the clue is not a sentence and 'the' doesn't refer to the implied male driver, "the Italian" essentially stands alone so I think that is permissible? Italian has several instances of 'the'.

Thanks Pentman. Love the theme and you’ve treated it well. Same reservation as Podger re 23a and my 8d has always ended with a ‘lee’ rather then ‘lay’. Also surely a typo in the clue for 7a? Otherwise great stuff with my picks of the bunch being 6a, 1d! 2d, 5d, 16d, 17d, 20d. Cheers!

An excellent grid with plenty of thematic elements, and some very good clueing to boot! Highlights for me include 6a, 11a, 12a, 14a, 1d, 5d and 21d. Quibble in reply...

Thanks Pentman for a challenging, nicely themed crossword. This was no cakewalk for me as I missed 23a (even though I had heard of the actress I bunged in an unparsed 'senorita' from the crossers). I revealed 8d (generally directors go by last names?) and 18d. I needed your notes to understand 22a, 5d, and 20d which I guessed correctly. Still I would say this was worthwhile with favourites that included 10a, 14a, 25a, 2d, 15d, 16d, and 21d.