Cryptic crossword No 3,821

Thanks Sisyphus, nice puzzle. Well exploited theme and lots of good clues - I esp. liked 11a, 24a, 25a, 1d and 18d. And of course 20d is magnificent! Will have to return the compliment some day. Not convinced by 8a, though as always I salute your desire to think outside the box!; in 7d, wouldn't it strictly require the "half" to be directly adjacent to the "Queen"?; and in 14d "without cocaine accepted" is bit clunky - could just be "Deprivation of celeb on holiday without cocaine".

Thanks Sisyphus. It took me a while to figure out 8a despite having bunged it in and found most of the puzzle quite chewy. My favourites were 9a, 22a, 16d, 17d and 18d and 20d :-). I thought 13a was unfortunate to include the same word in the clue and solution. I wasn't aware of the symbolism of 3d so I learned something new there. Maybe the clue itself would create a better image if the 'in' was replaced by 'an'? Danke.

Thanks Sisyphus for a good set of clues with my top picks being 10a, 22a, 24a, 1d, 5d, 14d, and 16d. My only reveal was 25a. More in reply

Thanks Sisyphus. Quite tricky. I loved 9a, 15a, 25a (great def), 1d, 20d (hilarious surface).

Thanks Sisyphus for a good workout. Isn't 23d thematic as well? I liked 3d, 5d and 16d especially. Little quibbles in replies. Keep up the setting!

Thanks Sisyphus. I was able to stream this yesterday afternoon. Sorry I had to cut it a bit short, as I started to not feel well near the end of stream. But I enjoyed many clues. Particular favourites were 24a, 1d, 5d, 16d.

Thanks Sisyphus Very good . Fav clues 16d, 8a which took me back to 1970s war films and 15a which was loi and held me up despite having all the letters .

Hi Sisyphus, first one of yours I've solved, very satisfying fav clues 9a, 22a, 16d and of course 4d 😊

Great fun as usual! I didn't notice the theme, but that's on me. Faves include 9a,15a, 21a,25a and 1d,3d,16d (clever indeed),20d (very nice!)

Hi Sisyphus finally got around to this grid - printed it off a while back. Must say it took me quite a while over 2 hours and 3 beers. Well done. It seems you have tweaked 13a which is probably wise - you were giving away too much there. I thought 3d was a brave one 17d I thought I got immediately and realised it wasn't that simple later on 20d is a bit inside really but I figured it out and learned a new word! I found the across clues very tough to get for a while - the only one I got on first