Cryptic crossword No 50

This crossword can, I hope, be completed successfully by people with only minimal knowledge of the theme.

Another excellent tour de force, Gradgrind. I recognised the theme quite quickly once I'd solved both 28a and 29a, and also once I realised (SPOILERS BELOW) - cont'd

As Laccaria says, a tour de force. I managed to get almost all the way without detailed knowledge of 1, 5’s characters, eventually needing to Google 15a (which, of course, is a superb clue) and to use a word finder for 17d. But I think you can be forgiven an obscure word in such a cleverly constructed puzzle. Favourites 29a, 2d (how nice to recall when that awful man wasn’t PM - though I think you could have left out the last two words), 7d, 8d.

Thanks Gradgrind. Not being particular familiar with 1,5, I found some of this quite heavy going. Away from the theme and the obscure words, however, there was much I admired, especially 24a, 4d, and 21d.

Wow - 10A - what a super clue!