Toughie No. 27 — cryptic crossword

A toughie puzzle: 40 clues on a 15×15 grid. Solve it online — check your answers as you go, ask for a hint, and read how each clue works once it is solved.

Across

1. Crosses the Channel, perhaps, when the head reels (5)
5. Spirit of the place where nobody lives (5,4)
10. Whipped dessert, we hear, is a large deer (5)
12. Painkiller dispensed in Paris (7)
13. Wonder contained in seed — marine growth (7)
14. Fail to keep a promise in a novel by Greene (6)
15. Five coals blazing for the singing (6)
17. US trial reorganised as mere formalities (7)
18. Roll round the middle, or something kept in the boot (5,4)
21. King ails, and complains bitterly (5)
22. Weary sounds as views lose time (5)
23. Prosecuted, hiding a blemish, and kept going (9)
25. Improve, hence an unusual makeover (7)
26. Sweetheart, that is, distinctly feminine (6)
29. About to quote, perform from memory (6)
31. Kind man evolved! (7)
32. Working garment, in general (7)
34. The French drink returned for a big-eyed primate (5)
35. Shown to have passed away, taking in the spread (9)
36. Look of contempt from senior, born inside (5)

Down

1. Son craves knitted things to wrap round the neck (7)
2. Mischief-maker, one Member of Parliament (3)
3. Maori, oddly cast as one of the Fates (5)
4. Loser, out of sorts, becomes a buck in his third year (5)
5. Bit of DNA gets low-down on energy (4)
6. Duck, bishop and waiters, all spectators (9)
7. Traitor at large in an Italian eatery (9)
8. Capone after a military campaign, up and running (11)
9. Northern dust is swirling round folk with nothing on (7)
11. Some wickedness in Sussex! (4)
16. Coins and workers pass to a new owner (6,5)
19. Vital to set aliens loose (9)
20. Yeasty red mixed and drunk not long ago (9)
22. Sprang from the source and checked its flow (7)
24. Resident welder converted, taking in the left (7)
26. Granted, almost — hand it over (4)
27. Times change — the things on the agenda (5)
28. Repeat, with hesitation interrupting the operation (5)
30. Unfriendly bit of epic old drama (4)
33. Exist at the head of a Roman Empire (3)

More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.

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