Casting Shadows

(Spoilers here - don't read if you are embroiled in last Saturday's cryptic crossword in the Guardian).

This puzzle (by Puck) was one of those with a linking idea. Lots of the clues included an unexplained capital "B" and the puzzle was headed by the rubric that "Almost all the B's have the same significance".

So we tackled it, and eldest got the first solution out (to a clue without a B), which meant that I had a letter which helped me to solve 13 down (nicely positioned, straight down the middle of the grid). For the record "B-butcher three times lonely? Humph! (9)" - which had the solution "Lyttelton".

So we put that in and pondered what B might be. "Broadcaster" of course! All of the B answers would be respected broadcasters - perhaps all of them from Radio 4 (they wouldn't just limit it to R4 comedies would they?)

So we started looking for Nauchtie and Humphries, Parsons and Perkins, Cooke, MacGregor, Redhead, Ross (even) and Reith.

Not a jot. Not a tittle.

Turned out finally that B was "Bandleader." Which is fair enough as a theme, and Humph fits either, but now having completed the grid I am stuck with a shadow crossword in my mind - populated by a completely different group of people. Not Count Basie and Duke Ellington, but Clive James and Eddie Mair. I can't get it out of my head.

And I think I rather prefer it.