Puzzles August 2026

Across

• 1 Wish to get a bishop's seal of approval (7)
• 5 Moronic broadcast showing COVID variant (7)
• 9 Type of radiation detected in bubbling magma (5)
• 10 Permitting little bird to fly into winding ginnel (9)
• 11 Two boys grabbing youth's top in front of the Spanish part of a cathedral (4,6)
• 12 Digested topsy-turvy letter in Greek (3)
• 14 Fully assembled rooftop totem (4,3,2,3)
• 18 Hiding away from others, Anna quit ring spinning (12)
• 21 Assist in an identification (3)
• 22 Show's lead and performers finally all made
• something improvised on the beach (4,6)
• 25 Fuel runs out before Ollie gets organised (6,3)
• 26 Top dog starts to attack little people horsing around (5)
• 27 Analysed spoken recording revealing excessive bureaucracy (3,4)
• 28 It could maybe be the claret I spilled (7)

Down

• 1 Oscillate tops of wireless internet gadgets getting location errors (6)
• 2 Sort out high-pitched cover for Motorhead (6)
• 3 An artist represented Icarus with primarily abstract Monkey puzzle trees (10)
• 4 Letter in a different alphabet comes from the teaching assistant (5)
• 5 Enjoying the nightlife? Ten hot members have! (2,3,4)
• 6 Smidgeon held back by Kara Tointon (4)
• 7 Martin's fussing around over the final part of the regalia (8)
• 8 Forbidden territory where Chinese board games are banned?! (2-2,4)
• 13 Be noticeably different from Spooner's endangered animal foundation (5,5)
• 15 Make greenhouse gas outside to produce synthetic opioid (9)
• 16 Disparage question going in for Labour waste (8)
• 17 As far as you can go in Britain's state transport (5,3)
• 19 One subject describing an allergic reaction (6)
• 20 Society girl digested argument (6)
• 23 Talked about king departing where a river meets the sea (5)
• 24 Noisy electric whisk in testing stage (4)