Listen With Others

Schadenfreude’s very last Listener puzzle this week, following on from Falling in Love Again / Sagittarius Rising back in April.

OK, so I’d heard of the Karelia Suite, which provided the theme music for This Week on ITV way back when, but none of the others rang a bell. Hold on! There was Finlandia as well, and that eventually gave me the way in after I finally twigged that 1ac Top sailor overcome by alcohol got stripped (5) wasn’t a sailor but a top, DIABOLO.

Opus numbers no doubt led all of us on a search for the opus numbers of Sibelius’s works for which Wiki provides supplemental JS numbers where appropriate.

15ac Bacon spots Lady Sarah’s auntie (6) brought a smile for RASH + ER, and I never thought I’d find LI’L ABNER in a Listener crossword! As for the title, Jean’s Stuff, Sibelius must be turning in his grave.

For the last time, thanks, Schadenfreude.