8  Duchess finally dies in agony – rotten way for a lady to go (10)

 9  Confined in prison cell at some time in the past (4)

10 Baseball pitcher’s third-rate. He won’t have much success (6)

11 Comment (with a wink and a nudge?) on nude in Nuts (8)

12 A person who always votes Conservative must be really sad (4,4)

13 Cold and severe with temperature dropping. It’s distressing (6)

14 Satellite state worried about large republic’s leader (7)

16 Man starts to check how to block junk e-mail (7)

19 Fancies more than one wee drink laced with ecstasy (6)

21 Finding small branch stunted by non-British disease causes gloom (8)

23 One’s taking part in show in a state of bliss (8)

25 Italian chap’s cross having lost time at first (6)

26 Quite heavy? That’s not very unusual (4)

27 Isaiah appointed one king from the east for the Jews (10)

 2  Once more judge the worth of keeping animals in reserve (8)

 3  Find butter, cut bread and jam jars. Now you can make jam sandwiches (6,4)

 4  Doctor punctures vital organ. He probably needs more training (1-6)

 5  Enthusiastic rock band heard on the radio (4)

 6  Friend heading off? One’s bound to become sad through having no company (6)

 7  I see C. Dean performing with energy – this? (3,5)

13 Arrests miscreant rampaging round the centre of Halifax (10)

15 Be uplifted by drunken tirade having had too much to drink (8)

17 He’s beginning to expose secret handshake that’s used in Barnet (8)

18 In reality a man needs to be cherished by a prostitute (2,5)

20 American from Pennsylvania gripped by pain (6)

22 Shout hard and wave when queen leaves (6)

24 River is flowing round small island (4)