5  Old Soviet leader could make one fall asleep in the auditorium (8)

 9  Characters beginning to get laid (8)

10 You briefly did time for beating up a freak (6)

11 Kitty rings old Irish detective (6)

12 Elaborate image? No, a conceit (8)

13 Hamlet’s opposite number takes castle wearing women’s underwear (10)

16 Carrier goes round a foreign city (4)

17 Try using four different voices (4)

19 A German prince in South America who sings very well (10)

21 Tell everybody the teapot’s broken? (5,3)

23 She could be pulled in after palming a little money (6)

25 Cover for rector when parting knobbly knees (6)

26 Male character involved in New York event for women (3,5)

27 King, wearing frilly panties, offers asylum (5-3)

28 Boil requires cotton on it with salve ultimately (6)

 2  Home Office supports revolutionary soldier (5)

 3  Wash in front of the others, after removing tops, and dry (7)

 4  First-timers’ “date & dance” finally ends about one (9)

 5  Father had a pot to boil right away (2,3,4,2,1,3)

 6  Female cross with daughter, getting on well with doctor (5)

 7  Card game for spinster (3,4)

 8  Some birds love to get instruction in developing chests (9)

14 Frank gets away with small fine in dock (9)

15 Scrap workers in street beginning to sell various items (9)

18 Jazzman who played piano, bass and sport followed by a lot of beer (7)

20 Bureaucracy? It’s a bloody bind (3,4)

22 Admit to having done something wrong in work? Not entirely, it seems (3,2)

24 It strikes me as totally crazy having only starters (5)