5  Difficult to straddle a horse when rundown (7)

 9  Proceeding across Congo in gunboat (7)

10 Pale, sickly hog left in pen (7)

11 Based on stories of monstrous cane toad seen by lake (9)

12 Part of market surrounding hotel in fashionable resort (5)

13 Abandon daughter with slight feeling of discomfort (5)

15 No longer appreciating popular soap opera villains (9)

17 Foreman’s running rings round English journeyman, say (9)

19 Pole has drink with contrary compiler (5)

22 Run ancient city and a large part of the country (5)

23 Stern doctor accompanies a barbarian around India (9)

25 Has love died in quarantine? (7)

26 Demanding general interrupts leave (7)

27 Figures in book (7)

28 Letters carved into table (7)

 1  Up and coming horror writer welcomed by fat cat (7)

 2  The most secretive orders CIA gets (7)

 3  FBI agent takes Rhode Island prisoner to be electrocuted (5)

 4  Godly sorts hug Tories (9)

 5  A thinking man’s male hair product (5)

 6  Prohibit maniac from leaving the house for some food (9)

 7  E.g. The Thing (7)

 8  Arid state of Yemen heartlessly accepted by 23d (7)

14 Shame of motorway tailback captured in colour (9)

16 Entertaining theatre featuring drag queen as Bottom (9)

17 Outlandish opinion originally held by lunatic fringe (7)

18 It’s hard to forget war Rome lost (7)

20 River bordering Idaho offers several points for fishing (7)

21 Consumed energy supporting fellow creature (7)

23 Compulsion to remove uniform or clothing (5)

24 Flipping wicked old fruit! (5)