4094 Wet Wet Wet by Lato

This week Lato took us to the north-west corner of England for a puzzle with a familiar theme. The extra words in clues, and answers, were:

SONGWRITER = [COLE] PORTER
BEAM = [RIDGE]PIECE
BRAID = [SOUT]ACHE
SONG = [HEY] JUDE
ROW = EXCHANGE [WORDS]
PIG = TAM[WORTH]

The hidden parts not in the grid could be joined together to make COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, and WORDSWORTH. The title, Wet Wet Wet, was therefore nothing to do with the pop group fronted by Marti Pellow (see 1 down), but rather represented the three LAKE POETS. LAKE POETS can be arranged into the synonyms STAKE and POLE, another two of the unclued entries in the grid.

The location relevant to William Wordsworth was provided by the answer to 10 across, and a rearrangement of the correct letters in misprinted clues, and this was DOVE COTTAGE.

The final unclued entries represented subjects from the group’s work, and these were OLD SALT (Ancient Mariner, Coleridge), LENT LILIES (Daffodils, Wordsworth) and LA PUCELLE (Joan of Arc, Southey).

Extra words, and misprints, are indicated with [].

Across
1 Felt [Feet] I should avoid exercise (6)
PLATES PILATES (exercise) less I
5 Air quite clean but not at first (6)
ALLURE ALL (quite) + (P)URE (clean, less first letter)
8 You mean to say Cowell's losing money on creation of star [scar] ? (6)
ULOSIS U (YOU homophone) + LO (LOW ie mean, homophone) + SIMON (Cowell) less (M (money) and ON)
9 Monkey expert down under grabbing tail of macaque on [beam] (6)
GUENON GUN (expert down under) containing E (last letter of MACAQUE) + ON
10 Be half asleep from Dr Finlay's tablet (4)
DOVE Two meanings, dove(2) and (1)
Dr Finlay being the Scottish doctor in the BBC TV series of the 1960s
12 Following letter, gold [braid] permitted to become uniform decoration (7)
EPAULET EP (Epistle ie letter) + AU (gold) + LET (allowed)
15 Galleon is made from wood? On the contrary (9)
LIGN-ALOES Anagram of GALLEON IS
19 Previously adjudged a rubbish [song] for Lulu? (5)
AREDD A + REDD (Scottish word for “rubbish”)
20 Enclose round, gold boxes (4)
INRO IN (enclose) + OR (gold) reversed
21 Peace settlement a sign something's wrong (3)
PAX PA (settlement) + X (a sign something's wrong)
22 Make a border in new garden - had to leave in a bit of lawn (7)
ENGRAIL Anagram of GARDEN less ‘D (had) + I’ (in) + L (first letter of LAWN)
24 Without parking, begin reversing vehicles (4)
UTES SET UP (begin), less P (parking), reversed
28 Got more inclined to have European author in place of Shakespeare (9)
STEEPENED E (European) + PEN (author) inside STEED (Shakespearian word for “place”)
29 Juts [Jugs] out of drain (section at end) (5)
EWERS SEWER (drain) with S (section) moved to the end
31 Setter has to break rule ignoring the last step [stop] in places (8, two words)
GIVE OVER I’VE (setter has) inside GOVERN (rule) less last letter
“I have” being another way for the setter to say “setter has”
34 Mostly settled on boy of legitimate descent (6)
LINEAL LI(T) (ie settled on, less last letter) + NEAL (boy
35 Old Uncle Reg forced to come out (6)
EMERGE EME (old word for “uncle”) + RGE (anagram of REG)
36 Extremely slow locally to check up on the French (6)
 LATEST TEST (to check up) after LA (French word for “the”)

Down
1 Pellow seen regularly in this group wanting independence (3)
PLO Alternate letters in PeLlOw
The lead singer of the band Wet Wet Wet being Marti Pellow, but this is just a red herring
2 Lawyer up in box making plans [plant] (6)
LOVAGE AV (lawyer) reversed in LOGE (box)
3 Wish [Wash] to oblige (3)
TIE Two meanings
4 Figure in party once before (6)
SECTOR SECT (party) + OR (old word for “once”)
5 Chief - one getting pass out of Thailand (4)
AGHA A (one) + GHAT (pass) less T (Thailand)
6 Stop trying to silence government about beast coming over (5)
UNGAG G (Government) + A (about) + GNU (beast), all reversed
7 Bitter protest over supporting uniform-wearing nationalist (9)
ENVENOMED DEMO (protest) reversed, after EVEN (uniform) containing N (nationalist)
11 Goop on fish and fruit (5)
ASSAI ASS (Goop) + AI (fish)
13 One unworthy subordinate gets further involved (10)
UNDESERVER UNDER (subordinate) containing SERVE (further)
14 At end of case, dash off legal document (6)
ELEGIT E (last letter  of CASE) + LEG IT (dash off)
16 Start off operating illegally - that's mad! (5)
IRATE PIRATE (operating illegally) less first letter
17 Wing houses famous work of art (6)
ENAMEL EL (wing) containing NAME (famous)
18 Plan forgotten to breed [pig] (5)
TRACE T’ (to) + RACE (breed)
23 Benevolent creature - one who provided shelter endlessly (5)
NISSE NISSEN (one who provided shelter), less last letter
25 Somerset town historian turned up to cover game (6)
YEOVIL LIVY (historian), reversed containing EO (game)
26 Performs timeless content of two Shakespeare plays (6)
ENACTS TEN ACTS (content of two Shakespeare plays) less T (time)
Shakespeare’s plays being of five acts each
27 Nurse in [Row] E's holding fish (5)
SEINE Hidden in NurSE IN E’s
30 Rent free for bird (4)
TERN Anagram of TERN
32 Banker [Banter] with rise which is upsetting (3)
ROT TOR (rise), reversed
33 Male [songwriter], theatrical at first glance, fancying the other sex (3)
HET HE (male) + T (first letter of THEATRICAL)