Follow the Directions Again by Artix

Puzzle explanation

The initial directions led to Robert De Niro, who played Travis BICKLE (2dn) in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. Though the film didn’t win any Academy Awards or Golden Globes, De Niro’s performance received Best Actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle.

The letters extracted from clues spelt out “change down for anagram of ringed letters”, ie “down” in the directions was changed to “across”. Thus modified, the directions led to Fred Housego, a taxi driver who won the TV quiz series Mastermind in 1980 with the TOWER OF LONDON (39ac) as his specialist subject.

Clue explanations

Conventions: * = anagram, < = reversal

No Answer Explanation
Across
1 ST BEDE BED in (ST + (templ)E)
5 SNIPERS SNIP + ERS
11 ARABIS RABI in AS
12 GENOA GE(t) + NOA(h)
13 TABU ABUT with letters cycled
14 PRANA PRANG − G + A
15 IVY PRIVY − PR
17 SETON NOTES <
18 MED DEM <
19 EASER ERASER − R
20 MERE M(c)E(n)R(o)E
21 TSOTSI (IS + TOST) <
22 CELL 2 meanings
25 HAD ON HAN around DO
28 LET 2 meanings
29 PESO homophone of (PAY + SO)
30 SASIN SA SIN
33 ÉLAN ÉLAN in MOMA = MELANOMA
34 UNTO TAUNTON − TAN on the outside
35 RETINA RE + TINA
36 MARGIN R in (MA + GIN)
37 EROS SORE <
38 EMERGE E-MERGE
39 TOWER OF LONDON (NEW FOR OLD) * in TOON
Down
1 SATIETY SATIE + T(went)Y
2 TRAVIS VI in TRAS(h); sex = Latin for six
3 BABY HOUSE (A HOBBY) * + USE
4 DIPSAS ASPID(istra) < + S
6 NORTEÑO NOR + TENO(r)
7 PENN PENN(y); ref. Sean Penn
8 ENAMELLING (TELLING − T) around NAME
9 ROBE (BOOZER − OZ) *
10 SADDEN (D + DEN) after SA
16 METHODISE ((w)ISDOM (t)EETH) *
20 MENSUREN MAN with ENSURE for middle letter
23 LENTIGO LENT + I + GO; I = .. in Morse code
24 HETERO (flus)H (tak)E (mos)T (car)E (ove)R (casin)O
26 AVENIR AIR around VEN; ref. (the Venerable) Bede at 1ac
27 DELANO (LEAD ON) *; ref. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
30 SAMEL CAMEL with S for C
31 RONE RONE(o)
32 FRET 2 meanings
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