More challenging than your last grid. Good one.

Pepper group needed a lot of specialist knowledge, especially when we are down to soap actors

...plus, two fictional and two real...? Not sure

Thanks Jav.
Yeah Giggsy, I didn't much like the two fictional (3 with the red herring) & 2 real set-up. I decided it was the lesser of two evils. If I'd had all one type I'd have had to dredge for some very obscure ones.
Not as keen on the 'specialist' & actor points you make- she's done lots of other stuff. Conscience clear there. :-)

See previous comment. The timer did something weird and set itself to minus 2 minutes halfway through: i think it was showing mercy