The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 6 letter word NOEL COWARD
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
N
O
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L
C
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A
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More clues leading to the result NOEL COWARD
- Writer‘s Christmas card impressing bird no end
- Writer depicted old queen briefly imprisoned after revolution
- He gave us “bitter sweet” Christmas chicken
- Chicken when turkey expected? Great wit!
- Writer‘s Christmas card impresses bird no end
- Old playwright given chicken afer Christmas
- Famous player‘s role can do with being revised
- Author, a turkey playing chicken?
- Old playwright: is he afraid of Santa?
- He has a crowd round at Christmas
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "playwright" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case playwright = noel coward.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.