Draw near leading characters in Peter Pan swallowed by a fish (8)
I believe the answer is:
approach
'draw near' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'peter pan swallowed by a fish' is the wordplay.
'peter pan' becomes 'pp' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'swallowed by' is an insertion indicator.
'fish' becomes 'roach' (roach is a kind of fish).
'a'+'roach'='aroach'
'pp' put within 'aroach' is 'APPROACH'.
'leading characters in' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for approach that I've seen before include "Offer" , "Come closer" , "Come near - means of access" , "Advance towards" , "Drae near" .)