Influential characters put in their place here? (7,6)
I believe the answer is:
leading lights
'influential characters' is the definition.
'in their place here?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'in' is found in the answer.
'place' could be 'lead' (lead is a kind of place) and 'lead' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'put' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leading lights that I've seen before include "very influential" , "The first clues are" .)