Johnson crooked, slightly lacking, a whimsical character behind bars? (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
willy wonka
'whimsical character behind bars?' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'johnson crooked slightly lacking a' is the wordplay.
'johnson' becomes 'willy' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'crooked' becomes 'wonky' (similar in meaning).
'slightly lacking' means to remove the last letter.
'wonky' with its last letter taken off is 'wonk'.
'willy'+'wonk'+'a'='WILLY WONKA'
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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