Scheming man and evil woman brought up to speed? (11)
I believe the answer is:
machiavelli
'scheming man' is the definition.
(Machiavellian can mean scheming)
'evil woman brought up to speed?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'woman' could be 'elli' and 'elli' is found within the answer.
'speed?' could be 'mach' (I have seen 'Speed of sound ' mean 'mach' so perhaps 'speed' could also mean 'mach') and 'mach' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for machiavelli that I've seen before include "Italian political philosopher, author of "The Prince"" , "Crafty chap" , "unprincipled politician" , "Author of The_Prince" , "One advising how to rule" .)