Editing Round the Horne (section)

===Beatrice, Lady Counterblast, ''née'' Clissold===
The first of the new characters was an elderly ex-[[Gaiety Girls|Gaiety Girl]] (played by Marsden) known as Bea Clissold in her theatrical heyday, when she was "the pure brass of the music hall",{{sfn|Took|Feldman|1974|p=38}}{{refn|Among the definitions of "brass" given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and the lexicographer [[Eric Partridge]] is "A prostitute".{{sfn|Partridge|2016 |p=70}}|group=n}} and subsequently an aristocratic widow. She has been much married and much divorced, and has retired to live in seclusion at Chattering Parva, waited on and complained about by her octogenarian butler, Spasm (Williams).{{sfn|Took|Feldman|1974|p=11}} Horne interviews her each week in the early programmes, when she reminisces about her life and husbands. In a commentary on the show's characters published in 1974 Took wrote, "Her anecdotes of past marriages combine the lurid with the turgid as the narrative flashes back on leaden wings to the turn of the century and the exploits of the young Bea Clissold".{{sfn|Took|Feldman|1974|p=11}} She appeared in the first programme of the series, and was a major feature of its early episodes. After she ceased to be one of the central characters she continually popped up with her catch phrase, "Many times, many, many times", originally referring to the number of times she was married, and later an all-purpose innuendo.{{sfn|Partridge|1992|p=202}}