Editing Round the Horne (section)

===Chou En Ginsberg and Lotus Blossom===
In the ninth show of the first series Chou En Ginsberg (Williams) appeared for the first time. He is a parody of the stereotypical far-Eastern villain [[Fu Manchu]]. The first part of his name was borrowed from [[Zhou Enlai|Chou En-Lai]], the then Chinese premier; for comic contrast the writers wanted an incongruous second name and experimented with "Chou En Murphy" and "Chou En McWhirter" before settling on "Ginsberg".{{sfn|Took|1998|p=42}} He always announces himself as "Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (Failed)".{{sfn|Took|1998|p=42}}{{refn|The device had appeared earlier in English comedy, in 1930, when the authors of ''[[1066 and All That]]'' billed themselves as "[[Medical certificate#Aegrotat|Aegrot]] (Oxon)" and "Failed M.A., etc., Oxon", the latter referring to the Oxford tradition that those graduating as [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] could for a fee upgrade their degree to [[Master of Arts|MA]], which the writer had lacked the money to do.{{sfn|Bremer|1999}} But Took's use of the phrase was prompted by reading that in India some lawyers who had not passed their examinations would nevertheless practise and advertise themselves as "Master of Arts (failed)".{{sfn|Took|1998|p=42}}|group=n}} He appears regularly in the [[James Bond]] parodies, "Kenneth Horne, Master Spy", plotting a fiendish international crime, luring Horne into his clutches but then being outwitted.{{sfn|Took|1998|p=37}}{{refn|Although Took later confirmed that the sketches were essentially send-ups of the Bond films, the first one was titled "The Spy Who Came in With a Cold", ''à la'' [[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold|John le Carré]].{{sfn|Took|1998|p=37}}|group=n}}

Chou was joined in the next show by his concubine, Lotus Blossom (Paddick) who is, in the words of her master, common as muck. A drawing of the two by William Hewison in Took and Feldman's 1974 book ''Round the Horne'' shows a diminutive Chou alongside a large, looming and graceless Lotus Blossom bulging out of her [[cheongsam]]. Her attempts to entertain Special Agent Horne with her songs and dances cause him more distress than Chou's threats of death.{{sfn|Took|Feldman|1974|p=11}}{{sfn|Took|1998|p=42}}