JimF It's Private eye. So *** is a swearword. But AB inserts the ***. So the number of letters in that swearword are not known. I.E if it was a four letter swearword, AB will replace it automatically with three stars.
Welcome to AB Beth.
We have a formula for asking crossword questions; here is an extract:
Remember: Not everyone will have a copy of the crossword in front of them, so please write the clue EXACTLY as it appears, the number of letters required and which (if any) you already know e.g.
13d Excellent on-line resource for answering questions (10) A?SWE?B?NK
We also have a swear filter so you will need some clever way to let us know what that word is please.