Pardon The Expression was an ITV sitcom made by Granada Television, that was first broadcast from Wednesday 2 June 1965 to Monday 27 June 1966. The sitcom was one of four spin-offs from the soap opera Coronation Street. Pardon the Expression itself had a spin-off: Turn Out the Lights, broadcast in 1967. There was not another spin-off until the 1980s with The Brothers McGregor, which reused two characters (played by different actors) who appeared in a single episode.

Leonard Swindley, played by Arthur Lowe was the central character. Formerly the manager of the fashion retail store Gamma Garments in Coronation Street, in this series he is the deputy manager of the department store Dobson and Hawks. His boss in the series was Ernest Parbold, played by Paul Dawkins, who was replaced by Wally Hunt, played by Robert Dorning, in series 2. Other regulars were Betty Driver as canteen lady Mrs Edgeley and Joy Stewart as Miss Sinclair, the boss's secretary. Another member of the cast was John Le Mesurier, who later reunited with Arthur Lowe in the classic comedy Dad's Army.