Coronation Street place at university, and thus found his working-class background—as well as his parents, Frank and Ida (Frank Pemberton and Noel Dyson)—something of an embarrassment. The character was one of the few to have experienced life outside of Coronation Street. In some ways this predicts the growth of globalisation, and the decline of similar communities. In an episode from 1961, Barlow declares: "You can't go on just thinking about your own street these days. We're living with people on the other side of the world. There's more to worry about than Elsie Tanner and her boyfriends." Roache is the only remaining
Coronation Street assistant manager at a fictional department store, Dobson and Hawks. Granada produced two series of the spin-off, which ended in 1966. In 1967, Arthur Lowe returned as Leonard Swindley in "Turn Out the Lights", a short-lived sequel to "Pardon the Expression". It ran for just one series of six episodes before it was cancelled. From 1985 to 1988 Granada TV produced a sitcom called "The Brothers McGregor" featuring a pair of half-brothers (one black, one white) who had appeared in a single episode of "Coronation Street" as old friends of Eddie Yeats and guests at his wedding. The original actors