When baby was born one of our tv channels was doing a big repeat run of Agatha Christie's Poirot. I spent a fair proportion of my first three months with the baby watching these when I was trapped on the sofa or in a chair with her asleep in my lap or feeding.

Amazingly this not only reinforced my appreciation for David Suchet playing the role of Poirot but cleaned my language up. Every time I want to swear now I have this mental image of Hugh Fraser (who played Captain Hastings) peering somewhat sorrowfully at the camera and uttering with deep gravitas... "Good Lord, Poirot!" and "I say!"

My other favourite non-swearing-swear stems from when I went to get chips one evening and walked past a student standing outside the door of a house having a very animated conversation on his mobile phone.. "I mean it's just not on, she's just such a SLUG."

Therefore I propose "Good Lord", "I say!" and "Slug" for your consideration.