From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishjoking apartjoking apartSERIOUS/NOT JOKINGused to say that you want to say something seriously Joking apart, they did do quite a good job for us. → apart
Examples from the Corpus
joking apart• Peter joking apart have the tories done themselves any good this week?• Joking apart, I do feel somebody should tell him what we think. It's for his own good. 