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Barbara
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Mark Bussell Rob Clark Ramsay Gilderdale Graham Mark Walker
Starring	Gwen Taylor Sam Kelly Benedict Sandiford Sherrie Hewson Elizabeth Carling Mark Benton Madge Hindle John Arthur Jean Alexander
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	29
Production
Production location	Carlton Studios
Running time	25 minutes
Production companies	Central (1995) Carlton Television (1999–2003)
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	10 July 1995 (1995-07-10) – 4 April 2003 (2003-04-04)

Barbara is a British sitcom starring Gwen Taylor in the title role. A pilot was broadcast in 1995 by Central Television, and three series were then televised on ITV from 1999 to 2003 by Carlton Television. It was filmed at Carlton Studios in Nottingham in front of a live studio audience. The majority of location scenes for the series were filmed in various suburbs of Nottingham, including Mapperley and West Bridgford, with other scenes filmed around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Plot

Barbara Liversidge is a no-nonsense, outspoken, nosey, middle-aged doctor's receptionist with a sharp tongue. She has been married to her husband Ted, a mild-mannered taxi driver, for 40 years. Barbara is by far the dominant figure in the relationship, but Ted does occasionally stand up to her. The pair live in Pudsey, Leeds, West Yorkshire with their twenty-something son Neil, who drifts between jobs and a succession of short-term relationships. Their daughter, the long-suffering Linda, is married to Martin Pond, a TV presenter who has his own slot on the local news, Pond Life, which generally involves him making a fool of himself. Jean is Barbara's appearance-obsessed sister (Barbara once claims she's had so much plastic surgery that "she literally doesn't know her arse from her elbow") who marries the simpering Phil. Barbara's colleague at the doctor's surgery, Doreen, often regales Barbara with tales of the bizarre situations she and her never-seen husband Clive find themselves in.

Much of the humour revolves around Barbara's tactlessness and her family's fear of getting on the wrong side of her. While the family often complain about her, they usually find they struggle to manage when Barbara doesn't take charge. Although the show initially appears to have a very traditional sitcom setting, surreal humour is frequently used, such as Barbara baking a cake that looks like Judi Dench and a taxidermist friend of Ted's stuffing and mounting his dead wife. There were also some more drama-based plots, such as Linda's discovery she can't have any more children after the birth of her son George. In a particularly dark development, the final episode ("Who Shot Barbara?") ends with an unseen assailant shooting Barbara from behind - a cliffhanger which is never resolved.

Cast

Series overview

Episodes

Pilot (1995)

Series 1 (1999)

All Sunday, 8 pm, ITV except Scattering, shown at 7 pm

Series 2 (2000–01)

Series 3 (2002–03)

The twelve episodes making up Series Three were recorded as a complete series in 2001, but were split into two separate series upon broadcast - six airing in 2002 and the remaining six airing in 2003. The 2002 episodes were shown Tuesdays at 8.30 pm, apart from "Flood" which was shown at 8.00 pm and "Valentine" which was shown on a Saturday at 7.45 pm. All 2003 episodes were shown Sundays at 7.00 pm; with the exception of the last 2 episodes on Fridays at 8.30 pm due to the ITV News coverage of the Iraq war. The Series Three DVD release contains the full twelve episodes.

Filming locations

The majority of location scenes for the series were filmed in various suburbs of Nottingham, including Mapperley and West Bridgford. The exterior location for the Liversidge house is located on Sandford Road in Mapperley, whilst the exterior used for Barbara's workplace is the West Oak Surgery on nearby Westdale Lane.

Martin's news studio is the exterior of Carlton's Lenton Lane studios.

Release

Barbara was first shown as a pilot within the Comedy Firsts series on 10 July 1995. Four years later, on 27 June 1999 the first of three series was presented, with some of the cast and names of the characters being changed from when the programme first appeared. Unusually for an English sitcom, Barbara was written by a team of writers; Mark Bussell, Rob Clark, Ramsay Gilderdale, Graham Mark Walker and Justin Sbresni.

Reception

Initial reactions to the pilot were lukewarm. While The Guardian described Taylor as 'ever-watchable', it felt there was too much focus on character at the expense of plot, summing up 'whether or not there's a series in here remains to be seen'. Critics remained ambivalent as Barbara progressed to full series; previewing the second series opener in The Guardian, Jonathan Wright felt the show had become 'an enjoyable slice of mainstream sitcom', but Charlie Catchpole in The Mirror felt Taylor and Kelly were both 'sadly wasted', remarking 'Carlton Television say Barbara is ITV's most popular comedy for five years. I believe them. It's not exactly a crowded field, is it?'. However, every episode of the 1999 and 2002 series was in ITV's top 30 weekly ratings as compiled by BARB and audience figures frequently averaged around 5-7 million viewers, 17 of the episodes winning their slots, meaning they were the most watched shows at the time of broadcast.

The Independent Television Commission's annual report for 2001 labelled Barbara 'a rare exception' to the otherwise unimpressive 'commitment to comedy shown by ITV', as represented by shows such as Sam's Game and Babes in the Wood.

DVD releases

References

1. "Ex-ITV Regional Studios". TV Studio History. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
2. ^ "Weekly top 30 programmes on TV sets (July 1998 – Sept 2018)". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
3. BBFC Entry for Series Three DVD Release
4. The Guardian; 8 July 1995, page B70
5. The Guardian; 24 November 2000, page 20
6. Catchpole, Charlie. 'Lonely at the Top for Babs', The Mirror; 28 November 2000, page 13
7. The Guardian; 29 April 2002, page 9
8. "BARBARA COMPLETE SERIES 1[DVD]". towerrecords.ie. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
9. ^ "Barbara". British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
10. "Barbara - The Complete Second Series [2000]". amazon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
11. "Barbara: The Complete Third Series [DVD]". amazon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
12. "Barbara: The Complete Series". hmv.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.

External links

• Barbara at IMDb
• Barbara at British Comedy Guide
• Barbara at epguides.com
• Barbara at British TV Comedy

• 1995 British television series debuts
• 2003 British television series endings
• 1990s British sitcoms
• 2000s British sitcoms
• British English-language television shows
• ITV sitcoms
• Carlton Television
• Television shows filmed in Nottinghamshire
• Television shows set in Leeds
• Television series by ITV Studios
• Television shows produced by Central Independent Television