History Series / Barbara

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* BabysFirstWord: A variant comes in "Neighbours" when Linda tells Martin that he's missed George's first sentence - "[[WhenYouComingHomeDad Where the hell is Daddy?]]"
* BasementDweller: Neil, who is living with his parents well into his 20s. It would seem that he is relying on leaving via marriage, but one of the things he is bad at is keeping girlfriends.

* SecondLove: Phil is apparently this to Jean, as she briefly mentions marrying a guy named Roy which lasted until he had heart failure.

* BirthdayEpisode: "Cottage" focuses on Barbara and her family and friends going to a cottage for her 60th birthday, only for things to go absolutely wrong

* GrumpyOldMan: Queenie is a female version of the trope, being in her 70s and quite complaining and fussy, to the point that it eventually causes Barbara to snap and rant at her. Her return appearance in Series 3 even has her be expelled from her nursing home for setting fire to a commode.

* BabyCarriage: In "Fox", Linda tries to reassure Martin that having Barbara be a childminder for George would be fine... only for the baby carrier they think is holding him to go hurtling past them and right into a nearby river. Thankfully, Barbara was holding George at the time, although it takes a while for them to discover this.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The final episode of Series 3, "Who Shot Barbara?" ends with Barbara getting shot by an unknown assailant. Did she survive? We'll never know, as the show was cancelled after that.

* ChainedToTheBed: Barbara encounters Neil chained to the bed in "Kirsty" after returning home early from a holiday. In this case, it was the work of a kinky girlfriend called Kirsty.

* SilentTreatment: "Friends" features Susan deciding not speak to Barbara until she apologizes for insulting her [Susan's] husband. She only relents when Barbara actually apologizes, realizing that she would likely never see her grandson if she didn't.

* ValentinesDayEpisode: "Valentine" is set on Valentine's Day, and features Ted and Martin realizing that they forgot to get their respective spouses something for the holiday, leading to ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping.

* GrumpyOldMan: Queenie is a female version of the trope, being in her 70s and quite complaining and fussy, to the point that it eventually causes Barbara to snap and rant at her.

* TheGhost: Doreen often mentions her husband, Clive, but he never makes an appearance. The closest we get is in "Massage", where he appears as the back half of a pantomime horse (hidden of course by the front half).

* TheGhost: Doreen often mentions her husband, Clive, but he never makes an appearance.

* EpunymousTitle: An InUniverse example comes with "Pond Life", starring Martin Pond. When Martin is fired for sleeping on the job in "Kids", his short-lived successors end up continuing the puns, including "Knight Life" (starring Barry Knight), "Bird Life" (starring Ken Bird), and "Glove Life" (starring Emma Glove).

* NoLongerWithUs: When Martin is awaiting for a potential job with Sky in "Birthday", he is told that Greg is "not with us anymore". Naturally, he thinks that this means he is dead, until the woman telling him this reassures him him that he has been just sacked.

''Barbara'' is a DomCom which aired on Creator/{{ITV}} from 1999 to 2003, with a pilot first airing as part of the ''Comedy Firsts'' series in 1995. It focuses on Barbara (Gwen Taylor), the dominant doctor's receptionist with a sharp tongue. Her family includes her mild-mannered husband Ted (Sam Kelly); their twenty-something son Neil (Benedict Sandiford); their long-suffering daughter Linda (Elizabeth Carling), who is married to Martin Pond (Mark Benton), a TV presenter who usually makes a fool of himself, and her appearance-obsessed sister Jean (Creator/SherrieHewson), who eventually gets married to Phil (John Arthur). Also part of the cast is Doreen (Madge Hindle), who frequently tells Barbara of the bizarre adventures she gets into with her unseen husband, Clive. The majority of the humor focuses on Barbara's strong behavior and the rest of the family's struggles to cope with her, although there is an occasional use of surreal humor.

* DreadedKidsPartyEntertainer: In, "Kids", a children's party clown entertainer provokes Martin so much that Martin assaults him severely enough to give the clown mild concussion. The clown makes a later appearance in the episode intending to get his revenge on Martin, although this is never shown on-screen.

** Martin undergoes a lot of suffering, including getting chained to a parking meter, getting stalked by a fan, and struggling to get anough sleep thanks to his son crying non-stop.

* TheFunInFuneral: "Birthday" features Ted and Barbara going to Colin's funeral, watching as the funeral hearse containing Colin's body diverts to have a car wash.

* ButtMonkey: Ted goes through a lot of abuse in the series, including getting carjacked by ''Franchise/StarTrek'' impersonators and getting paint splashed over him, to say nothing about the fact that he has the dominating Barbara as a wife.

** Barbara's surname is spelled "Liversage" rather than "Liversidge".
** Martin is depicted as a chef rather than a TV reporter and is played by Glen Davies rather than Mark Benton. His surname is also given as "Benson" rather than "Pond".

** George is depicted as having already been born, with Barbara being tasked to look after him whilst Martin and Linda is away at his job interview. The first series however has him not born yet, with one plot thread being about the pregnancy that leads to his birth.

* WokenUpAtAnUngodlyHour: "Amour" begins with Barbara and Ted being woken up at 3:30 in the morning by their alarm clock, much to Ted's annoyance. It's soon revealed that Barbara set the clock deliberately because she wanted to call Donkersly building services and tear them a new one for waking her up at 6:30 in the morning for the past fortnight. Not only does it not work, but they get back at her by blocking her door.

''Barbara'' is a DomCom which aired on Creator/{{ITV}} from 1999-2003, with a pilot first airing as part of the ''Comedy Firsts'' series in 1995. It focuses on Barbara (Gwen Taylor), the dominant doctor's receptionist with a sharp tongue. Her family includes her mild-mannered husband Ted (Sam Kelly), their twenty-something son Neil (Benedict Sandiford), their long-suffering daughter Linda (Elizabeth Carling), who is married to Martin Pond (Mark Benton), a TV presenter who usually makes a fool of himself, and her appearance-obsessed sister Jean (Creator/SherrieHewson), who eventually gets married to Phil (John Arthur). Also part of the cast is Doreen (Madge Hindle), who frequently tells Barbara of the bizarre adventures she gets into with her unseen husband Clive. The majority of the humor focuses on Barabara's strong behavior and the rest of the family's struggles to cope with her, although there is an occasional use of surreal humor.

* TheGhost: Doreen often mentions her husband Clive, but he never makes an appearance.

* ParentPreferredSuitor: According to Barbara in the pilot, she didn't want Linda to marry Martin, but rather Stewart, as he is at least a local lad.

* ShoutOut: "Friends" features a recreation of the opening of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' featuring the cast.

* SilentTreatment: "Friends" features Susan deciding to not speak to Barbara until she apologizes for insulting her husband. She only relents when Barbara actually apologizes, realizing that she would likely never see her grandson if she didn't.

* SecondHandTelling: Doreen's main trait is about her telling Barbara in detail the bizarre adventures she has with her husband, including becoming friends with a three-legged squirrel. None of these events are ever shown on-screen however.