Barbara

- Season 1

(1999)

Pushy Barbara Liversage - to be spelled Liversidge in later episodes - is a receptionist at a Leeds doctors' surgery,married to the mild-mannered taxi driver Ted. Barbara's daughter Linda is married to Martin Benson,a chef,who annoys Barbara when he announces that he and his wife and baby are relocating to Wales,causing Barbara to intervene. Note: In the subsequent series Martin's surname was Pond and he was a reporter for a local television show.

Abrasive doctor's receptionist Barbara is preparing for her sister Jean's birthday when daughter Linda rings to say she is ill. Barbara takes over her job as a market researcher but gets so many complaints she has to take drastic action to prevent Linda from getting the sack. Fellow receptionist Doreen decides that, at fifty-eight, she wants a baby but is put off after a traumatic experience, whilst Barbara's husband Ted is relieved to discover he was not responsible for killing the man next door and Linda's journalist husband Martin's job as an investigative reporter...

Barbara and Doreen find themselves competing for the attention of handsome young Dr Brown but when he clearly prefers to spend time with pretty computer operator Sandra they gang up on him. Martin,who now has his own TV spot Pondlife,finds himself an unwilling love object due to besotted weather girl Karen's obsession with his thumbs whilst Jean,though humiliated when boyfriend Phil gets into a public fight with a rival lollipop man,relents when he proposes to her. Taxi driver Ted gets his vehicle stolen by a Mr Spock impersonator but picks him out at the identity ...

Having been sacked as a hospital visitor for failing to notice when a patient passed out, Barbara is not in the best of moods, especially as Ted is out clubbing with his new young friends, so she is ready to take on the builders across the road who have been waking her up at unearthly hours. Meanwhile Doreen and her husband are cautioned for dogging, Martin gets stripped and tied to a parking meter on a friend's stag night and Jean's romance with Phil continues to run anything but smoothly.

Ted finds a salmon left in his cab so Barbara cooks it for tea but when the irate owner arrives demanding its return Ted buys another and pushes it through the letter box. Martin uses his TV spot to criticize Barbara after she insults him and Linda snubs her. However when Barbara learns that Linda is expecting she has to swallow her pride and apologize. Doreen's husband gets involved in a neighbourhood war over hose-pipe bans whilst Jean leaves Phil for a muffins entrepreneur.

Jean returns to Phil but her obsession with his baldness leads Linda and Neil to believe that she is also bald and they try to prove it. A mix-up over an anorak wrongly picked up in the pub leads to Ted being arrested whilst Barbara regrets going for coffee with a lonely patient who falls in love with her. Meanwhile Martin gets stuck with his director's surly son on work experience and dumps the annoying boy by the roadside. However a bizarre coincidence solves both Barbara and Martin's problems.

Barbara drags the rest of the family to the Yorkshire moors to scatter her mother's ashes but no sooner has she begun the ritual than Linda's waters break. Everybody piles into the car to get her home but,as Martin has changed the locks,the baby is born at Barbara's - with Barbara already planning her grandson's life. Martin rushes to be with his wife,taking lifts from a taxi driver who loses his way and a woman said to be the worst driver in Britain.