Barbara

They say that when you use upper case in emails, it signifies that you are shouting. Well regarding the British TV "comedy" series Barbara, starring Gwen Taylor & Sam Kelly I have to shout it, RUBBISH. This is easily the biggest load of tripe ever to be passed off as comedy, I thought "So Haunt Me" was bad, but this takes the biscuit. British comedy has gone steadily downhill in the last few years, mainly because they don't tackle anything new, and are prepared to lose themselves wrapped up in a middle class chintzy world of Dado rails, Garden sheds, and "More Tea Vicar?" The only good comedies recently, have been the comedy/dramas like Cold Feet and in particular "Teachers" which was buried on C4, and was superb. On the other hand the script writers and producers of "Barbara" clearly think that the best way to make us laugh is to insert canned laughter after practically every sentence,as if to signify to the viewer "OK laugh now". No No we are getting more mature that that now and we expect a comedy to make us think and laugh at the same time.

Long ISland's WLIW aired a British battle for the best British comedy to fill an upcoming empty spot in their Friday night lineup. The other choices were Father Ted, A Fine Romance, Murder Most Horrid, and Barbara. My vote goes to this innovative recent British import. Gwen Taylor is marvelous and the cast is surprisingly good. I wanted it to win but Father Ted won the vote. Maybe next time, Barbara who is played beautifully by Gwen Taylor from another British comedy, Screaming, and her husband is played by the veteran comedian Sam Kelly. Her sister is played by Sherry and the woman who plays her best friend are both Coronation Street veterans. I like the fact that Barbara is a strong woman, a mother, a wife, a sister, and a friend and not perfect in any of them. I love Jean Alexander, another Coronation Street veteran, playing her mother-in-law too. There are great episodes too like her grandson's christening, her sister's wedding, and whatever you could imagine happens. Mark Benton is memorable as her celebrity son-in-law.

Trash drivel etc, and its back 4 a second series oh dear, the jokes are second hand, the acting if you can call it that is terrible. Its also on prime time television, while it deserves to be on in the graveyard slot. So many decent series' get canned, why does the rubbish keep coming back. Please stop this madness

No, Barbara isn't ever going to be remembered as a classic example of British comedy, but it did run for a while so clearly managed to entertain people - and that's no bad thing.

The performances from the cast can't be faulted. Headed by Gwen Taylor the series is mildly funny at times and then downright ridiculous the next.

When the scripts perhaps aren't as strong the acting does become a bit pantomime but there are usually some good moments to be found in each episode.

It is certainly better than much of the comedy we have to endure today.

... And having seen a repeated episode earlier today I now know why

BARBARA is yet another in a long line of sit coms featuring dysfunctional middle class types . In fact there's so many of these instantly forgettable comedies that if I listed half of them I would use up my 1000 word limit As mentioned there's two things that make this alleged comedy so memorably awful . One is its pathetic attempt at bad taste comedy . For example todays episode featured a mother husband and wife discussing the eponymous Barbara babysitting . " I'm so glad my mother volunteered to babysit for us " Cut to a wide shot as the baby's pram sails down the hill and ends up in the river . Of course you do quickly jump to the conclusion that the baby isn't actually inside the pram which spoils the pay off as Barbara turns round with the tiny child in her hands as she watches her daughter and son in law frantically jump into the river to rescue their offspring

This telegraphs the show's second obvious failing - The predictability factor . For example one of Barbara's neighbour pops round to her house to give the family a video that's been pirated " If I get caught doing this I'll be charged with distributing pirated videotapes " . As soon as you hear this you instantly know where this is heading . Same as a scene where Barbara's husband is dressed as a fox ( Don't ask ) , his car breaks down so he takes a short cut through a field to the nearest garage . So he's in the English countryside dressed as a fox , I wonder if someone nearby is having a fox hunt ? Yup thought so .

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE also has comedy come out of unlikely coincidences but that classic comedy is well written enough to make you forget the unlikely scenarios and the cast manage to disguise any remaining short comings . With BARBARA however you get the impression that the cast realise they're appearing in a pile of crap but don't really care because it helps pay the mortgage