Barbara, was a British television sitcom, the only ITV comedy hit of the nineties or noughties, 17 of its 29 episodes between 1995 and 2003 beating the BBC1 opposition, with a peak audience of 10 million and a 40% share. Its mainstream success came at a time when the family audience was being little catered for, with writer/performer sitcoms and sketch shows for a mainly youth audience being more in vogue with the networks.