Barraclough later joined the repertory company at Stoke (appearing alongside Ben Kingsley) and then Oldham in 1966, appearing alongside Barbara Knox and Anne Kirkbride, who later both became colleagues on Coronation Street. Whilst at Oldham he made his first TV appearances for Granada Television, including Coronation Street in 1964.

In 1969, he was cast as Harry Everitt in Yorkshire Television's first soap opera Castle Haven with Kathy Staff as his on-screen wife. Although the soap only lasted a year, Barraclough became a regular guest actor on YTV shows. It was whilst having lunch in the canteen there that he was asked to stand in for a missing actor on the first series of The Les Dawson Show. It was the start of a working relationship which would last many years both at YTV and the BBC. Barraclough appeared in the Jack Rosenthal sitcom The Lovers (1970) playing a grumpy barman. He played a similar role in the Rising Damp episode ("Pink Carnations", 1978) and also appeared in ITV's sitcom George and Mildred (1977).

Throughout the 1970s, he formed a partnership with Comedian Les Dawson. They played two grotesque old ladies '...of a certain age...', Dawson playing Ada Shufflebotham, Barraclough playing Cissie Braithwaite, the more 'refined' of the two. In 1972 he gained a legion of young fans in the memorable children's series Pardon My Genie (1972–73) as ironmonger Mr Cobbledick, Hal Adden was played by Ellis Jones.

Barraclough made occasional appearances in Coronation Street in 1972 and 1975, playing the rather sleazy Alec Gilroy, theatrical agent to night club singer Rita Littlewood. He returned permanently in 1986 and a marriage to Bet Lynch was included in his character's narrative. After several departures and comebacks, Barraclough finally left Coronation Street at the end of 1998.

Barraclough was later to appear in a sitcom, Mother's Ruin (1994), in which he played a bachelor dominated by his belligerent mother (Dora Bryan). He made a guest appearance in Last of the Summer Wine ("Has Anyone Seen A Peruvian Wart? 2005), playing opposite both Bryan and his friend Kathy Staff and appeared in a variety of TV shows including Casualty (1999), Peak Practice (1994, 2001), Funland (2005) and the 1993 series of The Krypton Factor, in which he played Chief Inspector Fred Pilkington in a mini-serial specially shot for the show's Observation Round, and which also starred Annabel Giles as Journalist Julie Webb.

In 2004, he made several appearances in the BBC comedy-drama 'A Thing Called Love', alongside Paul Nicholls and Michele Dotrice. In 2009, he played the vicar in the BBC1 drama All the Small Things and from 2012 to 2013 he played Maurice in Last Tango in Halifax. In 2016 he played Mr Grainger in a reboot of Are You Being Served?. In 2001, he appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.

In the 2006 New Year Honours, Barraclough was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to drama and to charity in the region of North West England.

Barraclough died aged 81, at the Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, on 1 June 2017, following a short illness.