YOU have to feel a bit sorry for the kids who attend Waterloo Road, the high school at the centre of BBC1's weekly drama.

The staff are so caught up in their own problems - and with each other - that you do wonder how they ever get time to mark any homework, let alone teach.

As most journalists will tell you, every time TV tries to set a series in a newspaper, it is grossly exaggerated and bears little or no comparison to real life. I suspect in staff rooms all round the country on a Friday morning, groups of teachers can be found muttering phrases like "that just wouldn't happen" and "how could you get away with that?".

But then, Waterloo Road is entertainment, it's not a documentary. It is to education what Casualty is to the NHS or The Bill to the police force.

These programmes are, in effect, extended soaps. And at least with an hour-long format you do get the chance for the storylines to be far less frenetic and the cliffhangers to be slightly less ridiculous than with your EastEnders or Coronation Streets.

It is very easy to be stuffy about shows like Waterloo Road and Casualty and point to the States where quality drama means The Sopranos or Lost.

But millions of people are hooked on our homegrown drama series - we do actually do them very well. So perhaps we shouldn't even try to compare them. They are different - and always will be.

So a millionaire couldn't really buy a school in real life as has happened in Waterloo Road. But so what? Just get the kettle on and enjoy it.