Waterloo Road Series Three - Spring Term   Starring: Eva Pope, Neil Morrissey, Denise Welch, Jason Don and Philip Martin Brown Acorn Media UK RRP: £24.99 AV9729 Certificate: 12 Available 11 May 2009

In the melting pot that is a Rochdale comprehensive school, teachers struggle with the task of educating the new generation, a generation that has concerns of its own. Both parties on this divide navigate the almost meaningless experience which defines their lives sometime to shine but mostly to survive Waterloo Road...

Waterloo Road is an ongoing successful drama based around the teachers and pupils of a school, their lives their loves and the general struggle to make it through another day. Series three, well part of it anyway, is now out on DVD which chronicles the spring term.

I have to admit here that although I was aware of the show I never watched more than ten minutes before turning over, not because it is a bad show, but because the stories usually presumed some prior knowledge on the part of the audience, instantly marginalising the casual watcher. That said, my twenty plus daughter and six million other viewers, love the show, so what do I know?

Waterloo Road: Series Three - Spring Term consists of ten shows, that’s half a series to you and me, hence the ‘Spring Term’ postscript, with a running time of over 570 mins, spread over three discs of what is an ongoing drama, which usually screams ‘Soap’ to me. In truth the show has both the strengths and weaknesses of a soap, an ongoing storyline wherein exciting things happen to the cast at a rate that would be miraculously unbelievable in reality, which in turn makes you want to watch show after show, in case you miss anything.

On the plus side the show does try to address some of the common and less common events which surround a school, although this series was depressingly bookended as it opens with a visit to a prison and ends with a potentially fatal fire. In between we have stories which cover both the staff and the pupils, some work better than others.

The cast, Neil Morrissey, surprisingly effective in a dramatic role, is aided by Eva Pope, Denise Welch, and Philip Martin Brown et al, they are a strong and obviously committed cast trying to bringing some semblance of realism to the plots.

Would I watch it again, probably not as, like soaps, the overall impression it gives of life is depressing in the extreme. Still, like I said, my daughter loves it, so what do I know? I’m sure that if you started to watch it you would be hooked in no time.

The show is presented in its original aspect ratio with a stereo audio track. Disc one has an extra in the form of the Spring Term Scrapbook which is a picture gallery with accompanying text.

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Charles Packer