The difference between Series & Serials

Firstly the term series refers to connected set of television program episodes that run under the same title, possibly spanning over many seasons, a series is where each episode can stand alone. Although a story might continue into series two there is a definite ending, in other words no series last for ever, there will always be a ending whether its in the first, second or even third series. Examples would be Skins, Heroes, Vampire Diaries, Doctor Who,Waterloo Road. Series tell a different story every week, for example, each episode in a series will have a cause for a issue, the actual issue or problem then a conclusion and ending, it will then maybe leave the audience on a cliffhanger, which will then be long awaited for to find out what happens in the next episode, which will make the audience tune in every week. British shows have tended towards shorter series in recent years, for example the first series of the long running science fiction show Doctor Who went from forty two 25 minute episodes in 1963 down to fourteen 25 minute episodes in 1989. However there are some series in the UK that have a larger number of episodes, for example Warerloo Road started with 8-12 episodes but then increased to 20 episodes from series 3 onwards, and now season 7 will consist of 30 episodes. On the other hand Serial is most likely seen in soaps, where stories are continuous and it doesn't run for a set amount of episodes, but continues all year round. For example Neighbours, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Doctors. Serials tend to have a wider range of characters and story lines to keep the soap as interesting as possible. Soap opera's is most prominent form of serial dramatic programming. A soap opera is an on going episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in a serial format. They also stereotypically tend to end of a cliffhanger, to again keep the audience attached and interested in the soap.