Y OU may often have wondered, as you drive through Ampleforth on the way to Helmsley or a day out on the North York Moors, just what goes on behind the closed doors of the magnificent Abbey and the prestigious Catholic school attached to it.

Now is your chance to find out.

Last year Ampleforth Abbey let a TV crew into the school and monastery to follow the day-to-day lives of its 500 pupils - and of the 40 monks who teach them.

The result is Ampleforth: My Teacher's A Monk, broadcast on ITV at 10.30pm tonight.

As you'd expect, Monastic life affects all areas of life at Ampleforth. The Abbey is run by an order of Benedictine monks who live by the strict laws of chastity, poverty and obedience.

So just how do monks, who are committed to a life of celibacy, cope with the usual antics of hormonal teenage boys who like smoking, drinking, and looking at pictures of Kylie Minogue?

Rather well, according to the programme's producer, Dan Barraclough.

The rules and regulations at Ampleforth College are less rigid than many may think, he says. Sixth formers are allowed to visit local pubs, and a certain amount of 'self-expression' is encouraged when it comes to dress.

The teachers, all monks, have their own style. There is Father William, a former Ampleforth student himself, who takes a strict line on pictures of girls and talking after lights out. And then there is Father James, a cigarette-smoking techno music fan who allows his pupils a surprising degree of freedom and who Dan refers to affectionately as 'Father Ted'.

The documentary dwells on his strong rapport with his charges - until one passes out and another is sick after downing ten glasses of wine at a school function.

As the Radio Times puts it, the showdown in his office fairly crackles with tension.

The TV crew chose the timing of their documentary well. The 200-year-old school had just opened a boarding house for girls when the camera crew arrived - and so for the first time in its history, girl boarders were living and working alongside the boys.

"And it's not just the newcomers that are asking for net curtains!" says Dan.

The documentary also focuses on the private lives of the monks. It took a while, admits Dan Barraclough, to earn the trust of some of the monks. Eventually, the crew were allowed to peer into almost every aspect of the monastery's life, including filming meal times - taken in silence - and the monks at prayer and at vespers.

"It was quite a privilege," Dan says. "Their privacy is very important, and also their religion. We had to respect that."

The obvious question that will spring to mind for anyone watching the documentary is just why the monastery and college decided to invite in the TV cameras. Regional TV companies have occasionally filmed in the college before, but never in such an intimate way as this. And some of the more 'closed' aspects of the monastery's life, such as mealtimes, have never been shown on TV.

Dan Barraclough admits that he was surprised at the extent of access his crew was granted.

In a letter to pupils' parents, the college's headmaster, Father Leo Chamberlain, goes some way towards explaining the mystery. The college, he said, accepted that it was "a subject of some curiosity".

"We took this as an opportunity to gain a wider understanding of our mission and the value of our Catholic and Benedictine education," he wrote to parents.

If it was a gamble, it seems to have paid off. The school comes out of the documentary well. It may be steeped in tradition in the manner of many public schools - but there are differences, and not only in the fairly relaxed discipline, either. Comparatively easy-going they may be in some ways, but when it comes to one of the darker sides of traditional public school life - bullying - the monks of Ampleforth take a strict line.

"They are very tough on bullying," Dan says. "They make sure the older pupils look after the first years, and they don't allow fagging."

Perhaps best of all, he adds, there is an admirable emphasis on instilling a sense of values in pupils - something he thinks marks Ampleforth out as being different from many other public schools today.

"The monks really are part of the boys' lives," he says. "They are celibate; very often they are under an oath of poverty; and they are co-existing with children from some of the richest families in the country. But they teach them; they are house masters; they really are bringing them up.

"And the school doesn't just pay lip-service to the idea of holistic education. They really do try to educate the mind, body and soul in a way that a lot of private schools don't any more.

"It's not a perfect school, but it is a very good school. I think parents have got to want their children to go to there. I think they want their children to get more than just good exam results. They want them to be brought up with a sense of right and wrong."

Father Leo says that running a good school involves a certain amount of walking along knife edges and balancing freedom and responsibility.

"I'm sure we don't always get it right and certainly the young don't always get it right," he says.

On the evidence of this documentary, however, the monks of Ampleforth get it more right than they get it wrong.

Ampleforth: My Teacher's A Monk is on ITV1 tonight at 10.30pm.

Updated: 12:33 Tuesday, April 29, 2003