I think people just make the assumption that drama is simple because when they think of drama, they think of simply acting. At higher level, drama is SOOOOO much more than just acting, take a look at the past papers and you will see what I mean.
With regards to the 2 year higher english course: basically we are doing the course in S4, getting all of our LOs in that time. And then in S5 we are studying more interesting and longer texts, so as we have an appreciation for the subject, rather than just cramming exam work in throughout. Personally I think it's a rather good idea.
I figured that if I was planning on law and languages, english, drama, two languages, modern studies and maths would be a good idea. (obviously i appreciate that that is 6 and doing 6 highers often isn't a good idea).
Can I just ask, at you guys' schools, do you have free periods in S5 or do you have study periods when you are not in classes?