This won't help much with your situation, but...
It's not all doom and gloom out there. I was chopped at RNEFT FHT stage a few years back, now teaching PPL/IMC/ME/CPL for a living with a fair bit of AOC work coming up before long.
1) You'd need 150TT to start a CPL course and 200 hours on aeroplanes for CPL issue - aeroplanes, as opposed to helicopters. There are allowances for rotary flying for PPL(H), CPL(H) or QSP(H) holders, but as far as I can see that wouldn't apply to the training at DHFS. You can expect between 23 and 28 (P/UT) actual aeroplane hours on the CPL course depending on the approvals and course type (eg some MECPL courses include 5 hours sim time), with a 2 hour test. The IR gets you 15 to 25 hours actual aeroplane time, again with a 2 hour test on top. The other main requirement is 100 hours PIC on aeroplanes pre-CPL issue, as well as a night qualification pre-CPL or IR test.
2) I'm biased towards my own organisation, so no names. Do however find a school that you're happy with that has suitable aircraft and experience of the courses.
3) A few different opinions here. The residential groundschool is more expensive but also more tightly scheduled - don't plan to have a huge amount of spare time though if you're keeping the workload up! Distance learning works well in conjunction with a bit of flying to keep motivation up, Bristol have a great course and superb instructors.
Good luck!!