From the moment at the start of the first episode in which the main character sticks his hand into a car accident victim’s gaping chest wound to massage her heart back to life, it’s clear that Sirens isn’t going to be particularly easy to watch, even by the harrowing standards of recent medical comedy-dramas.

The series, based on the book Blood, Sweat and Tea, follows the ups and downs of the lives of three Leeds paramedics: the blokey but misanthropic Stuart (Rhys Thomas); womanising new recruit Rachid (Kayvan Novak) and Ashley (Richard Madden), a gay guy trying to keep his work and his sexuality separate.

Panned by some critics for spectacularly crude gags and frequent swearing, there is so much more here for the patient and perceptive viewer. The first episode – "Up, Horny, Down" – establishes the psychoanalytical undercurrent to the show, following the three lads’ textbook response to a traumatic accident.

As with Scrubs, the episodes build up both the characters and viewers with a jaunty, bawdy first half hour, only to take them down a few pegs with a sombre, reflective final few minutes: in this case, Stuart swaggers through the episode believing he had saved someone with that unorthodox medical procedure and that he was man enough not to have been shaken by what he had seen, only to be told at the end that he in fact had killed her.

In a particularly memorable episode, Rachid goes to his first "purple job" (a hanging victim who has gone undiscovered for weeks) and is subsequently followed around by the walking, talking – and rotting – corpse who ends up serving as a sort of life coach to Rachid, helping him to overcome his relationship difficulities.

The rest of the series continues in the same vein: each of the characters are forced to confront their own demons – and more often than not they fail to do so.

If this sounds like not a whole lot of fun, it’s because Sirens is really a drama first and a comedy second – indeed, the cast have gone on record criticising Channel 4 for promoting it as an out-and-out comedy, rather than the character-driven drama assisted by comedy that it actually is.

Thomas gives a superb performance as Stuart – we watch him go from self-confident alpha male to quivering wreck by the end of the series, shattered by the death of his estranged father and rejection by his love interest Maxine (Amy Fox).

Let's hope Four doesn't make the same mistake  it did with its other brilliant new show this year – university-based sitcom Campus – cancelling it after just six episodes.  This is an intelligent, moving piece of television that more than deserves a second series.