Brian Fillis

The second episode of Brian Fillis's comedy-drama set among Leeds paramedics is really finding its rhythm. Stuart's thus-far platonic relationship with police sergeant Maxine is the most intriguing of the series but this week, he finds himself dating a student and facing stress-related underperformance problems under the duvet. With a studiously mixed cast of characters (gay, Muslim, female, bloke), all doing serious jobs, Sirens successfully gets away with a lot of boisterous laddishness.

Created by Brian Fillis and inspired by paramedic Brian Kellett's blog and subsequent book, Sirens has a slightly stylised, "written" air about it, but once you adjust to that, this six-part comedy-drama is a treat. In tonight's opener, we meet Stuart, Rachid and Ashley, three paramedics who would seem like sorry specimens of 21st-century British manhood if they weren't performing heroic frontline services on the drunken streets of West Yorkshire. After a dramatic opening, a counsellor advises them to be prepared for the emotional rollercoaster of an adrenaline rush, horniness, then depression, but Stuart is determined to be "master of my own biology".

The Curse of Steptoe is the first in BBC4's The Curse of Comedy season. And I've just finished watching it on preview disc. It's wonderful - Jason Isaacs (Harry H Corbett) and Phil Davis (Wilfrid Brambell) nail their roles. [...] The film documents the actors' frosty relationship, with both each other, and the show that simultaneously made and ruined them. It's beautifully shot, cleverly written ("The father's just a feed, really", Corbett tells his wife) and - well - just loads better than the BBC recent trails make it appear.