A GLASGOW-based drama series for Channel 4, Psychos, is set in and around a psychiatric ward where the doctors can behave more bizarrely than the patients.

It will show patients attempting suicide, doctors taking drugs, and staff embroiled in complex relationships.

Gub Neal, Channel 4's head of drama, said: ''We're certainly not courting controversy. It's difficult to set a drama in that world without exciting some discussion.

''It's quite a radical view of the National Health Service, particularly because it's set in a Scottish hospital. The laws pertaining to mental health are fairly draconian and you can get certified fairly easily.''

The ''psychos'' of the title did not necessarily refer to the patients, he said, but was also an affectionate term used by psychiatric doctors in Scotland about their own profession.

''It's fairly detailed in what it expresses, in terms of the day-to-day reality of working with mentally ill people and in the lives of the doctors. We're not pulling any punches. There are a hell of a lot of unresolved tensions.''

Tim Gardam, Channel 4's head of programmes, said Psychos showed a world ''where the doctors are arguably madder than the patients''.

The six-part series, which stars Douglas Henshall who starred in the movie This Year's Love, is expected to be shown at 10pm when it begins in May.