You’d be forgiven for experiencing late night idiot fatigue with Channel 4 at the moment. What with Coppers regularly hauling off fighting drunks and the Party Paramedics selflessly wiping the wounds of twats too trashed to stay on their heels, this one-off documentary about the lives of the over-stretched door staff of Newport’s nightspots might seem like another glimpse into boozy Britain you could live without. But this is a refreshingly different viewpoint on weekend binge drinking carnage that’ll make you far more sympathetic towards the gorillas blocking your path to the next half-price Breezers.

Director Danni Davis has chosen to focus on the thoughts and feelings of the men and women behind the folded arms, as the talk openly about the pros and cons of their job and share their thoughts on the pissed-up public frotting and fighting and throwing up in front of them. What begins in familiar, though engaging docusoap territory becomes an interesting wakeup call from those who see the worst of the worst in human behaviour. 

There are laughs here, but never at the expense of those in the film. Craig Colton-alike Geraint fancies himself as a philosopher (and we probably could’ve ended that sentence three words earlier), Jamie found that bouncing gave him the confidence to get over a bullied childhood and weight issues, while Joe – who lost a high-roller lifestyle in the credit crunch – delivers some of the wisest, funniest and most damning observations. You half expect him to go into Taxi Driver mode, with a speech that borders on: “Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets”. But he claims the quote of the film when a tipsy tool in sportswear asks why he can’t come in: “It’s a fucking club, not a gym ya tit!”

We’ve all had bad experiences with power-crazed thugs masquerading as security. But what this documentary shows is that without Bouncers, our nights out would be intolerably tested by twats who treat drinking like a race to un-evolve.

Bouncers can be seen on Channel 4 on Wednesday, February 1 at 10pm.