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Wales Online
Lifestyle
Kathryn Williams

Nev Wilshire's best moments from The Call Centre that fans will never forget

Fans were left shocked and saddened at the weekend to hear that The Call Centre star Nev Wilshire had passed away.

The family of the businessman and entrepreneur described him as a "much-loved dad" and "adored Grampy", before sharing some words of wisdom from the late star. You can read more about that here.

Meanwhile, Nev will be remembered by fans for the fly-on-the-wall documentary which first aired on BBC Three almost a decade ago and followed the action at Swansea company, Save Britain Money. It was a call centre full of characters, none more so than Nev himself who was loved for his 'pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again' attitude.

Read more: From Call Centre to TV presenter but still wearing the 'Tea Lady' badge with pride

The Call Centre ran for two series from 2013 and came back in 2016, this time on Watch, for Nev's Indian Call Centre, where he and others who featured in the original series travelled to Mumbai to set up an Indian call centre.

Here are some of the most memorable moments of Nev on screen.

Boosting morale with Mr Brightside

Nev strongly believed that happy call centre staff were more successful at their jobs - and that one of the key things to happiness was singing.

In one scene, Nev attempted to motivate his entire staff by singing Mr Brightside by The Killers - and got them to join in.

Promotion via an arm wrestle

(BBC)

On one occasion teenager Robinson was after a promotion and Nev took a slightly unorthodox measure to see whether he was fit for the job - by arm-wrestling him.

Sadly for Robinson, Nev beat him.

Irreplaceable romantic advice

Nev doled out his advice to George, who appeared to be struggling with both his romantic life and sales at the call centre.

"What do girls want to talk about? The offside rule," he shared.

Nev also knew how to cheer people up if they had been recently dumped like employee Kayleigh.

"Kayleigh! You've been a miserable ******* for the last couple of days," Nev said to her.

"You've got to remember SWSWSWN - some will, some won't, so what, next."

Ultimate wind-up artist

Nev was always known for his pranks and on one occasion he challenged two team managers to the ultimate competition - egg Russian roulette.

But after a messy session of slamming eggs onto each other's heads, Nev proclaimed: "That wasn't really the competition, that was just to wind them up."

Expert way of dealing with HR issues

(BBC)

Who can remember the time when Nev discovered a stinky problem in the ladies loos at the call centre?

"We haven't got a company policy on sh*tting in the bin," he said, before sending a warning to all staff about improper use of toilet bins.

Being the real-life David Brent

Nev often drew comparisons to The Office's main man, David Brent (played by Ricky Gervais), but he said he'd never seen the popular BBC mockumentary until The Call Centre started.

Nev said: "After everyone said about Ricky Gervais I did go and watch five minutes of The Office and I did think 'how the hell can anyone say I'm like that? But there were are.

But he added: "I'm grateful for someone as famous as Ricky Gervais tweeting at us."

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