“the indefatigable Wilshire was warm at heart and made great TV”. ★★★★
Michael Hogan, Daily Telegraph
“The Call Centre is work of intelligence and beauty.”★★★★
Andrew Billen, The Times
“No doubt about it… instant hit The Call Centre delivered an absorbing hour of very watchable fly-on-the-wall telly.”
Kevin O’Sullivan, Mirror
“it’s very entertaining – because of Nev, whether you think he’s appalling (me), or brilliant (everyone else).”
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian
NEV WILSHIRE, larger-than-life Swansea call centre boss is back on TV this spring. The colourful character has been described as a “brash, bellowing bear of a man…only a few scripted gags away from a Steve Coogan creation” (The Daily Telegraph), “a silverback gorilla” (Sunday Times Culture), “Swansea’s David Brent” (The Guardian), not to mention “a total berk” (Mirror), but the star of BBC’s hit show The Call Centre, is back with a brand new six-part series, Nev’s Indian Call Centre – following the wheeler-dealer boss and his crack team, as they attempt to open a new Call Centre… 4000 miles away in India.
Setting up base and recruiting a new team of top talent is no small task, so to assist his unique management and motivational style, NEV is joined by much-loved tea lady HAYLEY who NEV lovingly upgrades to “International Head of Beverage Facilitation” and his most trusted lieutenants, Operations Manager, DWAYNE and Campaign Manager, JOHNNY, as they pitch up in the call centre capital of the world, Delhi.
Sent ahead as an advance party, DWAYNE’s job is to find the perfect office space. But when the rest of the team join him, and a despairing NEV encounters one bargain basement after another, everyone is praying DWAYNE is saving the best til last. Next NEV must find a workforce… and with his twin track approach (hiring a recruitment agency as well as DWAYNE and JOHNNY street leafleting), NEV expects a queue out the door. But how many will actually turn up? Bemused applicants endure NEV’s notorious ‘sing-along job interview’ trying hard to impress with songs from Bryan Adams, The Killers and The Proclaimers. How will the successful recruits handle NEV’s crash-course in British culture – from sitcoms to sport to the weather, or HAYLEY’S version – fake tan, nails and hair extensions; will the team manage to pull it off and make a success of their company?
Other highlights from the series include: NEV and his team dressing up for Diwali in an attempt to fit in; HAYLEY and JOHNNY discovering green oranges are a thing; HAYLEY convinced she’s watched a deity relieve itself in the street; NEV donating 50 Swansea City football shirts to a group of bemused young footballers in a local slum; the parents of one of NEV’S new employees travelling over a thousand miles to thank him; HAYLEY’S transformation from tea lady into “Indian goddess in the making”, taking in a tea plantation and the accidental milking of a male goat…
Will the business be a success? NEV is hopeful… after all, “Happy people sell, and India is full of happy people.”
Watch clips from the upcoming series below.
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Nev’s Indian Call Centre, TXs on 9th May on W
For more information please contact: Lucy Plosker or Nathan Dean at Avalon on 0207 598 7222 or [email protected] / [email protected]
A Liberty Bell production for UKTV, the series is produced by ISOBEL WILLIAMS, directed by BILL BAILEY while executive producers are JON CONNERTY and JAMIE ISAACS. HILARY ROSEN is the Executive Producer for UKTV.
Notes to editors
About Liberty Bell
Liberty Bell Productions, formed in autumn 2002, specialises in the production of television documentaries and features, factual entertainment, current affairs, drama-documentary and youth programming. Productions include: Sugar Free Farm (ITV), The Three Day Nanny (Channel 4), Scrappers (BBC One), Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish (Dave), the Grumpy Old… series and the Three Men… series (BBC TWO).
