A welcome reminder of the days of David Brent

At the centre of it all, a renegade boss who behaves so inappropriately you're left biting your own fist in cringe-worthy horror.

You think I'm talking about The Office, don't you? Reminiscing over the days when David Brent ruled the roost at Wernham Hogg Paper Company in Slough.

But I've fast-forwarded ten years and there's a new boss on the block by the name of Neville Wilshire. 'Nev' for short, obvs.

Yes, I am talking about The Call Centre – BBC Three's five-parter focussing on life in an office in Swansea, Wales.

But, and here's the thing: Where The Office was a mockumentary, The Call Centre is REAL.

I know you know this but I'm still reeling. I watched the entire first episode under the illusion that this was another sitcom. After all, here was a boss who tickles his employees while they're on the phone, arranges in-house speed dating nights and even has his own catchphrase, SWSWSWN. For the uninitated that's 'some will, some won't, so what? Next'.

It was only when I logged on to the internet afterwards that I discovered this is an actual company of which Nev is the actual boss.

The cynic in me wondered whether the online blurb was also a spoof until I read that The Call Centre was shortlisted in a national newspaper's best places to work in the UK.

Four episodes in and I am still watching, aghast, that this is 'real'. How 'real', I am not quite sure since we now live in a world of Towie and Made in Chelsea where the real is very unreal, and very scripted.

But such is my enjoyment of The Call Centre I am happy to take it on face value. It's got everything that I loved about The Office and more.

As well as a real -ife Brent, there's also a Gareth. South African ex-cricketer who, although more aesthetically pleasing than MacKenzie Crook's character, still has the same smug self-satisfaction. He's the type of guy who practices his sale spiel in front of the mirror and boasts of buying his Audi A3 in CASH after earning it all in commission.

There's the party-loving tea-girl Hayley who's more interested in arranging nights out on the pop than refreshing the masses.

And there's even a love story, or ten – there'd be more if matchmaker Nev had his way. The relationships are not on the scale of will-they-won't-they Dawn and Tim but there have been plenty of hits and misses over the last month, although George the Londoner is yet strike it lucky.

The 700-some staff don't disappoint either since most are a few spanners short of a tool box. If apperance is anything to go by they clearly spend all their commission on hair extensions, fake nails and spray tans. And that's just the boys.

But if The Call Centre reminds us of anything it's that Ricky Gervais is a genius.

First screened in 2001, The Office gave us a window into a nine-to-five – somewhere we've all been and can relate to.

And while The Call Centre isn't quite in the same league, I'll enjoy it for the final time on Tuesday secretly hoping Nev will some day return. SWSWSWN.

By Emily Bridgewater