The Apprentice
Wednesday 1 December, BBC One, 9.00pm
Just three weeks until the final and the pressure is mounting. Tonight’s task is designed to test the remaining candidates’ wheeling and dealing skills. They’re given a list of 10 items, ranging from truffles to tartan cloth, and have 10 hours to purchase them all at the lowest price possible.
Leader of the boys is Jamie Lester, who tells his team to “bust their balls and negotiate your little bottoms off”. Heading the girls is Liz Locke (right), who broke the boardroom record with her Babygro sales a month ago but, according to Lord Sugar, has since become complacent. It’s a pacy episode as they race round London in those trademark black people-carriers, barking into mobile phones held in the strange palm-up style that should be called “The Apprentice grip”.
There are twists, turns, frayed tempers, phone calls to Gordon Ramsay, fines and missed deadlines. Banker Chris Bates concocts elaborate yarns about heartbroken grandmothers to get vendors’ sympathy. “It’s all a bit Laurel and Hardy,” scowls Sugar’s sidekick Karren Brady. Stuart “The Brand” Baggs cracks one too many boardroom gags and is told by the bad-tempered baron: “You and your jokes. Have you opened your Christmas crackers early this year or what? Well, you need to get a more expensive box because they’re lead balloons.”
In a tense finale, there’s a surprise firing – after which the bickering even continues back at the candidates’ house. Truffle and strife indeed.
