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From the opening moments of last night's Apprentice it was clear that we had another bunch of jumped-up, arrogant, cringeworthy know-it-alls battling for a job with Sir Alan - in other words we are in for another excellent series.
Ian can't even bring himself to say the word 'loser', Jennifer rates herself as 'the best salesperson in Europe', Claire says she likes to crash through everything like her family's german shepherd dog and scary Sara doesn't like to beat her opposition, she likes to thrash them.
The first task saw the group split into male and female teams and given a load of fish to sell at a London market. Easy? Well, no. The teams struggled to tell their Monkfish from their Sea Breams and ended up selling the fish at a fraction of the actual value.
Other highlights of the first episode included sulky Ian pursing his lips and declaring that he hated losing, Lucinda's kooky dress sense (do health and safety regulations allow people to sell fish wearing a purple woollen beret?) and, of course, Raef's hair - what's that all about?
The award for best line has to go to Sir Alan's sidekick Nick who asked the boys' team "Did it strike anybody that a £5 lobster is bloody cheap?"
The boardroom showdown saw the girls triumph and drippy boys' team leader Alex chose to take Nicholas and Raef back into the boardroom with him.
Things quickly escalated into a class war with Nicholas declaring that the group had split into the educated and the non-educated. Alex was quick to point out that he also had a university degree which led Nicholas to point out more differences between the boys - he likes to talk about arts and culture and they like to talk about football apparently. The writing was really on the wall for Nicholas at that point and Sir Alan rightly fired him.
What did you think of the first episode? Who are your favourites and which of the candidates are getting on your nerves. Let us know...
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User comments
Raef was also a complete prick as well though with the fake accent, he will be the next to go i hope as for Nicholas if your are a successfully qualified Barrister why would you want a Job for alan sugar? this is strange to me
Posted by: n_jason_moore_bel on Thu Mar 27 02:44PM | Report abuseYes sir Alan was right and wrong he should have fired the LOT. After 50 years in industry I retired but am very worried for the future for the whole country. I am thinking of moving abroad. My advice to Sir Alan if you want to keep your buisnesses fire the lot and go down to the local job centre or pub where your find real people.
Posted by: kingrr on Thu Mar 27 02:45PM | Report abuseYes, yes and yes. All three were at fault, but he seemed to find it hard to take on accountabiilty of his mistakes!
Posted by: caretoshare2000 on Thu Mar 27 02:46PM | Report abuseWe must remember that Raef did not feel that he had management skills at this stage, and yet he did not shut up explaining why everyone but himself had got it wrong, he then became an arch critic of everything anybody else did or suggest, and this from the man who cannot identify fish from a photograph. Nicholas was a close second for the chop, but he lost it with his air of superiority, Alan Sugar is a working class lad who likes self made people, and hates silver spoon oinks with attitude, Nicholas lost it by a display of arrogance otherwise Raef would have gone without a doubt. If you are drowning keep your mouth shut, and you will survive longer.
Posted by: compuscience on Thu Mar 27 02:46PM | Report abuseI have read several coments today lamenting that people like nick are un-employable. Unfortunately he and other David Cameron clones like him are exactly the material being head-hunted to captain our banks and industries today.........and we wonder why the northern rock situation occurred. Mark Ellis Manchester
Posted by: markyprky on Thu Mar 27 02:46PM | Report abusehe is unreasonably arrogant and was incompetent during the task and out of line most of the time - soooo rightly he was fired.
Posted by: annetta.mehrvarz on Thu Mar 27 02:46PM | Report abuse3t
Posted by: janeaweiruk on Thu Mar 27 02:47PM | Report abuseAlex should have went. He was a complete bully!
Posted by: angelsanddemons1 on Thu Mar 27 02:47PM | Report abusePut it this way, had he stayed then a lot of viewers would have left and the same goes for the person sat next but one to him as he got fired the guy with equally to much to say for himself the guy with the red tie, to much up his own B###side if you ask me and hope he's next to go!
Posted by: dwood47 on Thu Mar 27 02:48PM | Report abuseWell written in a fluent, user-friendly stye. Adopts an appropriate "let's- not-t ake- this- too- seriously" tone. As for my favourites, I haven't yet "met" them all, nor am I sure of their names.
Posted by: paulineunsworth on Thu Mar 27 02:49PM | Report abuse