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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
He made a mistake - he got the price wrong. But he refused to acknowledge any responsibility for that mistake. Later on the Apprentice - You're Fired programme he even tried to blame his French teacher for his B at 'O' level.
Posted by: steven.dyson on Thu Mar 27 04:00PM | Report abuseI cant understand how any of them have 'high powered jobs' For goodness sake selling a Lobster for £5.00 they must be a bit slow of the mark. They seem like idiots BUT Ill still watch to see how it goes.
Posted by: covechick on Thu Mar 27 04:05PM | Report abuseWell, I bet Sir Alan is kicking himself thinking he might prefer to cancel the whole show rather than recruit any of those arrogant know-it-all (or thinking they do) people. Have they all forgotten that Sir Alan (like most highly successful business entrepreneurs) started out of nothing but made it all happen with hard work, not with talk, arrogance and bragging? I'm not even sure I'll watch the rest of that series, they're already all getting on my nerves and are all unemployable... don't they already know it all and are the best in Europe? Poor Sir Alan...
Posted by: ivan_tejeda on Thu Mar 27 04:07PM | Report abuseWe were waiting on this being utterly cringeworthy, but apart from 'snobbyguts' comment about class, which was obviously based on him feeling like a fish out of water among all the others, it was spot on and really enjoyable. I don't know if its Alex' inexperience, but he could have just sat there and let little Lord Fauntleroy spill his plum-filled guts and then just turn round and say, 'okay, justify you're comment, give examples of the football conversations and the class division conversations, there hasn't been the time for them to happen'. Okay, yes, he kind of stammered through to that, but if he'd said that right away, Nick would have been finished there and then and he would have had a bit more credibility. Will be interested in how Raef fares in episodes to come, its been a long time since I've seen a walking manicure!!! Although if that was his rendition of 'defending himself like a gladiator', then I've seen better personal defence on Road Wars, when the Police grab a ned (chav), who then curls up in a ball and yells that the handcuffs are too tight!!! Well done Mr Sugar, your stereos might have been cheap tat in the 80's, but your TV programme is spot on.
Posted by: graham_r_smith on Thu Mar 27 04:11PM | Report abuseWell God help us if thats what an education does for you. The man had NO common sense what so ever and god help anyone who hires him to defend them, he could not even put up a case for himself. Who slags off football when a former football chairman is the man deciding your fate is beyond me. The man is clearly out of his league and should go back to uni to take a degree in common sense and how to be humble. I hope his sidekick Raef and his bloody hair is next for the chop.
Posted by: campaign21 on Thu Mar 27 04:12PM | Report abuseIs it not about time that we cut out all this intermediate c**p and cut to the chase. Put Running Man on television and finally satisfy this ghoulish television audience by murdering people live for their entertainment. It does not appear that any thing short of this will satisfy the current appetite for self flagellation so endemic in The Apprentice, Shipwrecked, Get me out of here, Trisha, Montel whatsit etc etc. I remember when we used to laugh at the Japanese on Endurance with our superior cultural attitude to human dignity. Look at us now...Pond slime every one.
Posted by: thefirstivorward on Thu Mar 27 04:13PM | Report abuseRaef should have gone but i'm pleased he's around for the entertainment value. What is always amazing is how these young entrepreneurs talk such a good game on how successful they are but then want to go work for someone else for £100K a year. Surely the so called best sales person in Europe is already earning much, much more. Maybe its all about getting on TV?
Posted by: m3stoner on Thu Mar 27 04:17PM | Report abuseI think that the comment's nick made about the differences between educated and non educated people were disgusting.. He's clearly ignorant and Sir Alan made the right choice by firing his pretentious ass!
Posted by: mandy1390 on Thu Mar 27 04:18PM | Report abuseWhat a bunch of twats. I pitty any normal person who has to work with any of them in the future.
Posted by: jamesaleah on Thu Mar 27 04:22PM | Report abuseI believe that Sir Alan Sugar made the right decision. Who does this guy think he is saying what he said about Alex?!
Posted by: tracey.edinboro on Thu Mar 27 04:23PM | Report abuse