Well it’s finally arrived. After 11 weeks of trials and tribulations it all comes down to this, the final of The Apprentice 2008. After Lucinda was shown the door last week, we are left with a four way shoot out this week. As a reward, Sir Alan treats the four to a gourmet dinner.

The candidates join Sir Alan at an empty art gallery. For the final, there will be two teams, Alex with Helene and Lee with Claire. As usual for a final, they are joined by the candidates already fired from the series. The task this week is to develop an original brand and fragrance for men and then present to a select audience of industry professionals, and Sir Alan of course.

Continuing the trend from last week, Alex continues to mention his age – yes, he is still only 24 would you believe.

Lee and Claire decide to go for a “macho brand”, along the lines of James Bond with a casino theme. However, over on Alex and Helene’s team, the brain storming session isn’t going as well, with Helene disagreeing with Alex’s choice of scents. Meeting with a design agency, Alex and Kevin are struggling with a name for the product, just having established a crude design.

Back to Lee, and he’s in his element beginning to plan the setup for the presentation the next day, even mentioning the use of glow sticks to open the presentation!

Alex and Raef begin shooting the commercial for “dual”, the finally decided upon title of their fragrance. Nick is impressed with the two part design of the bottle. The set of Lee’s commercial is dressed with the theme of a casino revealing the “roulette” bottle.

The next day, and it’s the day of the pitch. Lee is getting flustered over the presentation, whilst Alex and Helene practised alone and seem to have it all sorted. Well that’s what they thought, until they presented to the rest of the team, where Jennifer thought it was boring.

Sir Alan arrives at the venue to join other high profile guests from the industry. Lee and Claire are up first – and yes the presentation really did open with Lee’s idea of glow sticks! Claire begins with introducing the gambling theme. Lee says how this is a fragrance for “new men”. Claire fends off comments about the focus primarily being on the gambling theme.

Next it’s Alex and Helene, and again there is a fancy opening, this time with dancers. Alex begins the pitch, claiming the fragrance is for the “versatile man”. Helene takes over, showing off the unique design of the product. After the video was shown, Alex and Helene instantly received praise from the audience, one guest claiming “I think your product is ace”.

Then it was the boardroom to end all boardrooms, with all candidates looking incredibly nervous. Lee and Claire are questioned over the gambling theme and the potential to be linked to promoting a gambling habit. Nick isn’t happy with the gambling connotation stating “Roulette equals gambling, gambling equals debt, debt equals misery”. Alex and Helene were brought up on how long it took them to establish the initial thoughts including the name, with Nick saying “the first day was a wash out” and the high cost required to produce the fancy design of the bottle. Questioned about the design of the bottle, Alex was defensive, not admitting that the designers came up with the concept.

Having sent the ex candidates away, it was down to the final four in the boardroom. Sir Alan didn’t beat around the bush and instantly fired both Alex and Helene. Down to Lee and Claire, Sir Alan sends them outside for a breather. Upon return, the ex candidates are questioned on which would you choose, with Simon saying “I wouldn’t want to be you”, referring to Sir Alan having to make a decision. Sir Alan asks why they both want this, to which Claire responds with how she has developed throughout the experience “I’ve got resilience” and Lee states the sales experience he has behind him “I’ve demonstrated my sales ability and my management ability, I deliver and I want this”.

Wondering whether Lee is just a one trick pony and if he could work with Claire day-to-day, Sir Alan draws his conclusions. “Lee you’re hired”!

16 candidates, one job; Sir Alan’s search for his apprentice is over.

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Week 11 of The Apprentice and it’s the penultimate week. This is the week where we can sit back and watch the five remaining candidates get the job interview from hell, courtesy of four of Sir Alan’s toughest business colleagues. They are; property tycoon Paul Kelmsley (to test the candidates’ strength of character), the chief executive of Viglen Computers, Bordan Tkachuck, trouble-shooter Claude Littner and for the first time, Birmingham City FC Managing Director Karren Brady will be interviewing. She will judge which personal strengths the hopefuls possess. The venue for the grilling is Viglen headquarters, where the candidates are beginning to sweat.

Lee is first up, and he opens with his impression of a reverse terradactyl after a request from Paul – seriously, why did you just do that Lee! As the interview process continues, so does the pressure on Lee. Bordan discovered he had cheated on his CV with the length of his university qualification, when he obtained a document from his uni stating that he only completed four months of the course instead of the required two years! Claud picked apart his application, discovering Lee couldn’t spell the word tomorrow and he hadn’t used a spell checker.

Lucinda was next, and received questioning from Claud asking if she was really a team player having always taken contract jobs instead of permanent roles. The interview continued and she was even questioned what she was doing here, with Claud stating “You look to me like you’re unemployable”! After the interview, Lucinda tells the other candidates that she’s not sure she even wants the job as the apprentice anymore. Why she came out with this statement at this crucial stage, god only knows! Later, she said how she did not need the money, but instead was here to learn from Sir Alan.
Claire is coming under fire from Paul for being cheap and a weak negotiator having only managed to get a £27k bonus on top of her £85,000 salary last year, after making £8,000,000 for the company she works for! Questioned about her “motor mouth” attitude, Claire agreed that you need that attitude to get results. Forever good at justifying herself, Claire rolls out another classic “For every one of me, you need ten others”.

Alex this time, and Paul once again cuts straight to the chase “You’re boring Alex”. Claud questions why Alex stated he was fluent in English, “You’re from England”. Alex, forever quoting his “young age of 24”, was not washing with the interviewers as some already had their own businesses by that time, namely Karen who was MD of Birmingham City FC when she was 23. Later, Bordan asks what makes him an entrepreneur, to which he enlightened Bordan with how he sold manure at a local farm when he was younger.

Helene, when asked by Karen “Why have you struggled in The Apprentice”, responded with “Cos I’m not used to being surrounded by 15 gob-sh*tes”. Coming across as being very ballsy, Helen said that she had to take that approach because she managed an engineering department, in a male dominated environment, where they gave her a sh*tty office.

The first stage of boardroom this week comprised of Sir Alan’s business colleagues with their feedback. On the whole, Alex got a glowing review from the interviewers, with Paul commenting “he’s a nice lad”. Paul, not holding back, thinks that Lucinda is “a nutcase, but she would do a nice job painting your office”. Not an overwhelming endorsement.

Lee’s qualifications blunder raised its ugly head again, with Bordan having presented the evidence to Sir Alan; he responds “people shouldn’t tell lies”. Paul thinks he is an idiot for doing his dinosaur impression and for the wink he gave him when leaving the interview. Nice touch Lee!

Claire’s ability to rant on and on was also brought to the table. Karen however saw great things in her saying “if you don’t give her a job Sir Alan, I will”. To Helene, and Claud begins to discuss her tough background, but Sir Alan doesn’t want to hear it.

When all the candidates were called back in to the boardroom, Lee’s qualifications mishap was raised yet again. Lee simply apologised, which is about all he could do without digging himself a very big hole. Then it was time to discuss Lucinda, when all of the other candidates (prompted by Alex) told Sir Alan how they overheard Lucinda during the interview process saying that she wasn’t looking for a permanent role within Sir Alan’s organisation and how she was questioning if the job was right for her.
As a result, Sir Alan announces “Lucinda, you’re a little too zany for me, Lucinda you’re Fired!” Sir Alan was looking for the next to be fired. Lee was questioned why he should be there after the CV blunder. Claire was questioned whether or not she will ever shut up. Sir Alan questions whether Alex is too young and is not sure about Helene. However, Sir Alan leaves it there “I’m going let you all stay. All four of you are in the final!”

Astonishingly that leaves a titanic four way battle for the final, and I for one can’t wait!

See you over at the forum for your view >>