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.

Discuss the final result over at the forum >>

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 >>

Week 10 of The Apprentice, this week the candidates meet up at a breakers yard and boy were they in for a surprise. Surrounded by rusting old heaps, the candidates were told they will be selling far higher calibre cars, as Ferrari’s Aston Martin’s Lamborghini’s and Spyker’s cruised into the yard. At the yard, the teams were left to choose two models each which they can then rent out for a driving experience. The team that makes the most money wins!

Michael’s team chooses the Ferrari and the Spyker whilst Lee chose the Aston Martin and plumped for the ultra expensive Zonda at nearly £2750 pounds a day, eek!

However, Michael is not such a petrol head and claims he doesn’t really like cars, let alone know anything about them. This carries over to his placement of the Ferrari, when he chooses a back street to try and sell the experience. After not receiving any interest, Michael decides to move to a different location. Michael moved the Ferrari to a fruit and veg market, believing that would be a better place to sell. Why, god only knows. He nearly manages to get someone interested until he mentioned the insurance deposit of £5000! The potential customer then turned on his heels and ran away, with Michael trying to chase him down the road, oh dear. Claire is off to a flying start though, selling experiences for the Spyker.

Over on Lee’s team, the Zonda is parked up outside the London stock exchange, but due to the price, it’s providing hard for Lee to sell the experience. Into in the afternoon, Lee finally manages to sell an experience and is elated with the result.

As the day turns to night, both teams are still desperate for sales. Lucinda, having called the Aston Martin a Zonda and the Zonda a Zona (a car yet to be manufactured) managed to sell an hour long experience. Additionally in the final dying moments, Alex gets a call from a customer he spoke to earlier in the day to confirm an experience worth £5000!

Back at the boardroom, Lucinda was claiming she had been pushed to one side in the team throughout the task. Michael came under fire for not actually making a sale throughout the whole day. To the figures and Lee’s team took the victory with over £11,000 worth of sales, of which a very impressive £8,000 came from Alex! As a reward, they were treated to a wine tasting session.

Discussing where things went wrong, Michael as ever believed that he was not wrong and Helene should go. In the boardroom, Sir Alan directs his first question at Michael “what are you actually good at”, to which he replied “sales”. I don’t think so Michael! Now onto Helene and Sir Alan claims he sees nothing from her and that Claire has a mouth on her, but can sell. Sir Alan states how Michael is young and still has a lot to learn. He sends them away for a chance to think about them.

Called back to the boardroom, and the candidates are required to justify their existence. After discussion, Sir Alan revealed that Claire has performed the best out of the three over the last ten weeks and is safe this week. He is then faced with a dilemma between Helene and Michael, but decides that Michael’s time is finally up, so Michael you’re fired!

So Michael has finally run out of luck. Having been in the final three for the last three weeks, Michael has been fired! Are you happy with the result? Want to air your view? Head over to the forum now and leave your comments >>

Week 9 of The Apprentice, the candidates meet up at the National Theatre on the south bank to await Sir Alan’s instructions.

Alex is project manager of Alpha this week, with Raef team leader for Renascence, denying Michael the chance to lead this week after requesting to last week. The task this week is to develop and promote a brand to sell tissues. As part of this, teams are required to shoot a TV advert.

Armed with a blank tissue box, teams began brain storming their ideas. Alex comes up with the name of Atishu for Alpha’s brand, whilst Raef and Michael’s thoughts for Renascence lead them to a local school for the advert shoot, staring Sian Lloyd to play the loving mother. Nick questions why Sian Lloyd was chosen for the shoot as she isn’t married and doesn’t have any children “she’s known as a weather girl”!

Meantime, the rest of the team work on the print promotion material. Claire airs her dislike at Raef and Michael, feeling they are just playing at being directors. Alpha also decides to go for a family orientated theme, featuring an ill child. Alex directs the shoot with Lucinda overseeing the editing process.

In the edit suites, both teams review and cut their footage together to form the final advert. Raef and Michael struggle to reduce their advert to the required length of 30 seconds. As a result, they are nearly reduced to removing all of the Sian Lloyd footage but agree that some needs to reside for the sake of hiring the celebrity.

With the adverts cut and other marketing material sorted, the teams pitch their brands to a group of advertising experts, with a surprise guest, Sir Alan! Claire was the first to pitch, and without any notes, conveyed the product well. Lee, complete with notes, was fumbling however and not giving a professional image.

In the boardroom, it was time for each team to compare notes. Renascence was first to air with their polished advert, with Alpha looking ashamed by the end of it. Alpha’s advert was then shown and by the end Renascence was struggling not to laugh. However, Sir Alan felt that the cinematic masterpiece created by Renascence didn’t actually convey the product properly and so were required to stay in the boardroom. For Alpha it was off to Harvey Nichols to buy goodies on Sir Alan.
Sir Alan knows what to expect, especially from Claire with her “fifty rounds of bull sh*t in her AK47”. Michael tries to claim all the good bits of the advert came from him by which point Raef questions how can it all be from you. However, Sir Alan felt as team leader this week, it was all on Raef. Raef you’re Fired!

So once again Michael has miraculously escaped a firing from Sir Alan! Having thought Raef would make in it to the final, did Sir Alan make the right decision this week? Head over to the forum now to leave your comments >>

Week 8 of The Apprentice and the candidates met up at Saint Bartholomew the Great church where they were told they will be selling wedding merchandise at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham. Leading Alpha this week is Lucinda, with Helane the team leader for Renascence.
Before they begin trying to sell the merchandise at the NEC, the teams are in London sourcing the products to sell. Besides a wedding dress, each team must sell an additional item. To start, both teams meet Ian Stewart, a wise move as he has won best designed wedding dress for the last four years running! They also pay a visit to BHS, before turning to cake tasting.

Looking at cake, Raef and Claire consider selling plus size dresses and cakes as a package deal. Claire questioned whether that was a good idea, to which Reaf responded “these girls are size 16 to 32 for a reason, they like cake”! Alpha opted for the top shelf designer dresses from Ian Stewart whereas Renascence went for the mid-range. As a bonus for choosing the top dresses, Alpha also manage to bag lingerie to sell too.

At the NEC, the teams seem to have got have of their product range half right, with Renascence selling the mid-range dresses but not the cakes; whilst Alpha had trouble shifting the Ian Stewart dresses which retail at up to £2500! However, Lee for Alpha was on the charm offensive selling plenty of lingerie and gifts. The sales pitch at Renascence was not going quite to plan as Michael and Sara are pushy towards perspective buyers, often putting them off.

In the boardroom, Alpha team members were all in praise for Lucinda as leader this week. Nick commented on the good sales from Lee and Claire. Sir Alan then revealed that team Alpha won and as such were treated to a Spa session. With Renascence left in the boardroom, it was time for everyone to justify themselves. For Alex, this must be second nature by now as Sir Alan points out “you’ve been on the loosing team for six of the eight weeks so far”, and he clearly was. His justification was three quarters of the sales made were made by him this week and was duly allowed to return to the house for another week, leaving Helene, Michael and Sara in the boardroom.

Once again, the buck passing begins, with Michael blaming Helene, Helene blaming Sara with Sara denying that she went on a hard sell and suggested Michael’s time is up. With Sir Alan getting to the end of his tether, proclaiming “I can’t stand anymore bickering”, he was nearing a decision. “Sara I’m tired of hearing that you do nothing. If you gave your customers the hard sell like you’re talking to me now, I’d put your face in the bloody cake!” With that, Sir Alan made his decision, “Sara You’re Fired!”
But it wasn’t over; Sir Alan was eyeing another candidate to fire. Maybe he has a taste for double firings now after last week. After Michael gave the usual “please give me another chance to prove myself and let me project manage next week” routine, Sir Alan decided to give him his wish, and let him and Helene return to the house.

So with Michael continuing to hang by a thread for another week, did Sir Alan make the right decision? Head over to the forum now to leave your comments >>

Week 7 of The Apprentice and there was a big surprise for the candidates. They were told to pack their bags for Morocco.

In Morocco, the candidates were joined by Margaret and Nick where they revealed Lee is this weeks team leader for Alpha, with Jennifer leading for Renascence. This is the first time that Lee and Jennifer have been team leaders.

The task this week, to purchase products from a shopping list specified by Sir Alan. On Jennifer’s team, Alex and Claire were the first to make an offer for an orange juicer. They finally manage to negotiate the price down, but only by a pound cheaper, not their finest bargaining moment I’m sure! Next time round, and they clearly hadn’t learnt from last time and Alex disappoint bought a rug for £60 more than he wanted to.

Under Lee’s management, his team attempt to make their first purchase for the alarm clock, but negotiations fell through so they walked away with nothing. Second time round at another stall however and they managed to purchase the alarm clock for £10.

Over at Renascence, a conflict of negotiations between Jennifer, Claire and Alex resulted in Alex have to close the deal on the bed spread at £60 more than he aimed to pay. The other half of the team seemed to be having better luck, with Jenny and Michael bargaining the cow hide down to £50, a third of the original price. Over at team Alpha though, Raef couldn’t believe his luck when he managed to scoop a cow hide for £15!

After research, Lee and his half of the team were pin-pointed to the perfect place to buy the required Kosher chicken, the Marrakesh Jewish Quarter. Team Renascence weren’t having the same luck in finding the Kosher chicken.

In searching for the tennis rackets, both teams met at the same sports shop, but team Renascence got there first and closed a deal. Alpha however managed to strike a better deal, but not wanting to be beaten, Jenny and Michael tried to sabotage the deal, a pretty cheap shot! Renascence made another mistake when purchasing the alarm clock by not ensuring they purchased a green one, forcing them to search for the green variety.

Late in the day, and Alpha are desperately trying to locate their last remain item from Sir Alan’s shopping list, the juicer. After extensive searching, they finally manage to locate a second hand juicer for £75, the same price it would cost for a brand new one – beggars can’t be choosers though!
The results, and team Alpha took the victory. Having spent more and purchased incorrect items, Renascence were subject to a £155 fine, just to add insult to injury. Delighted they won this weeks task, team Alpha were treated to a hot air balloon ride whilst Renascence were restricted to the cafe having lost the task.

Back at the boardroom, team Renascence were in for a slating from Sir Alan. Disgusted at the overall performance from the team, he probed for answers as to why. Threatening to “fire the whole bloody lot of you”, Sir Alan asked them to speak up and say why they shouldn’t be fired. The team members then began turning on each other to justify their own actions. In turn, Jenny came under fire from Sir Alan trying to establish whether she did know about the Jewish Kosher procedure and the attempted sabotage over the tennis rackets. So frustrated at the whole episode, Sir Alan sent to whole team outside for a breather.

Upon returning to the boardroom, Sir Alan had heard enough and quickly dispatched Jenny from the boardroom by firing her! To the surprise of the rest of the team, Sir Alan asked “right, who’s next”! The question of who should be fried was murmured which set the infighting off yet again. Alex however was let off the hook by Sir Alan and was allowed to return to the house. Then it was down to Jennifer, Claire and Michael. In order to justify her existence, Claire made an outstanding speech, where she spouted how she was sick of the game play and bull sh*t. Michael, not wanting to be left out, jumped on the “please don’t fire me” band wagon by stating how it is more important an anything else in his life!

Having revealed that Jenny was a bit of a “snake in the grass”, Sir Alan decided that the failure of the team this week was ultimately the result of poor management from Jennifer. Therefore Jennifer you’re fired!

So there you have it, the first double eviction. As always we want to hear your option, so head over to the forum now >>

A call to the house at 6:30am woke the candidates, notifying them to meet at Hackney Town Hall. Here, Sir Alan told candidates they will be creating greeting cards for a special event, which they see as marketable.

Kevin is team leader for Renascence this week, with Michael team leader for Alpha. Renascence soon got to work developing ideas for their cards, with Jenny suggesting a card for saving the environment. Better make sure those cards are using 100% recycled card hey Jenny! Team Alpha decided on a Single’s Day theme for their cards, to go against the grain of Valentine’s Day.

The next day, and it was time for both teams to begin shooting photos for their themes. Renascence have a naked rear to show wind power for Environment Day, whilst Alpha have pictures of single mums for Single’s Day.

3:30pm, and the photo shoot has finished. Both teams were finalising their presentations, ready to pitch to major card retailers; Clinton Cards, Tesco and Celebrations. Alpha pitched first and quickly ran into problems by setting the retail date of 13th February, the day before Valentine’s Day. Equally, Renascence were being questioned over why sending a greetings card would be the best method to spread the word about environmental issues!

Boardroom time, and Sir Alan revealed that Alpha were the prize winners this week, which prompted an outburst from team leader Michael. As winners, Alpha were treated to a musical piece from Myleene Class back at the house. Still in the boardroom, Renascence were coming under fire for choosing the environmental topic to sell greetings cards. Sir Alan questioned why the topic was chosen as Jenny, who created the idea, also admitted earlier she was buying fewer cards to reduce waste and the subsequent environmental impact!

However, Kevin brought back Claire and Sara to form the final three in the Boardroom, leaving Jenny to get off scott-free and return to the house! Coming under scrutiny, Kevin was finding it hard to dodge the responsibility not having brought Jenny back into the final round of the boardroom. Therefore, Kevin, aka Matt Lucas, You’re Fired!

Want to voice your opinion? Join the forum and start commenting on The Apprentice today!

The Apprentice Forum >>

Week 5 of The Apprentice and Sir Alan made a house call to wake the candidates up at 7:30am. The candidates were told they will be visiting farms producing ice cream and will be required to create new flavours to sell. After last weeks arguments in the boardroom, Sir Alan decided that Claire will be team leader for Renascence this week, along with Lucinda for team Alpha.

Having decided on the flavours each team is going to produce, (for Alpha, avocado with chilli and a toffee apple flavour; for Renascence, cider with Elda flour) the teams moved on to selling. Alpha arranged an appointment to sell their flavour to an Italian ice cream parlour that happened to make their own ice cream, which even Lucinda agreed was a mistake. Instead Alpha decided to target a chain of cinemas for which they managed to strike a deal for 100 litres of the avocado ice cream. Renascence also decided to target the same chain of cinemas, but were beaten to the deal by Alpha. Not wanting to be beaten, Renascence managed to secure a deal for an independent retailer for 200 litres of ice cream.

In the boardroom, both teams were full of praise for their team leaders. However, when down to the result, Claire led her team to victory and won this week’s task with a margin of ₤800. As such, they were rewarded with a trip to Bowood House in Wiltshire. With Lucinda’s team losing this week, the debate began in the boardroom. The main point of error, picked up by Sir Alan, was the sales team did deals which gave exclusive rights to sell the ice cream across retail chains. Because of this, Lucinda decided to bring Jennifer and Lindi back into the boardroom. As second in command and responsible for sales, Sir Alan made his decision. Lindi you’re fired!

Want to voice your opinion? Join the forum and start commenting on The Apprentice today!

The Apprentice Forum >>

A month into Series 4 of The Apprentice, and both our blog and forum have been covering the trials and tribulations of the candidates.

The Apprentice Forum has covered the losers week by week, with discussion on whether or not they were the right candidate to go.

After Week 4, Daddio commented how

“Lucinda dodged a bullet again. Some people have “victim” written on them, and the others have sensed weakness and smelt blood.”

Sci_co added

“That was just annoying watching Alex in the boardroom, he really needed to take responsibility and in my opinion he should have gone for being completely spineless. I loved Margret attacking them, brilliant to watch. Definitely want more of that in the shows to come.”

We also have a poll asking if the team leader should take more responsibility for the group when they fail. Currently 80% of voters say “Yes sometimes” the team leader should take more responsibility.

Want to voice your opinion? Join the forum and start commenting on The Apprentice today!

The Apprentice Forum >>

It’s all change for Week 4 of The Apprentice. The teams are now mixed, forcing the alliances formed in previous weeks to be split. Meeting at the Wallace Collection, Sir Alan told the teams they will be taking photos of customers and selling them from the Blue Water shopping centre, the largest in Europe.

After avoiding a firing by Sir Alan last week and wanting to prove himself this week, Simon put himself forward to lead team Renascence. Leading the Alpha group this week is Helene. Both teams decide the theme of their photo shoot and source the appropriate props and equipment.

The next day, both groups prepare their photography sets ready for the shoot. Renascence decided on a traditional red carpet theme, whilst Alpha went for look-a-like celebrities to draw in the punters.

It became clear very quickly that both teams were struggling with this week’s task. Lucinda, had difficulty working the technology for Alpha, whilst the photo processing department for Renascence lost the order of the photos.

Back in the boardroom, it was revealed that Alpha won this week’s task with their prize, dinner on board a yacht. With Renascence left in the boardroom, the infighting began between all members, even more so when down to the final three. When Sir Alan asked who should be fired, Alex named Claire and Claire said Simon. With Claire continually arguing her point of view, Sir Alan became annoyed and was extremely close to firing her. Instead, he instantly sent her out of the boardroom and back to the house, whilst also stating that she will be team leader next week. With two left in the boardroom, Sir Alan decided that the task had got away from him, with the responsibly lying at the feet of the team leader. Subsequently, Simon was the next apprentice to be fired by Sir Alan.

Want to chat about The Apprentice? Head over to the forum >>