Talk Is Cheap
Look Busy, Here Comes The Boss
I imagine that the Apprentice is a show that made it to the airwaves 20 years too late, as it would have been a wonder to behold in those later years of Thatcher’s premiership. A bunch of yuppies being put through their paces in such a way and delivering such abject demonstrations of business acumen that would have shaken the nation’s seemingly, unquestioning belief in capitalism to its very core. However, here we are in the last vestiges of Blair’s Britain and a more cynical audience are able to enjoy the latest series of The Apprentice, which is well under way and providing a fascinating insight into what it takes to be a pretentious, cocky upstart.
Five potential employees have been been given the boot by Sir Alan already: Andy, who seemed to think that ignorance was a gift to be cherished, Gerri, who just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, Ifti, who missed his family (bless!), Rory, who was more interested in what people wore than what they did, and most recently, quantum physicist, Sophie, who didn’t really want to be there after all. However, this cull has meant that there are some strong characters still knocking around… most notably, Tre, who seems to be under the misconception that arrogance and swearing are to be an Olympic sport for which he is seriously training.
The show is also following the recent trend of having a spot of navel gazing on display afterwards, in the form of The Apprentice: You’re Fired hosted by Adrian Chiles, which is all good fun if slightly unnecessary. A worthy panel of “experts” sit around and talk about the bits you laughed at in the main programme, shows them again and laughs at them again. This week the laughs were at the expense of the candidates who had been tasked with selling sweets to children at London Zoo. The morale of the story seemed to be “Aggressive sales techniques are to be lauded and if you can demostrate these techniques on unsuspecting children and their beleaguered parents, all the better”. There’s something intrinsically wrong with this but no-one seemed to mind other than Sophie who was shown the door for her troubles. Next week: how to make money from cock-fighting.
Tags: Adrian-Chiles, Alan-Sugar, BBC1, Reality, The-Apprentice
