They’re Baaack!

They are the fourteen hopefuls after a job with Sir Alan Sugar. Yep, last night a new series of the Beeb’s version of The Apprentice came to the haunted fishtank. Well, OK, strictly speaking it’s Sir Alan and his two sidekicks who are back – the fourteen hopefuls are a new bunch, although clearly from the same stable as the last lot – a set of driven backstabbers who spew managementspeak at the slightest opportunity.

 

Actually, I think the producers have tweaked up the evil knob a couple of notches for this series, I warmed to none of the candidates last night. The one who I had a slight twinge of sympathy for – he actually wanted to trust his colleagues – was the one who got fired. Admittedly, he deserved it, he did a bad job as project manager, but the fact remains that the most sympathetic one got the old heave-ho straight off. A nice touch was that he had just beaten off a life-threatening cancer. He clearly failed to beat off Sayed and Samuel who turned on him like hungry hyenas in the climatic firing scene in the boardroom. Sayed is clearly the producers’ choice for the villain of the piece, every time he opened his mouth I could sense thousands of viewers reaching for their voodoo dolls of him and sticking in another pin. Even Sir Alan seemed to get the message, and gave him a warning. Mind you, a number of the girls are also being groomed to take on the title of the candidate you most love to hate. My money’s on Jo.

 

Of course, it’s all a pile of dingo’s kidneys. But it is brilliant entertainment, and I’ll be parked on the sofa for the rest of the series.