The Apprentice Series 5 – Week One (BBC One)

The UK Version of the Job Interview from Hell Begins

Mar 25, 2009

The fifth year of the BBC's BAFTA winning Apprentice gives us a host of ego driven, cocky characters starting off the competition with their own car cleaning companies.

The credit crunch is biting and that is the general theme for this year’s competition as every penny matters in a climate where many companies are shutting up shop for good. So it looks like the flashy suits on The Apprentice will have to try harder than ever to raise the cash for their winning team and impress the boss Sir Alan Sugar in series five.

The first task is always the most basic – like selling fruit or fish – but somehow one team manages to make it look as difficult as trying to ice skate uphill in concrete tennis shoes, especially when they have some of the self-described best sales people in the country amongst them. This year the candidates had to set up a cleaning business in the opening, with the team making the most profit in 10 hours avoiding the boardroom wrath of a short Londoner with a beard.

Both teams went for car cleaning, with the boy’s team, called Empire, opting for a mini cab contract which guaranteed a pay day while the girls decided to run about and grab what they can. The catch was they had a budget of £200 to spend on materials and nothing else.

Although the build up made it look like the guys, who started with a man down, were about to be trounced it transpired the girls lost due to lack of planning the budget properly even though they made the most money during the day. The boys made £209 while the girls took £160 in profit.

Straight after hearing the result the claws came out and accusations were thrown out amongst the losing team Ignite, lead by reluctant project manager Mona Lewis. Earlier on they even argued with a customer about the pricing of cleaning three limos. Mona and Debra quarrelled over petty matters and “who said what” stuff but Anita Shah, who had the same miserable expression on her face throughout, was fired by Alan Sugar.

A few characters have stood out so far. Despite not putting his name forward for the position of project manager Estate Agent Phillip Taylor tried to assert himself as the alpha male by clashing with team leader Howard Ebison over what they should do with the mini cabs. Mouthy Sales Consultant Debra Barr is already setting herself up to be the Katie Hopkins of this series, whether she will turn this in her favour remains to be seen.

This was a good way to kick things off and it should be a well fought contest but hopefully bullying, which has become a staple of modern TV and plagued the show last year, won’t rear its ugly head this time. Pure two-way arguing is fine though.

One negative however is the one that turns up every year - the sound bite interviews which could do with less of the ego and pantomime villain stuff. Really. Whoever encourages it; the producers, the camera crew or even the contestants themselves - just stop doing it. Not only is it cringe-worthy to watch but it makes everyone involve look like insecure idiots.

Will the Winner be a Lee McQueen or a Simon Ambrose?

But it’s still very early days though; no-one could have possibly imagined that catchphrase machine Lee McQueen – who lied on his CV and couldn’t present a cat - would have turned out to be the one to impress Sir Alan. And as Simon Ambrose, series 3 winner, showed that it’s not always the loud mouths who triumph.

One week down, one job, 14 candidates, who goes you decide. Wait, that’s wrong. You've got to be in it to win it. No, that’s not right either. Who cares, just watch it.

The copyright of the article The Apprentice Series 5 – Week One (BBC One) in British TV is owned by Steven Cookson. Permission to republish The Apprentice Series 5 – Week One (BBC One) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.