"We are sizzling hot superstars. I'm overwhelmed by how good we are."-- Lindi
The firing of Simon has left a hero-sized gap that needs to be plugged, but I can't see many fitting replacements in this bunch, can you? Well, maybe Lee McQueen, who doesn't seem as two-faced and needlessly petty as the rest. This week Sir Alan Sugar sets the teams an ice-cream making and selling task. So who'll get the cream, and who's going to get licked?
The specifics involve Alpha and Renaissance making 3 brand new flavours of ice cream at a farm, before selling those products to the untapped London market. Sir Alan puts Lucinda in charge of Alpha; leading Helene, Raef, Lindi, Lee and Jenny M. After feeling the wrath of Sir Alan in the boardroom last week, lucky-escape Claire is put in charge of Renaissance; leading Jenny C, Michael, Kevin, Alex and Sara.
Claire and Renaissance head off to Bockingford Farm in Kent, where they quickly decide on 3 original ice cream flavours: Berry Mania, Chocolate Orange and Scrumpilicious (cider and elderflower). Claire, Jenny C and Michael rush off to buy 50 oranges as ingredients, but find the local shop (for local people) only has 4 left. There's also the important matter of taste-testing their products, but Claire's trio miss their appointment with local volunteers and are forced to take the advice of two drunks in a pub. Naturally, the inebriated men prefer the cider-flavoured ice cream! They're not so keen on the Chocolate Orange, so it's ruled out...
At Downside Farm in Sussex, Alpha are having a tougher time deciding on flavours, but eventually settle on Tantalising Toffee Apple, Cosmopolitan, and... Avocado and Chilli? Their taste-test session goes far better than Renaissance's, as a village hall of people volunteer to help. It soon becomes clear that the "mashed potato" Cosmopolitan isn't very popular, so they rule it out.
Now that each team have decided on their two flavours to sell, the next day involves selling as much as they can to London businesses. Unfortunately, Claire's Renaissance only managed to get two appointments pre-arranged yesterday, so they spend most of their day trudging around snaffling small orders. Alex isn't happy. Is he ever? I know the girls swoon over him, but he's permanently glum about whatever's going on. Sometimes he has the right to be, but how often does he take the "easier" role in the tasks (doing the laundry, making ice cream) while others do the more crucial, business-specific work?
Things couldn't go better for Lucinda's Alpha, as six appointments are already scheduled and Lucinda has put Lindi in charge of Jenny M and Raef to generate sales. However, scratch below the surface and there's a problem: 3 of the 6 appointments are customers who already manufacturer their own ice cream in-house, so aren't likely to buy from an outside company. D'oh! "You can still sell to them," argues Lindi.
Fortunately, sales go well everywhere else, particularly when Alpha secure a 100-litre order from an independent cinema chain (snatching the business from under Renaissance's nose, by liaising with the chain's boss.) The promise of a 130-litre order from a gastro makes Jenny M give too much incentive to land the deal, offering them exclusivity of the product in their market.
The day draws to a close, with Lucinda's Alpha seemingly in the lead. It's been a good task for eccentric Lucinda, who has impressed most people with her management style, refusing to get in a flap when problems present themselves, and consequently winning the admiration of Lee and Sarah.
At the last-minute, Claire's Renaissance visit a trendy bar n' grill and secure an order for 200-lires of ice cream. Will it be enough to win? Not according to Alpha, who take great delight in rubbing their huge success in Renaissance's face back at the house. It's surely in the bag for them.
The next morning, both teams assemble in Sir Alan's boardroom. Margaret reveals that Lucinda's Alpha took orders worth a total of £1,273.64, but Nick's figure puts Claire's Renaissance at £1,455.45! Victorious and gob-smacked by the win, Claire's team fly off by helicopter for an activities day at a country estate.
Lucinda is shocked to have lost the task and brings Jenny M and Lindi back into the boardroom with her. The first thing Sir Alan can't get his head around is why Jenny M and Lindi started offering exclusivity on sales – something that is beyond their authority and will damage the farmer's future business.
Jenny M's frosty nature is brought into focus, and Nick even chimes in saying "I've always thought there was a bit of a chill in the air between yourself and the others." Ultimately, Lindi has to take the blame for a lot of the sales mistakes, as she was put in charge of that by Lucinda.
Sir Alan is close to firing Jenny M for her exclusivity mess-up, but he lets her off and decides to fire Lindi because she was in control of sales -- where they lost the task. Lucinda is visibly sad to see Lindi go, but in the taxi home Lindi just seems disappointed that Sir Alan "hasn't seen how special I am. He must have missed that point..."
Overall, this was an entertaining episode -- I particularly loved the taste-testing drunks and the steal of the cinema's business – but it wasn't anything special. It was a welcome surprise to see Lucinda do well as manager, as I've been expecting her to crash and burn any week now. I'm still not convinced she has much to offer beyond an easygoing management style, but we'll see.
And what's happened to Jenny C? Without her glasses she's become relatively normal now, and seems to have transferred her bitchiness to Jenny M. Raef, Michael and Kevin disappeared into the background a bit, but this episode saw Lindi grab the limelight (I forgot she was on the show last week), only to get fired. Oh well.
And as for Alex; well, if anyone's got a game-plan on The Apprentice this year, it's him. He may have volunteered to be team leader in Week One, but ever since then he's been content to sit back (printing photos, doing the laundry, making ice cream) and criticise the team leaders around him (Simon last week, Claire this week.)
So who's going to win? At the moment, I think it's between Raef (cool, calm, collected), Claire (who adjusted her brashness well this week) and maybe Lee (who needs to lead a task, but I like his common-sense.) Dummy Kevin, daffy Lucinda and nice-but-dim Michael must surely be up for the chop soon, while the two Jenny's, Sara and Helene need to prove themselves.
23 April 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
