One thing I really like about The Apprentice is how it gets down to business, excuse the pun. There are no drawn-out introductory episodes for the candidates, no idea why they were picked to be on the show, or much insight into their histories...
You're just given their names, ages, job titles, and perhaps a one-sentence blurb from narrator Mark Halliley. Instead, it's their actions during each task that does the talking, with the candidates all sinking or swimming under the pressure. It may take about 4 weeks for everyone's personality to shine through, but you quickly get a good sense of who’s who...
Week 2's task is for the boys ("Renaissance") and the girls ("Alpha") to run a small laundry service. Each are given an industrial laundry unit and told to drum-up business -- wash, press and iron all the accumulated laundry -- and deliver it back to the customers by 2pm the next day. The team that makes the most money, wins. Simple.
Red-haired, black-spectacled Jenny Celerier puts herself forward as Alpha's project manager. Posh Raef Bjayou does likewise for Renaissance, adding "I have no problem with taking this by the, uh..." A long, uncomfortable silence. "Horns". Jenny quickly immerses her team in an hour-long pep talk about the intricacies of selling, while the boys steal away the irons and ironing boards from the candidate's mansion. Ruthless? Or unfair?
Instead of messing around going door-to-door al day, Sir Alan has arranged each team a meeting with some big business clients. All they have to do is work out their prices and market themselves. A hotel manager called Scott listens with poker-faced amazement as the girls seriously suggest laundering 1000 items for a whopping £5000. He usually only pays £200. The boys ask for £556 (better...), so manager Scott reveals his £200 ballpark figure, and they shake on that price.
The girls continue to flounder, by under-charging a man £15 for a mountain of laundry. He's stunned by their fantastic price, but it's clearly a warning sign that the girls have no idea what they're doing. Still, you can't argue with £15, so the girls steal that client from the boys – who ask for a more reasonable £50.
Shazia is tasked with labelling the laundry, to prevent items going missing. By the afternoon, the boys have a colossal amount of laundry delivered to their laundry unit, so Simon, Ian, Alex and Lee get to work. As Sir Alan specified, each laundry unit must shut-down operation at 2am, so it's exhausting work. The sales half of Renaissance (Raef, Michael and Kevin) are still out looking for business, much to the sweaty laundering half of the operation. After several tense phone calls between both sides, the sales trio eventually arrive back and help get the laundry processed before the 2am deadline. In a great scene of satisfaction, the mountain of washing is finally done and the boys head home happy.
Alpha are still having problems in all departments, having left themselves a measly 2 hours to get all their laundering done. Shazia decides to go back to the mansion and grab some extra irons. After arriving home, she quickly realizes the boys have already pinched the irons, so returns to the laundry unit empty-handed. The girls decide to bag up everything and continue work at home in the morning.
The next day, the boys hand back the (unused) irons, and the girls just about manage to finish their workload. The morning is spent delivering back each customer's items. The boys have no problems, but the girls (asking for tips to boost their low profit margin!) soon discover a few items have gone missing, leading to huge embarrassment in suburbia over lost shirts.
In the boardroom, the boys are declared the winners after making £328 profit. The girls could only manage £195.55. Having "taken the girls to the cleaners", as Sir Alan puts it, the boys are rewarded with a luxurious dinner at The Ritz. The girls are packed off to a local greasy spoon.
Defeated project manager Jenny nominates Shazia and Lucinda to go back into the boardroom with her, where she alleged that Shazia "lied, manipulated and didn't deliver", accentuates the fact Lucinda overslept for a 7am meeting. She even offers a bizarre analogy that the whole process was like "breastfeeding" them both! In-between bug-eyed glances and scowls, Sir Alan decides that Shazia's decision to leave the laundering, while she rushed back to the mansion to grab some irons, despite being the only person who knew how their labelling system worked, caused the greatest upset. Shazia was fired.
So was it justified? Well, Shazia was definitely responsible for the mess-up with the missing items (incurring them a £50 penalty and embarrassment on London streets), but was that the ultimate reason for the foul-up of the task? Not really. Jenny, the numbskull who thought charging £4.99 for laundering a pillow case, was more deserving. Jenny clearly had favourites on her team, spent a lot of time belittling wispy-voiced Lucinda, lost them business with the silly 5 grand quote for doing a hotel's laundry, and generally bodged the project up. But, she has spark and character, so I think Sir Alan just gave her the benefit of the doubt – rather than prematurely fire someone who could shine in the future. That's how it looked to me, anyway.
At the moment, Raef is making an impression on the show, as a kind of "posh Sayid" type. He may be mildly annoying at times, but you can’t deny this laundry task went very smoothly for the boys. I also like Simon, the Essex "geezer", who did a brilliant job at the laundry unit, and manages to make his feelings clear without looking like a total prick. A very down-to-earth guy who rolls up his sleeves and gets on with things. It will be interesting to see how he fares in control of a project, but I don't expect him to win. He's this year's likeable everyman who earns Sir Alan's respect, but cocks up under the strain of having to coordinate tasks, I think. But we'll see.
The search for Sir Alan's new apprentice continues...
2 April 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
You're just given their names, ages, job titles, and perhaps a one-sentence blurb from narrator Mark Halliley. Instead, it's their actions during each task that does the talking, with the candidates all sinking or swimming under the pressure. It may take about 4 weeks for everyone's personality to shine through, but you quickly get a good sense of who’s who...
Week 2's task is for the boys ("Renaissance") and the girls ("Alpha") to run a small laundry service. Each are given an industrial laundry unit and told to drum-up business -- wash, press and iron all the accumulated laundry -- and deliver it back to the customers by 2pm the next day. The team that makes the most money, wins. Simple.
Red-haired, black-spectacled Jenny Celerier puts herself forward as Alpha's project manager. Posh Raef Bjayou does likewise for Renaissance, adding "I have no problem with taking this by the, uh..." A long, uncomfortable silence. "Horns". Jenny quickly immerses her team in an hour-long pep talk about the intricacies of selling, while the boys steal away the irons and ironing boards from the candidate's mansion. Ruthless? Or unfair?
Instead of messing around going door-to-door al day, Sir Alan has arranged each team a meeting with some big business clients. All they have to do is work out their prices and market themselves. A hotel manager called Scott listens with poker-faced amazement as the girls seriously suggest laundering 1000 items for a whopping £5000. He usually only pays £200. The boys ask for £556 (better...), so manager Scott reveals his £200 ballpark figure, and they shake on that price.
The girls continue to flounder, by under-charging a man £15 for a mountain of laundry. He's stunned by their fantastic price, but it's clearly a warning sign that the girls have no idea what they're doing. Still, you can't argue with £15, so the girls steal that client from the boys – who ask for a more reasonable £50.
Shazia is tasked with labelling the laundry, to prevent items going missing. By the afternoon, the boys have a colossal amount of laundry delivered to their laundry unit, so Simon, Ian, Alex and Lee get to work. As Sir Alan specified, each laundry unit must shut-down operation at 2am, so it's exhausting work. The sales half of Renaissance (Raef, Michael and Kevin) are still out looking for business, much to the sweaty laundering half of the operation. After several tense phone calls between both sides, the sales trio eventually arrive back and help get the laundry processed before the 2am deadline. In a great scene of satisfaction, the mountain of washing is finally done and the boys head home happy.
Alpha are still having problems in all departments, having left themselves a measly 2 hours to get all their laundering done. Shazia decides to go back to the mansion and grab some extra irons. After arriving home, she quickly realizes the boys have already pinched the irons, so returns to the laundry unit empty-handed. The girls decide to bag up everything and continue work at home in the morning.
The next day, the boys hand back the (unused) irons, and the girls just about manage to finish their workload. The morning is spent delivering back each customer's items. The boys have no problems, but the girls (asking for tips to boost their low profit margin!) soon discover a few items have gone missing, leading to huge embarrassment in suburbia over lost shirts.
In the boardroom, the boys are declared the winners after making £328 profit. The girls could only manage £195.55. Having "taken the girls to the cleaners", as Sir Alan puts it, the boys are rewarded with a luxurious dinner at The Ritz. The girls are packed off to a local greasy spoon.
Defeated project manager Jenny nominates Shazia and Lucinda to go back into the boardroom with her, where she alleged that Shazia "lied, manipulated and didn't deliver", accentuates the fact Lucinda overslept for a 7am meeting. She even offers a bizarre analogy that the whole process was like "breastfeeding" them both! In-between bug-eyed glances and scowls, Sir Alan decides that Shazia's decision to leave the laundering, while she rushed back to the mansion to grab some irons, despite being the only person who knew how their labelling system worked, caused the greatest upset. Shazia was fired.
So was it justified? Well, Shazia was definitely responsible for the mess-up with the missing items (incurring them a £50 penalty and embarrassment on London streets), but was that the ultimate reason for the foul-up of the task? Not really. Jenny, the numbskull who thought charging £4.99 for laundering a pillow case, was more deserving. Jenny clearly had favourites on her team, spent a lot of time belittling wispy-voiced Lucinda, lost them business with the silly 5 grand quote for doing a hotel's laundry, and generally bodged the project up. But, she has spark and character, so I think Sir Alan just gave her the benefit of the doubt – rather than prematurely fire someone who could shine in the future. That's how it looked to me, anyway.
At the moment, Raef is making an impression on the show, as a kind of "posh Sayid" type. He may be mildly annoying at times, but you can’t deny this laundry task went very smoothly for the boys. I also like Simon, the Essex "geezer", who did a brilliant job at the laundry unit, and manages to make his feelings clear without looking like a total prick. A very down-to-earth guy who rolls up his sleeves and gets on with things. It will be interesting to see how he fares in control of a project, but I don't expect him to win. He's this year's likeable everyman who earns Sir Alan's respect, but cocks up under the strain of having to coordinate tasks, I think. But we'll see.
The search for Sir Alan's new apprentice continues...
2 April 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
