Gareth John's Blog

Take A Chance On Me!

He’s back. And he’s grumpier than ever. Sir Alan Sugar, I salute you.

What a fabulous start to the new series of The Apprentice last night. TV’s `business boot camp’ is back and boy have they uncovered another fine band of sharp-dressing sleek-haired money-making wannabees.

First to hear those immortal words “You’re fired!” from Sir Alan in the boardroom sack race was football-hating art-loving barrister Nick de lacy Brown, a blue-blooded boy even more posh than his name sounds. This was the man for whom failure in his life to date was getting a `B’ in his GCSE French! Heaven forbid. Fair play to him though, he was a great guest on Heart Breakfast this morning to, so big thanks are due.

Highlight for me last night had to be the scene where the two groups got to choose their team names…….Renaissance & Alpha. It’s the girls who are calling themselves Alpha in this series. There were three reasons for their choice:

Alpha sounds `dominant’. (Yup, I get that one).
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. (True, although I’m sure this really backs up the case for it as a team name).

Then there was without doubt some of the finest bit of `out of the box’ business thinking I’ve heard of in years. Their third reason for choosing Alpha was…

“It sounds a bit like a fish…..” Genius. Brilliant. Award-winning!!!!!

Still, it was the girls who returned to base victorious and to a Jean-Christophe Novelli home-cooked meal (fish, in case you missed it!) leaving the boys to stab eachother in the back and gang up on posh Nick.

And it could all have been so different. With just a few minutes of their fish-flogging task remaining & in need of some fast bucks, the boys did what anyone in their right mind would do. Why sell your remaining turbots, lobsters & cod to a restaurant when you can try to off-load them onto a firm of solicitors??!! An especially clever choice bearing in mind none of the apprentices could tell one end of a fish from the other & had no idea what it was they were selling anyway. You could just see “Trades Description Act” lighting up in the eyes of the legal-eagles the apprentices had inadvertently descended on. Classic!

So here’s to next week’s task…running a launderette. Who will come out of the second episode whiter than white? And who’ll be leaving a nasty stain in Sir Alan’s boardroom? Can’t wait!!

Talk soon

Gx

Posted by Gareth John on March 27, 2008 at 13:00PM

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