The Apprentice Series 6- It's all gone a bit David Brent

You know the standard is slipping when the jokes on The Apprentice: You’re Fired! are improving…


After six, arduous weeks, it was the moment Lord Sugar’s 7.3 million-strong audience had been waiting for. No, it wasn’t Liz Locke’s willingness to show some flesh (that only took 4 weeks), it was time for Sandeesh to finally break out of her comfort zone, and actually do something.

Delivering a pitch may seem like a simple enough job, but in ensuring everyone’s favourite unemployed head of communications finally got the sack, Sandeesh can be labelled as an utmost success. Yet it’s not only the bug-eyed contestant who’s role in the competition I’ve found myself questioning.

Taking one for the team: Liz Locke has been criticised by season 5 contestant, Debra Barr for not taking the tasks seriously.

In fact, this seems to be a recurrent theme of this year’s Apprentice – they all seem to be rather useless. Series 6 sees Lord Sugar choose from a group which includes a WAG, an ex-marine being investigated for fraud, and a fully qualified and fully minted surgeon. Not to mention the food executive who tried to sell bread rolls for £1 each.

Yet no one can complain that this series hasn’t been entertaining. Frustrating? Yes, I’ve found that I spend my Wednesday nights shouting “I could do that!” at the TV. But boring? No. It would seem that the BBC has locked horns with Lord Alan this series, ensuring the entertainment factor prevails over a serious business competition.

The contestants may struggle to sell shower heads to a plumbing company, yet quips such as, “Behind me you can see Stella wearing a very short sequined emerald green dress waving at people from a window. Amsterdam, maybe… But not in Manchester” ensure that the show remains a nice distraction from rioting students.

Roll on the interview round: Margaret returns to grill the contestants, and to teach Karen a thing or two.

Whilst on the subject of Lord Sugar’s trusty “eyes and ears”, the pivotal role of Nick Hewer has somewhat been diminished, perhaps to avoid completely eclipsing the bland Karen Brady. Previous series has seen Hewer garner thousands of online fans and a cult hero status, alongside the sorely missed Margaret Mountford.

The duos over-the-top facial expressions and witty one liners captivated the nation. Yet recently Hewer seems to be portrayed as rather, ahem, sleazy. Quips regarding Amsterdam and banter with Lord Sugar has presented the lawyer as a porn baron, who would easily draw those famous disapproving looks from Mountford – a skill which Brady has yet to conquer.

Series six has mixed the useless with the pompous, the villains with the clueless, and the deluded with the arrogant, although this could be applied to past seasons, the likes of Melissa, Paloma, Alex, Dan and Joy (remember her?) leave me questioning whether the show is worth risking my sanity for, but nevertheless tempts me to return to the show for a weekly does of nearly mind numbing entertainment.