The Apprentice: That's what I'm talking about

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There was one advantage to being internet-less this week. It meant that I couldn't accidentally find out who had won this year's cracking series of The Apprentice before watching it. Not on iPlayer, but on an old-school VHS cassette, I should add (life's such fun in the 1990s house).

The grand finalé was a fantastic end to the series. The candidates had so much to do in the three days they were given, and the focus (for us and Sir Alan) was on how the candidates would perform at actually doing business. The task ahead of them looked terrifying: invent a product, create it, design it, market it, test it, launch it... and all without any previous experience of working in the industry. If there was ever a task that would separate the men from the boys, this was it.

The return of some of the losing candidates also meant there was plenty of opportunities for squabbling, arguing, time-wasting, eye-rolling and head-shaking. Bringing them all back together for The Apprentice... You're Fired! nearly resulted in a fight when Lucinda and Helene had a barney. But the spotlight was always on Alex, Lee, Helene and Claire.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Sir Alan would never have hired pretty-boy Alex and "ballsy" (which is not an adjective I like using, but it seems to fit) Helene. The interviewers last week probably put him off the former, and the latter would never have suited the Amstrad culture. Corporate it is not. Hence lumping them together in the same team, enabling him to kill two birds with one stone when it came to the boardroom.

Which left Claire and Lee. After passing up the opportunity to hire the Badger, and after her valiant boardroom battles, I think everyone assumed that Claire was the favourite, but something obviously changed his mind. The Guardian's "Women" section attributes this to Sir Alan's misogyny, but that's just feminist twaddle. The truth is, Lee had been consistently strong, consistently good, consistently victorious... and a thoroughly nice bloke. That's what I'm talking about.

Highlights of the week:
▫ Kevin's idiotic suggestion to put perfume in a stress ball
▫ "...and now he wants to smell like a man"
▫ Lee's fantastic direction of their ad's blonde model

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