The Apprentice (UK series one)

The Apprentice UK

►  Series One

The Candidates Name Left Show       Timothy Campbell Week 12 Saira Khan Week 12 Paul Torrisi Week 11 James Max Week 11 Miriam Staley Week 10 Raj Dhonota Week 9 Ben Leary Week 8 Sebastian Schrimpff Week 7 Rachel Groves Week 6 Matthew Palmer Week 5 Adele Lock Week 4 Miranda Rose Week 3 Lindsay Bogaard Week 2 Adenike Ogundoyin Week 1 Hired Runner-up Fired Resigned

Series One of The Apprentice (UK), a British reality television series, was broadcast in the UK during 2005 on BBC Two, from 16 February to 4 May on Wednesday evenings. There were fourteen candidates for this series, with the two teams being called First Forte and Impact. The winner was Tim Campbell, previously a transport manager at London Underground, who beat Saira Khan in the final. Lord Alan Sugar (then Sir Alan at the time of the series broadcast) said that he chose Tim as his apprentice because of his likeness to his East End self.

Candidates

Weekly results

     The candidate was hired and won The Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner up.

     The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate was on the winning team; for Week 11, they managed to pass the interview stage.

     The candidate was on the losing team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

     The candidate was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

     The candidate left the competition.

Episodes

Week 1: Wilting Blooms

• Original Air date: 16 February 2005
• Impact: Tim (Project Manager), Paul, Ben, Matthew, James, Raj and Sebastian.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), Miriam, Miranda, Adele, Adenike, Lindsay and Rachel.
• Task: Make money by buying and selling flowers. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte spent the first half of the day selling flowers at the market before deciding to sell from pavement to pavement. Impact, on the other hand, immediately started selling flowers door to door. Despite a slow start after Matthew suggested selling in a residential area which proved to be almost totally deserted (since the residents were at work), the team quickly regrouped and started selling much better in a nearby area, with the men managing large mark-ups on the price, and Paul in particular proving a strong salesman. First Forte on the other hand proved to be much more fragmented, with Adenike and Adele frequently arguing with Saira, and Miranda actually selling their flowers at a loss at more than one point in the task.
• Result: Impact had a profit of £865, while First Forte had a profit of £602.
• Winner: Impact - By £263
• Reward: A trip to the London Eye with champagne.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, Adenike and Miranda.
• Fired: Adenike - For being openly disrespectful to Saira during the task, "undermining" the team's sales strategy and for poor defence in the boardroom.
• Notes:
  • While every episode of the show features a trailer of the following episode directly before the closing credits, this episode is the only one to have the trailer run during them.
  • In his autobiography, Sir Alan revealed that due to the production schedule he was not given the chance to consult with Nick and Margaret before the initial boardroom session, and had to rely purely on what he was told in the actual boardroom, therefore insisting on having a full debrief on the outcome of a task, before he spoke to the candidates. He implied that had he been given more information, he would probably have fired Miranda rather than Adenike
  • After the candidates were dismissed after the task, Sir Alan expressed surprise that the girls had lost this task as he had bet that they would have won, considering the task involved flowers.
  • During both the You're Hired programme following the UK Series 10 Final and a special documentary commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the show, Sugar named Paul's flower selling montage from this task as one of his favourite and lasting memories from the show's entire history.

Week 2: Child's Play

• Original Air date: 23 February 2005
• Impact: Raj (Project Manager), Paul, Ben, Matthew, Tim, James and Sebastian.
• First Forte: Lindsay (Project Manager), Saira, Miriam, Miranda, Adele and Rachel.
• Task: Design a brand new toy for a toy company. Best concept, wins.
• Task Review: Impact came up with an idea for an electronic trading card game named "Switchbase", while First Forte could not decide between a card semaphore system called "Secret Signals" and a robot with collectable and swappable body parts. A focus group of Brownies and Cub Scouts came out in favour of the latter idea, as well as the majority of First Forte, however project manager Lindsay opted to take a risk with "Secret Signals", but this proved to be a costly mistake after Impact's idea proved to be a far better conception.
• Result: The toy company and Sir Alan agreed that "Switchbase" was by far the better of the two ideas, and that "Secret Signals" was boring, outdated and not particularly innovative.
• Winner: Impact - For having a far better toy concept that was positively received by Sugar and the toy company.
• Reward: Clay pigeon shooting at a country club.
• Brought into the boardroom: Lindsay, Adele and Miriam.
• Fired: Lindsay - For not listening to her team-mates and the focus group, and for choosing an unpopular product.
• Notes:
  • First Forte's initially chose to go with an idea for a set of electrical plugs that would produce different combinations of light and sound depending on how they were plugged into an electrical outlet. However, the toy company immediately vetoed this, as it would not have met safety regulations.
  • Despite being informed that her fears of expensive costs were unfounded and that her team's robot idea could be easily manufactured for under £2, a factor that both teams were told would ensure their toy ideas could be profitable, Lindsay disregarded this to focus her efforts on pushing ahead with the Secret Signals idea. Had First Forte stuck with the more popular choice of the robot, they would have likely won as the toy would have been more profitable than the "Switchbase" idea, as Impact took a gamble that greater profit margins would have been made with the trading cards than the Switchbase unit itself.
  • Matthew was warned by Sugar to improve his behaviour after he was accused of rudeness towards the staff at the Vivid Imaginations toy company.
  • In the final boardroom, Sir Alan did not feel that Adele was responsible for First Forte's loss, despite backing out on the presentation and showing signs she was unenthusiastic. Miriam, whom Lindsay brought back to help get Adele fired, soon found herself in the firing line when Sugar criticised her for being indecisive on the task and for having an unsuitable personality, while Lindsay turned on her and backed up his criticism. However, he soon decided to let her stay when Miriam was spurred into defending herself, yet warned her to be more proactive in future tasks.
  • After Lindsay's firing, the footage cut straight from the candidates leaving the boardroom to Lindsay's taxi interview. This is extremely rare on the UK version of the show, as nearly all other episodes are edited to show the fired candidate leaving the boardroom's building and getting into the taxi waiting for them, before showing their taxi interview.
  • This task featured as part of the one-off special Worst Decisions Ever. During the task's segment on the special, several of the guests, including Nick and Saira, saw Lindsay as someone who could go very far in the process, but were shocked at her poor decision making and completely ignoring the focus groups.

Week 3: Shop Till You Drop

• Original Air date: 2 March 2005
• Impact: Matthew (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, James, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Adele (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Tim, Miranda and Sebastian.
• Task: Purchase a set list of ten items, negotiating for lower prices. Least amount spent (fines included), wins.
• Task Review: There was friction on both teams, as Matthew's leadership of Impact proved to be weak, resulting in Saira taking over most of the key decisions, while on First Forte Adele took an extremely abrasive approach to leadership, leading to conflicts with her team, especially Miranda who did not feel that her skills were being used. Impact failed to find a new bowler hat, for which they were fined. However, an electronics store's shopkeeper decided to give them a Freeview box for nothing, offsetting the fine. First Forte managed to acquire all of the items.
• Result: Impact spent £447.38, while First Forte Spent £506.94.
• Winner: Impact - By £59.56
• Reward: Dinner with Sir Alan Sugar at an Italian restaurant.
• Brought into the boardroom: Adele, Ben and Miranda.
• Fired: Miranda - For lacking respect for Adele and openly questioning her decisions throughout the task, and for having been a generally weak performer on all three tasks.
• Notes:
  • The items that the candidates needed to buy were: a diamond, champagne, $100, a bowler hat, a Freeview box, a dental check-up, a mattress, pie & mash, some ginseng and a bowl of jellied eels.
  • A condition with this task is that candidates are advised to arrive back at the boardroom, or designated finish line, by a certain time or receive a fine for lateness; in this instance, the candidates had to be back at the boardroom by 5:30pm on this task. Although there appeared to be considerable uncertainty over whether Impact's sub-team of Saira, Paul and Raj would arrive back in time, it was later revealed that they had done so comfortably ahead of the deadline, and had been told to wait outside for a while by the production crew in order to add a degree of suspense to the final edit.
  • Even though Sir Alan thought that Ben should have contributed more to the task and that Adele had been a terrible leader, he considered Miranda's disrespect towards Adele to be unforgivable, particularly since she had been in the first boardroom of the series, where Adenike had been fired for exactly the same offence. Her cause was not helped by the fact that she had contributed little to the last two tasks, although Miranda claimed that Adele had effectively sidelined her by giving her the role of "personal assistant" in this task.

Week 4: The Harrods Sales

• Original Air date: 9 March 2005
• Impact: James (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, Matthew, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Tim (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Adele and Sebastian.
• Task: Select items from the Harrods catalogue and sell them from concession stands within the store. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: Impact had a slow start, but James secured a bear costume for Paul to wear, attracting much attention particularly from the younger customers. On First Forte, Tim had trouble dealing with Adele, who was openly rude to the Harrods staff on several occasions, and then gave up halfway through the task upon learning that Impact were over £500 ahead. Despite the problems with Adele, and also Ben's weak performance, First Forte rallied and took the lead late in the day. However, Impact was able to sell a bag just before closing time that gave them a narrowly secured victory.
• Result: Impact brought in £3,295.38, while First Forte brought in £3,108.50.
• Winner: Impact - By £186.88
• Reward: A helicopter trip around English stately homes.
• Brought into the boardroom: No final boardroom; while Tim had indicated in the task post-mortem that he would probably bring back Adele and Ben, Adele announced her intention to resign during the preliminary boardroom discussions.
• Left: Adele - For personal reasons, and for not being able to get along with the other candidates.
• Notes:
  • This is the only episode in the show's history in which no final boardroom session took place, as well as no one being technically fired. To ensure this didn't occur in future, production staff in later series increased the number of candidates recruited for the process, meaning that in the event of someone voluntarily leaving, Sir Alan could still conduct a final boardroom session and fire a second candidate, effectively creating opportunities for multiple firings in some episodes. An example of this change was within the third episode of Junior Apprentice, where despite Adam Eliaz departing due to illness at the end of the task, the boardroom sequence went ahead anyway, complete with a firing at the end.
  • After her resignation, Sir Alan Sugar informed Adele that had Tim brought her up, she would have been the one who was fired due to her consistent failures and disrespectful attitude, while also adding criticism for not admitting to being at fault in this or any other previous task.
  • Although he wasn't fired for the failure of the task, Sir Alan criticised Tim for his constant complimentary attitude, especially due to the fact of him being in the firing line as project manager, while also accusing him of digging a hole for himself and being too nice. Until Adele's resignation, Tim was also warned that his complimentary attitude should stop shortly because he would not be able to compliment anyone when he was asked to bring two people back into the final three.

Week 5: Art with a Capital F

• Original Air date: 16 March 2005
• Impact: Rachel (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, Matthew and Raj.
• First Forte: Sebastian (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Tim and James.
• Task: Select an artist and sell their work in an art gallery. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: Both teams initially selected Rob and Nick Carter, an artist couple whose works were inspired by light and spectra. After meeting both teams, the Carters elected to work with First Forte. Impact then opted for Lucie Bennett, an artist specialising in paintings of the female silhouette, as their second choice. Despite the higher selling price of the Rob and Nick's works, First Forte sold several really well, while Impact sold more but Bennett's works generally sold for only £250 to £2,000, netting them less.
• Result: First Forte made £19,563, while Impact made £6,147.
• Winner: First Forte - By £13,416
• Reward: A dinner trip on board the Orient Express.
• Brought into the boardroom: Rachel, Matthew and Paul.
• Fired: Matthew - For falsely accusing First Forte of stealing advertising materials, not selling a single item, providing little contribution, and for having an unsuitable personality.
• Notes:
  • One of the factors that caused Sir Alan to fire Matthew was his confrontational attitude with other candidates, affecting the unity of any team he was part of. This was noted during a fight with Tim from First Forte, when suddenly he made a baseless accusation about Tim stealing their equipment.
  • Rachel was criticised for bringing back Paul instead of Saira, whose condescending behaviour toward Rob and Nick Carter was noted to have been the reason why the artists chose First Forte instead of Impact; during a discussion with Raj in one of the cars, Saira also said that Rob and Nick went for First Forte because Impact didn't fit their "cultural fit." Raj notably commented that Impact had "snotty" people in the case of Sebastian, Miriam and James.
  • When Saira and Raj left to go back to the house, Rachel went to see them off, leaving Matthew and Paul alone together in the boardroom reception. Matthew tried to discuss tactics with Paul to ensure their survival, but Paul did not pay attention, while he later implied that having a female Project Manager was a reason for the team's loss.
  • This task marked the start of Paul and Saira's ongoing feud, which continued until the end of the series.

Week 6: Advertising Executives

• Original Air date: 23 March 2005
• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Saira, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Miriam (Project Manager), Ben, Tim, James and Sebastian.
• Task: Design both a TV & Printed advertising campaign for Amstrad's new Jukebox music system, then pitch it to potential buyers. Best campaign, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte built their campaign around comparing Amstrad's Jukebox to a larger, classical jukebox, even turning their major problem (their jukebox prop not being able to fit into the filming location) into an advantage by pointing out the size differences. Their presentation also went very well. Impact, on the other hand, suffered major issues throughout the task. Paul spent much of his time directing the TV advert instead of managing his team, leaving Saira to give a very vague brief to a graphics designer on what was required from their print ad. This resulted in a TV advert that hardly showed the product, and a poor quality print advert. Rachel's sales pitch for Impact involved throwing her shoes across the room and dancing during the product demonstration. Sir Alan decided to make Raj (who was deemed to be least at fault for the team's failings) admit that the team had lost in the boardroom, instead of announcing the result himself.
• Winner: First Forte - For having a far better quality campaign than Impact.
• Reward: A shopping spree.
• Brought into the boardroom: Paul, Rachel and Saira.
• Fired: Rachel - For delivering a poor sales pitch despite her background, and for wasting her time doing a mood board.
• Notes:
  • Paul came seriously close to being fired, for not only seemingly abandoning the team for the majority of the task, but also because he lost his temper with Saira during an argument late in the day. In the boardroom, in spite of criticising their contributions, Paul refused to single out Saira or Rachel to be fired, annoying Sir Alan further. However Paul survived due to the fact that Rachel failed to deliver a successful pitch despite her experience, and had an inferior track record over him.
  • After Rachel was fired, Paul and Saira were warned by Sir Alan about their conduct and repeated arguments, particularly when they briefly argued in the boardroom over a fact that he dismissed as being irrelevant for discussion, before deciding to separate them for the next task. Before leaving, Saira was seen in tears, mainly because she was upset that Rachel had been fired instead of Paul.

Week 7: Apprentice Celebrities

• Original Air date: 30 March 2005
• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Paul, Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager), Saira, Raj and Sebastian.
• Task: Negotiate with five celebrities for their services/property to sell in a charity auction; money goes to the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire theatre. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: Raj was awestruck by his assigned celebrity, Paul McKenna, forcing James to step in and negotiate a personal hypnotherapy session. Saira also managed to negotiate some books and DVDs from McKenna, but this backfired at the auction when the audience thought these were the only things on offer, resulting in the session going for far less than it should have done. Sebastian did not push for more from his celebrity, Mel Smith, and only got four theatre tickets (compared to the fifty Chicago tickets Ben from Impact got) which very nearly failed to sell at all, until auctioneer Griff Rhys Jones stepped in and bought them himself. A guided tour of the GMTV studio donated by Eamonn Holmes also sold at a low price but Paul managed to persuade Diarmuid Gavin to donate a motorcycle, which ended up being the highest-earning item of the night, and their Chicago tickets also sold well, as did a dinner at The Ivy, donated by Michael Winner. Tim nearly lost the negotiation with former footballer, Ian Wright, but was saved by Miriam, who got him to donate a '98 England golf bag.
• Result: Impact made £18,000, while First Forte made £10,000.
• Winner: Impact - By £8,000
• Reward: No specific reward as it was a charity task, but Impact did get to have celebratory drinks with Sir Alan and Griff Rhys Jones.
• Brought into the boardroom: James, Raj and Sebastian.
• Fired: Sebastian, with regret - For mishandling the negotiations with Mel Smith, his lack of presence in prior tasks, and for having a personality and background unsuited for Sir Alan's businesses.
• Notes:
  • Impact's celebrities: Two Chicago cast members, Diarmuid Gavin, Michael Winner, Antony Worrall Thompson and Ian Wright.
  • First Forte's celebrities: Eamonn Holmes, Paul McKenna, Mo Mowlam, Mel Smith and the London Wasps. The team initially chose Richard Birkett specifically, but this was changed to the club itself after Birkett had to deal with a "family emergency".
  • In the boardroom, Sir Alan revealed that Griff Rhys Jones had conspired with Mel Smith's wife, Pam (who bid against him), to artificially inflate the price for his theatre tickets and prevent what would otherwise have been an embarrassingly low final bid for that item. Were it not for this, First Forte would have made only £7,800 and lost by an even larger margin.
  • After Sebastian was fired, Raj was told that he was on his last warning. Raj himself admitted that he had been extremely lucky to survive, considering that he was the only candidate on either team who failed to successfully complete a single negotiation.

Week 8: Food Fight

• Original Air date: 6 April 2005
• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Paul, Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: Raj (Project Manager), Saira and James.
• Task: Purchase produce and create food to sell at a country market. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte focused on jellies, jams and chutneys. James was concerned about how much they could make with the cook charging them £50 per hour. The team managed to convince the cook to work gratis in exchange for promoting her store. Impact focused on soups and spent a lot of money buying the ingredients. Both teams were chastised by the market manager for arriving late. First Forte managed to sell all their product, while Impact had a surplus of soup, which when combined with their overspend resulted in a daunting victory for First Forte.
• Result: First Forte made £364.35, while Impact made £149.69.
• Winner: First Forte - By £214.66
• Reward: A trip to Monaco, using the task profits as gambling money in the casino.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ben, Miriam and Paul.
• Fired: Ben - For his lack of control on the team and costs, bringing Paul back into the boardroom instead of Tim, and because he was not seen to be really responsible for his team's previous victory.
• Notes:
  • Paul was cautioned by Sugar for losing his temper after Ben and Miriam both claimed he was ineffective on the task and should be fired. Miriam also tried to falsely place the blame on him for the excessive amount of money spent on certain ingredients that she had authorised. However Sugar accepted that Paul had made large contributions to sales and the negotiations for ingredients, and had been by far the strongest member of Impact's team throughout the task.
  • While Tim had been responsible for overseeing Impact's finances, despite performing this role badly, Ben decided to bring Paul back into the boardroom instead. Sir Alan questioned Ben's motives for this choice and suspected that it was due to personal reasons.
  • In the boardroom, Ben tried to use his previous victory as a defence, but Sir Alan rebutted it, as despite getting the huge number of tickets for a good price, it wasn't a major role in the victory. While Ben was ultimately fired, Sir Alan warned Miriam about her attempts to scapegoat Paul rather than take responsibility for the overspending, but survived due to having the best sale figures behind Paul and Sir Alan believing Ben was more at fault for the loss.

Week 9: Team News

• Original Air date: 13 April 2005
• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), James and Raj.
• Task: Conduct a marketing campaign for a text messaging service of football team news, sent to fans' mobile phones. Most subscriptions received, wins.
• Task Review: The task was set to take place during a Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United football match at White Hart Lane. Originally, Impact planned to place an advert on the Jumbotron, and First Forte planned to place a slogan on banners and online. However, Saira's rudeness and aggressive behaviour towards Tottenham's marketing manager resulted in the club refusing to give any sort of assistance to either team. In the end, First Forte placed posters around the stadium, and hired professional promotional staff to market their service. Impact also hired promotional staff for their campaign, with the incentive of a percentage (commission) for number of text messages sold.
• Result: Impact received 704 subscriptions, while First Forte received 468 subscriptions.
• Winner: Impact - By 236 subscriptions.
• Reward: A meal cooked at the candidates' house by chef Gary Rhodes.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, James and Raj (the entirety of First Forte).
• Fired: Raj - For failing to step up after being warned, and for admitting that he was a poor salesman.
• Notes:
  • Sir Alan admitted that he came very close to firing Saira, for her being rude to the Tottenham marketing manager and then refusing to acknowledge or apologise for her mistake in the boardroom, but chose to fire Raj instead because he had not heeded Sir Alan's warnings, and was a less impressive candidate overall than Saira.
  • Raj's firing had a major impact on Saira, who was in tears before he left her and James.

Week 10: Apprentices on TV

• Original Air date: 20 April 2005
• Impact: Miriam (Project Manager), Paul and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager) and Saira.
• Task: Choose and sell items live on Ideal World shopping TV. Most sales made, wins.
• Task Review: Miriam and James were chosen as presenters. Tim and Paul of Impact pretended to have picked the same items as Saira of First Forte, so that she got fewer of the products she wanted. Saira ended up with a unisex jacket and a mattress among the items. On the day of the live presentation, Miriam received advice and direction from both Tim and Paul who kept interrupting Tim. Ideal World told Sir Alan after the task that they thought Miriam was a natural and that there was a job for her there. James managed to sell out of mattresses, and also sold a considerable number of unisex jackets.
• Result: Impact had sales of £2,017, while First Forte had sales of £5,407.
• Winner: First Forte - By £3,410.
• Reward: Rest and recreation at a castle in Scotland.
• Brought into the boardroom: Miriam, Paul and Tim (the entirety of Impact).
• Fired: Miriam - For her poor management of staff, and because Sir Alan felt she had an unsuitable personality.
• Note:
  • The final edit of the episode removed a scene from the final boardroom, in which Tim said he thought that Paul was a stronger candidate overall than Miriam. ^[1]
  • Sir Alan Sugar later admitted in the post-series You're Hired special, that Miriam didn't deserve to be fired at this point, and heavily implied that he felt he should have fired Paul in retrospect. However, Sir Alan added that unless Miriam had put in an exceptionally good performance in the interviews, Tim and Saira would still have been the final two.
  • James eight victories by this stage in the process were the highest achieved by any candidate in the show's history at the time. This record was matched in Series 4, but was eventually broken by Series 7 runner-up, Helen Milligan.

Week 11: Interviews

• Original Air date: 27 April 2005
• Semi-Finalists: Saira, James, Paul and Tim.
• Task: The remaining four applicants undergo gruelling interviews with Nick Hewer, Paul Kemsley, Claude Littner, Margaret Mountford and Bordan Tkachuk, after which two applicants will be fired.
• Candidate Reviews: Despite her having the weakest track record of the final four and her unwillingness to admit ever being wrong about anything, the interviewers unanimously considered Saira to be the most impressive of the candidates, giving her much praise for her prior accomplishments and salesmanship, and even feeling that her abrasiveness could be a strength in the right circumstances. The interviewers noted that while James was, on paper, the strongest of the four candidates, they found him unconvincing in the interviews and questioned whether his heart was in the process. Tim was commended for his passion, determination and business knowledge, but the interviewers considered him to be naive and were concerned that stepping up to run one of Sir Alan's businesses would be a step too far. Paul was deemed the weakest of the candidates, mostly due to his short temper and background in businesses that had very little relation to anything Sir Alan did.
• Fired:
  • James - For his unconvincing dedication to working for Sir Alan, despite his CV being best.
  • Paul - For having unclear reasons to work, along with being too aggressive and temperamental.
• Notes:
  • This episode featured a continuity error made in the final edit, in which Paul was shown to be fired after James, when in reality it had been the other way around, as James' luggage was still visible in reception when Paul left, yet Paul's was not when James departed. A further example of this mistake was that James could be still seen in the boardroom when Paul says his goodbyes to Tim, while James' departure reveals Paul's seat to be empty.
  • James' firing was handled rather gently than other candidates, with Sir Alan refraining from using his famous phrase - "You're Fired" - towards him.
  • Despite being fired, Paul was later offered a job by Sir Alan Sugar, working with his son Daniel for his private jet company Amsair, but turned down the offer sometime later. Whilst promoting the fourth series of The Apprentice, Sir Alan specifically named Paul among one of his favourite candidates that he didn't employ.
  • Whereas the interviewers are generally introduced to the viewers by the show's narrator, Mark Halliley, this is the only series where Sir Alan introduced the interviewers himself, and also to the candidates that made it to this stage.

Week 12: The Final

• Original Air date: 4 May 2005
• Finalists: Saira and Tim.
• Saira's team: Paul, James and Raj.
• Tim's team: Ben, Miriam and Sebastian.
• Task: Each team is given a riverboat and £5,000 budget to hold an event; Attendees must buy tickets to the events. Winner is decided on performance and sales.
• Task Review: Tim's team chose to put on a fashion show while Saira's team held a wine tasting event that showcased a new brand of Californian wine. Saira's team more than recouped their budget, collecting £5,800, with a final profit of about £1,600. Despite making only about £2,800 (half the money that Saira's team did), and therefore only managing to break even, Tim's team kept their costs down much lower, while Tim explained his long-term strategic vision that impressed Sir Alan.
• Runner-up: Saira - For concerns about her overly abrasive nature, as well as poor control and relationship to her staff in the task.
• Winner: Tim - For his consistency across the whole series, and for being the candidate whom Sir Alan considered to be the most like his own younger self.
• Note:
  • This is the only series in the show's history that the finalist were asked to choose just three candidates to help them, out of those who had been fired from the process; those that returned, with the exception of Adele, who weren't chosen, simply left after appearing in the boardroom. After this series and up until the end of Series 6, the show altered this arrangement to let finalists form their teams with a smaller pool of candidates to chose from, while after the task format was reverted back to its original setup for Series 9 onwards, the arrangement was changed again so that finalists could call up "any" fired candidate to be a part of their team. Furthermore, this is the only series where returning candidates were given his business card before they were dismissed; the other time this was down was in the penultimate episodes of the second and third series of Young Apprentice.
  • During the task, Saira and Paul were involved in another heated argument between themselves, with James initially trying to stop it, before he and Raj decided to leave them alone until it was finished. During the argument Saira threatened to fire Paul, who refused to accept that she was allowed to do so, though she never carried through on her threat, making it unknown if she would have been allowed to do so.
  • In the You're Hired special which followed the episode, Sir Alan told Saira that despite her losing out to Tim, if she ever needed a job he would be willing to offer her one.

Criticism and controversy

Week Two

In spite of Impact's victory, Sir Alan confronted them with a supposedly similar product (the Barcode Battler) from another toy company in an effort to find out if they had copied the idea of the electronic card game or were simply unaware. However it was later revealed that this product was not actually similar to Impact's toy, and that this had been a ploy by the production team to add suspense and cast a moment of doubt over a seemingly inevitable Impact victory on the final edit. It was also apparent from the filming that Impact had thought of their idea themselves.

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.^[2]

Specials

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Apprentice (UK)

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Sir Alan Sugar

• The Apprentice at BBC Online
• Amstrad
• Saira Khan
• James Max
• Paul Torrisi
• Rachel Groves