It may be shamelessly self-indulgent, but this week I’m forsaking news to state my case as to why The Apprentice is currently the best programme on the box.
It’s feel-good TV, especially for final-year students, such as me, as the candidates’ (frequent) displays of stupidity demonstrate that even a group of proper ‘grown-up’ people can sometimes fail to summon a single iota of common sense between them. For instance, who sells a lobster for £4.95, and thinks they are still making a profit? Or even better, who asks a Muslim butcher to make a chicken kosher? Ergo, the job market instantly seems a little less competitive; as long as the interview involves purchasing/selling some form of poultry or fish…
Another winning element of the series is the characters – which have surpassed all previous series this year. From Lee “Get in” McQueen who talks about himself in the third person, to Jenny with her permanent scarf which led me to think she was a Doctor Who alien concealing a secret eye, to Lucinda who’s a risk assessment manager, yet every episode takes the intentional risk of stepping out of the front door dressed like a practical joke.
However, my favourite characters are the long-suffering sidekicks of Sir Alan, Margaret and Nick. The looks on their faces are sometimes enough to have me and my housemates in stitches. And now you can even use these people’s charms (defects?) as the basis of a drinking game (see Facebook). Genius.
Some have said Apprentice viewers should get out more, claiming they’ve had enough of the dramatic music, the aerial shots of London and the bitchiness of the contestants, but, as Lee McQueen might put it, The Millword says, they need to ‘get in’ more.
