Month: June 2008

After miraculously surviving firing after firing for weeks, Michael finally got the axe in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 10. Despite her survival in the boardroom, Helene proved to be the newest person on borrowed time. Their teammate Claire showed once again she’s one of the top people. The other team, meanwhile, won in spite of themselves, rather than because of any overwhelming amount of talent.

It’s interview week. The final five will be interviewing with four of Sir Alan’s business colleagues: property tycoon Paul Kemsley, ex-Sir Alan employee Claude Littner, Viglen Computers CEO Bordan Tkachuk, and Birmingham City Football Club managing director Karren Brady (I believe she’s still in that position despite her arrest in April).

Paul asks Lee to do his reverse pterodactyl impression. Lee complies with this request. Paul is unimpressed and tells Lee he should have told him no. Either way he was screwed. This guy’s just being an asshat because he can be. Lee is basically told he’s too nice and that’s about all there is to him.

Claude doesn’t believe Lucinda is employable. She essentially agrees by saying she’s a contractor, which he takes to mean she’s just an outsider. She acknowledges her stay on this show has been a struggle on both sides. He finds it really hard to deal with her. This line of questioning leads her to ask what she’s doing here, as she questions whether she actually wants to be a permanent employee.

Paul wants to know why Claire increased profit by £8 million but only earned a bonus of £27k. He calls her a poor negotiator and would like to hire her because she’s cheap.

Paul tells Alex his CV is one of the most boring he’s ever read. Alex says thank you. He responds that he’s younger and that’s why there’s not much on his CV, but Paul brags that he was running his own business at 22. Karren, likewise, isn’t taken in by the age story, since she was 23 when she was running Birmingham City Football Club. Not having any more luck with Claude, Alex tells him that it doesn’t matter what he says because he’s just going to knock it down anyway.

Helene tells Karren the story of how she overcame a bad childhood to get where she is today.

Paul questions whether Lucinda’s really a serious businesswoman who will actually stick around for more than three months. He suggests she should question why she’s here. While she’s interviewing, the other candidates are discussing this very thing. She tells him he’s asking questions but not actually listening to the answers, which is a valid point.

Claude wants to know whether Lee was ever taught spelling then proceeds to go over the highlighted grammatical and spelling mistakes on one of his questions. During his discussion with Bordan, he claims he was with a university for two years, but Bordan’s gotten confirmation that it was just four months.

Lucinda has come to the decision that she really wants this job and will fight for it, though the damage on that front is already done because not everybody is convinced of that.

Now that the interviews are over, the interviewers can discuss their findings with Sir Alan.

Bordan was impressed by the fact that Alex worked a commission only job. Paul thought the interview was terrible but that he does have potential. Karren questions whether Alex would be able to achieve anything without his charm and good looks, but she thinks he should just recognize those traits as assets. Claude is the least impressed of the bunch and believes Alex is bland and shallow.

Claude has great things to say about Lucinda… but thinks she would be a disaster for Sir Alan. Paul calls her a nutcase. Unlike prior seasons, Sir Alan has finally realized that the salary for this job is largely moot.

Despite the pterodactyl impression, Paul was impressed with Lee… until the end of the interview when he winked at him like a door-to-door salesman. Karen believes he’s a good salesman but that this is the last big chance he’ll get. Bordan brings up the lie about the university, which mostly disappoints him because it was unnecessary if he’s done as well as he’s done otherwise, although Paul says that a lot of people lie about their qualifications. Claude says that he’s a tryer.

Karren thought Claire was fantastic and a doer and tells Sir Alan she’ll give her a job if he doesn’t. Claude has doubts whether she can do anything but retail. Bordan says she doesn’t listen, but that’s not news to Sir Alan.

Claude was impressed that Helene overcame her background, but Sir Alan doesn’t want to hear the sob story any more. Karren echoes Claude’s comments. Paul didn’t see any real fire in her.

As he’s leaving the room, Paul gives Sir Alan the wink and the gun.

During the final boardroom with the candidates, Alex is the one to bring up that Lucinda said during the interview process that she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to be there. In explaining herself, she says she doesn’t need the job (even if everybody else does), just that she wants it.

Lucinda is a little bit too zany for Sir Alan and is fired.

Sir Alan gives Claire a hard time about the fact that she doesn’t listen, but he’s decided he will let her stay. Not only that, but he’s going to let everybody else stay and have a four person final.

They final four will be split into two teams. The team that loses will be fired. From the winning team, one person will be the winner. I like the final four twist. Not thrilled that the losing team will just outright be fired without consideration to any previous tasks or anything else, though.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 12, where we will find out who the winner is.