The Apprentice (British series 1)

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The Apprentice UK
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Series One
Group shot of the candidates from Series 1 of "The Apprentice".JPG

Series One of The Apprentice (UK) is a British reality television series that was broadcast in the UK during 2005, on BBC Two from 16 February to 4 May on Wednesday evenings. The format of the UK version was very similar to that of the US original, and was licensed by the RTL Group while it was produced for the BBC by RTL's Talkback Thames division.

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

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See also: List of The Apprentice candidates (UK series one)

There were fourteen candidates for this series, and they were initially separated into two teams by gender. The women chose the name First Forte for their team, while the men named their team Impact. Curiously, the two eventual finalists never worked together on the same team - Tim and Saira were on opposing teams every week. Two candidates - Adenike and Miranda - never got the chance to be project manager.

Candidate Background Original team Age Result
Tim Campbell Transport Manager Impact 26 Hired by Sugar
Saira Khan Sales Manager First Forte 34 Runner-up
Paul Torrisi Property Developer Impact 34 Fired in week 11
James Max Investment Banker Impact 34 Fired in week 11
Miriam Staley Hotel Manager First Forte 26 Fired in week 10
Raj Dhonota Internet Entrepreneur Impact 30 Fired in week 9
Ben Leary Headhunter Impact 29 Fired in week 8
Sebastian Schrimpff Financial Analyst Impact 29 Fired in week 7
Rachel Groves Charity Fundraiser First Forte 32 Fired in week 6
Matthew Palmer Mature Student Impact 39 Fired in week 5
Adele Lock Retail Manager First Forte 29 Quit in week 4
Miranda Rose Estate Agent First Forte 26 Fired in week 3
Lindsay Bogaard Communications Manager First Forte 35 Fired in week 2
Adenike Ogundoyin Restaurant Manager First Forte 30 Fired in week 1

Weekly results

Candidate Original team Week 3 team Week 5 team Week 7 team Week 8 team Record as project manager
Tim Campbell Impact First Forte First Forte Impact Impact 1–1 (win in week 1, loss in week 4)
Saira Khan First Forte Impact Impact First Forte First Forte 0–2 (loss in weeks 1 & 9)
Paul Torrisi Impact Impact Impact Impact Impact 1–1 (win in week 9, loss in week 6)
James Max Impact Impact First Forte First Forte First Forte 2–1 (win in weeks 4 & 10, loss in week 7)
Miriam Staley First Forte First Forte First Forte First Forte Impact 1–1 (win in week 6, loss in week 10)
Raj Dhonota Impact Impact Impact Impact First Forte 2–0 (win in weeks 2 & 8)
Ben Leary Impact First Forte First Forte First Forte Impact 1–1 (win in week 7, loss in week 8)
Sebastian Schrimpff Impact First Forte First Forte First Forte 1–0 (win in week 5)
Rachel Groves First Forte Impact Impact Impact 0–1 (loss in week 5)
Matthew Palmer Impact Impact Impact 1–0 (win in week 3)
Adele Lock First Forte First Forte 0–1 (loss in week 3)
Miranda Rose First Forte First Forte
Lindsay Bogaard First Forte 0–1 (loss in week 2)
Adenike Ogundoyin First Forte
Candidate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Tim WIN IN IN LOSE IN IN IN IN IN BR IN HIRED
Saira LOSE IN IN IN IN BR IN IN LOSE IN IN RUNNER-UP
Paul IN IN IN IN BR LOSE IN BR WIN BR FIRED
James IN IN IN WIN IN IN LOSE IN BR WIN FIRED
Miriam IN BR IN IN IN WIN IN BR IN FIRED
Raj IN WIN IN IN IN IN BR WIN FIRED
Ben IN IN BR IN IN IN WIN FIRED
Sebastian IN IN IN IN WIN IN FIRED
Rachel IN IN IN IN LOSE FIRED
Matthew IN IN WIN IN FIRED
Adele IN BR LOSE LEFT
Miranda BR IN FIRED
Lindsay IN FIRED
Adenike FIRED
     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

  • 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:
    • At the end of the episode, the trailer for the following episode was shown over the closing credits. This is the only episode of any series that this happened - in all following episodes, the 'Next Week' trailer is shown directly before the credits.
    • 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. As a result, for future episodes he insisted on being given enough time to be fully debriefed on the task outcome before speaking to the candidates. He also implied that had he been given more information on what happened during the task, he would probably have fired Miranda rather than Adenike.
    • 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 his favourite and lasting memories from the show's entire history.

Week 2

  • 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, as well as the majority of team members, however project manager Lindsay opted to take a risk with "Secret Signals".
  • 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 team-mates and focus group, and for choosing an unpopular product.
  • Notes:
    • First Forte's original idea was a set of electrical plugs that would produce different combinations of light and sound depending how they were plugged into an outlet. However, the toy company immediately vetoed this, as it would not have met safety regulations.
    • The teams were told that in order for their toys to be profitable, they had to be manufactured for under £2. Lindsay had feared that the robot would be too expensive to manufacture for First Forte. The toy company confirmed that the robot could be manufactured for under £2 provided that it had no unnecessarily elaborate features. However despite this Lindsay was still determined to push ahead with the Secret Signals idea. Impact, meanwhile, gambled on the fact while the main "Switchbase" unit wouldn't have any hope of ever being profitable, the trading cards would have huge profit margins. Had First Forte gone with the robot they would likely have been named the winners, as unlike the Switchbase unit it would have been profitable even before any of the add-ons were purchased.
    • While Impact won, Sugar 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.
    • Lindsay decided to bring back Miriam as an advocate in order to help get rid of Adele, who had backed out of the presentation and seemed unenthusiastic about continuing on the show. In the final boardroom however, Sir Alan declared almost immediately that he did not consider Adele to be at fault for the loss, and actually appeared inclined to fire Miriam, feeling that she had been indecisive during the task and did not have the personality that he was looking for. Lindsay turned on Miriam, seemingly backing up Sir Alan's criticisms, but this spurred Miriam into defending herself, and Sir Alan was impressed enough to let her stay in the process, though he 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 show, as nearly all other episodes show the fired candidate leaving Brentwood or Viglen and getting into the taxi.
    • This task was on the one-off special Worst Decisions Ever. During the task's segment several of the guest including Nick and Saira actually saw Lindsay as a someone who could go very far in the process, but were shocked at her poor decision making and completely ignoring the focus groups.
    • Matthew was warned by Sugar to improve his behaviour after he was accused of rudeness towards the staff at the Vivid Imaginations toy company.

Week 3

  • 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:
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • The candidates had to arrive back at the boardroom by 5:30pm to avoid receiving a fine for lateness. There appeared to be considerable uncertainty over whether Impact's sub-team of Saira, Paul and Raj would arrive back in time. However it was later revealed that they had done so comfortably ahead of the 5:30pm 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.

Week 4

  • 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 first (and so far, only) episode of The Apprentice where no final boardroom session took place, nor any one has technically been fired. In later series more candidates were recruited than the number of episodes in order to provide cover in case someone voluntarily leaves, allowing Sir Alan to conduct a final boardroom session, in which instance another candidate is fired as well (such as in the third episode of Junior Apprentice, when Adam Eliaz departed due to illness at the end of the task, the boardroom sequence went ahead anyway, complete with a firing at the end.), but also to allow Sir Alan to conduct multiple firings per episode.
    • After her resignation, Sir Alan Sugar informed Adele that she would have been the one who was fired due to her consistent failures and disrespectful attitude. He also criticised her for not actually admitting being at fault in this or any other task, and implied that had Adele not resigned, there would have been no final boardroom anyway and that he would have fired her without asking Tim to bring two candidates back into the boardroom. Due to her resignation after the task, Adele was the first candidate ever in the show not to hear the fatal words before leaving the show.
    • Adele leaving also meant that Tim was not in a final boardroom situation until Week 10 (as a losing Project Manager, he would automatically have been in the final three this week, had Adele not left of her own accord.)

Week 5

  • 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 an awkward, overbearing and very confrontational personality.
  • Notes:
    • One of the factors that caused Sir Alan to fire Matthew was his unnecessary need to have confrontation with other candidates. This was noted during a fight with Tim from First Forte, when suddenly he made a baseless accusation about Tim stealing their equipment. This caused Sir Alan to fire Matthew at the boardroom, feeling his behaviour would be too disruptive and affect the unity of both teams.
    • 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. We didn't go to Goldsmith College or anything like that." Raj also said 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. Paul also 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

  • 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 criticizing 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.
    • Paul referenced the fact he and Saira shook hands after their arguments on the previous task but Saira interrupted to say that they hadn't shaken hands at all despite it being clearly caught on camera that they had done so.
    • After Rachel was fired, Paul and Saira were warned about their conduct and repeated arguments, and Sir Alan decided to separate them for the next task. Before leaving Saira was seen in tears, mainly because she was upset Rachel was fired over Paul.

Week 7

  • 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, the auctioneer.
  • Brought into the boardroom: James, Raj and Sebastian.
  • Fired: Sebastian, with regret - For mishandling the negotiations with Mel Smith, 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. At this point, Tim was the only contestant who had not appeared in the final boardroom yet.

Week 8

  • 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 for nothing in exchange for promoting her store. Impact focused on soups but 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 stock, while Impact had a lot of soup left over, which combined with their overspend resulted in a landslide 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 weak control of the team, lacking control on costs, bringing Paul back into the boardroom for seemingly personal reasons 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.
    • Tim had been responsible for overseeing Impact's finances, but despite performing this role badly, Ben decided to bring Paul back into the boardroom instead. Sugar questioned Ben's motives for this choice and suspected that it was due to personal reasons.
    • 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.
    • This task made Ben the first ever candidate on the UK show to be project manager on two consecutive tasks.
    • In the boardroom, Ben tried to use his pervious 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 of the victory.

Week 9

  • 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.
  • Fired: Raj - For failing to step up, failing to make a better effort after his warning on it, and for admitting that he was a poor salesman.
  • Notes:
    • The task was filmed on 25 September 2004, with the result of the match being a 1-0 win to Manchester United.
    • 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 apologize 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

  • 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.
  • Fired: Miriam - For her poor management of staff, and because Sir Alan felt she had an unsuitable personality.
  • Note:
    • During the final boardroom, Tim said he thought that Paul was a stronger candidate overall than Miriam. However this scene was not shown in the final edit. [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 put in an exceptionally good performance in the interviews, Tim and Saira would still have been the final two.
    • This was James's eighth victory overall, and remained a record, only matched in Series 4, but later broken in Series 7.

Week 11: Interviews

  • 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, 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 only concern they had was her unwillingness to admit ever being wrong about anything. 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 work for Sir Alan, despite his CV being best.
    • Paul - For having unclear reasons to work (considering he had thriving businesses of his own), along with being too aggressive and temperamental.
  • Notes:
    • In reality, Paul Torrisi was fired before James Max. However, the editing of the programme showed Paul getting fired after James. The continuity error of this editing was evident. When James was fired and exited the boardroom, Paul's luggage was not visible anywhere in reception. When Paul was fired and exited the boardroom, James' luggage was still in reception. It is also possible to see James still in the boardroom when Paul says goodbye to Tim and an empty seat where Paul sat when James said goodbye.
    • James was fired rather gently without Sir Alan even issuing the famous phrase 'you're fired' to 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. However he turned down the offer. Whilst promoting series 4 of the UK show, Sir Alan specifically named Paul alongside Ruth from Series 2 and Tre from Series 3 as one of his favourite candidates that he didn't employ.

Week 12: The Final

  • Finalists: Saira and Tim.
  • Saira's team: Saira (Project Manager), Paul, James and Raj.
  • Tim's team: Tim (Project Manager), 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 Lord Sugar.
  • 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 who Sir Alan considered to be the most like his own younger self.
  • Note:
    • Saira and Paul got into another heated argument during the task, with James trying to stop the argument. But in the end, James and Raj decided to leave the room until the argument finished. During the argument Saira threatened to fire Paul, who refused to accept that she was allowed to do so. Since Saira never carried through on her threat, it is unknown whether she actually would have been able to fire Paul.
    • Although Saira and Tim were asked to choose only three candidates, nearly all of the previous candidates (minus only Adele) returned to help - the ones who weren't chosen simply left after appearing in the boardroom. This is the only time this has happened, as in future series, the candidates have been asked to choose from a smaller pool of candidates, all of which were chosen to be on a team.
    • 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.

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.[2]

Episode
no.		 Airdate Viewers
(millions)		 BBC Two
weekly ranking
1 16 February 2005 2.02 15
2 23 February 2005 N/A N/A
3 2 March 2005 2.17 24
4 9 March 2005 2.35 26
5 16 March 2005 2.18 26
6 23 March 2005 2.80 13
7 30 March 2005 2.82 8
8 6 April 2005 2.74 13
9 13 April 2005 2.59 11
10 20 April 2005 2.40 11
11 27 April 2005 2.72 6
12 4 May 2005 3.77 2

Specials

Episode
no.		 Airdate Viewers
(millions)		 BBC Two
weekly ranking
The Story So Far
2 April 2005 N/A N/A

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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