Such a mug’s game, Karren

Any West Ham fans watching ITV’s Give It A Year last night would have been spluttering at this quote from their vice-chairman Karren Brady: “I can’t imagine anyone spending thousands of pounds on mugs.”

OK, so she was talking about mugs that you drink from, not mugs that you play in midfield. Even so, Karren’s no stranger to sanctioning pointless bigmoney purchases.

Quirky inventor Thomas had spent years, and thousands, solving the problem of tea going cold. Ignoring solutions such as “drink it while it’s hot”, “stick it in the microwave” or “just make another cup”, he’d invented a technological fix which would set you back £40 for an everyday mug and around £1,000 for the luxury version.

Via the magic of TV Karren first met him a year earlier and went back to see how he was getting on 12 months later.

It’s an enjoyable watch. Karren is much more relaxed and likeable than she is on The Apprentice and it was great to see her encouraging entrepreneurs such as Sarah, who had started her own giant light-up letters hire company.

Karren’s suggested that building a business in the weddings industry could be a real money spinner. Too right, Karren. Just ask Katie Price.