The Apprentice
BBC ONE, 9.00PM
Thirteen series in and we all know by now that The Apprentice is not so much a search for the brightest and best new business entrepreneurs, but an exercise in finding the one polishable, er, apple in a barrelful of “pony and trap” as adept cockney rhymer Lord Sugar puts it. And what fun it still is watching all those overinflated young egos being cut down to size by the process.
This time 18 candidates vie for the prize of £250,000 start-up capital, and just to remind the wannabe tycoons what a great opportunity they’re being given, Lord Sugar marches five previous winners into the boardroom to beguile them with tales of success.
The opening challenge, though, couldn’t be more basic: making burgers and flogging them on the street. Which is not to say there isn’t lots of room for error and unfathomably gross stupidity, too. In fact, you’re pretty much guaranteed to spend most of this show slapping your forehead at the unadulterated ineptitude of some of these selfproclaimed geniuses. In other words, a great start to what looks like being another hilarious series
with, as ever, The Apprentice: You’re Fired following, at 10pm on BBC Two. Gerard O’donovan