The Apprentice 2012 thread

[TightEnd]

begins Wednesday 21st 9pm BBC1

"By day I'm a business superstar and by night I'm a professional wrestler." With just one sentence the new series of The Apprentice re-establishes the show as the UK's televisual haven for wildly overconfident fans of business-speak.

"I would call myself the blonde assassin," quips one contestant. "I'm the reflection of perfection," promises another.

Somehow Lord Sugar manages to keep a straight face. But as he launched the eighth series of the BBC's search for the brightest and best business brains – or at least the person formidable enough to see off the other contestants – the grumpiest man on TV admitted that the years had softened him.

"I suppose as you get older, you learn not to get too excited about certain things. You get mellower, I suppose," he said.

Not that viewers would necessarily notice: "I don't want a friend," Sugar tells his Apprentice wannabes in the first episode. "If I was looking for a friend I'd get a dog."

The former Labour enterprise tsar was also on blistering form when it came to the nation's youth – who, he said, spend too much time waiting to become the next Mark Zuckerberg, and not enough making it happen with small sums and hard work every day.

"That's what we've lost. That's what we need to bring back. To dispel the kind of fast-buck culture out of the minds of youngsters and to try to instil in them again that you start a business like this."

The Apprentice last year changed its format, with Sugar now offering the winner of the show a £250,000 investment into their business, in return for equity, rather than a job. And Sugar said that would-be entrepreneurs should expect to find funding and backing for their projects rather than relying on banks to help with finance without offering any collateral.

"With the greatest respect to some of the people in government, on both sides, on government and on the opposition side, they should stop all this nonsense about bank bashing, banks are not helping people blah-blah-blah.

"Because no bank is going to give a bunch of wannabes like [the Apprentice contestants] a loan," Sugar said. "Take your own money and you go out and do it. It's as simple as that."

The Apprentice boss is joined on screen once more by Karren Brady and Nick Hewer, who spend much of the first episode flinching at the decibel level generated by the teams as they attempt to flog the public yet more items they have never desired.

The boardroom is again a frightening collage of astonishingly shiny suits and lipgloss; all shifty eyes and aggressively applied eye makeup as the contestants try to escape blame for tasks that include upcycling furniture and marketing English sparkling wine.

Last year's winner, Tom Pellereau, has perhaps set a tone for a nicer, less aggressive type of Apprentice winner, Sugar suggested at the launch – although, on the basis of the first episode of the new series, fans might be hard-pressed to notice that change on screen

[TightEnd]

Candidates here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2114317/The-Apprentice-2012-lineup-Candidates-include-wrestler-called-Ricky-Martin.html

[AndrewT]

Forgotten something?

Regards

A

[TightEnd]

Sorry


Shall we do a little elimination competition each week, in hour of all time great compmaster sovietsong?

Regards

T

[Cf]

Hello all. Very much looking forward to this!

Regards

C

[Claw75]

ffs cf beat me to the C this year.

Regards

Cl

[outragous76]

Mod edit: the contents of this post have been removed due the proper formalities not being observed.

There will be a 0 tolerance approach taken this year.

Regards

C

[Graham C]

Click to see full-size image.

Hellooooo

Regards

G

[TightEnd]

1,4,2,7,8,6,5,3

Regards

T

[Graham C]

I can never understand why people that have set their own companies up (usually claiming to be sucessful) would ever want to apply for the show.  The job would be what I'd earn in about 10 years probably but I just don't think I could work for SAS ( actually it's LAS now isn't it) or anyone else out of choice again.

Regards

G

[Amatay]

Click to see full-size image.

Hellooooo

Regards

G

bottom left yum yum

Regards,

A

[TightEnd]

Name: Laura Hogg

Age: 28

Job: Bridal shop owner

Lives: Glasgow

Interests: Winter sports.

About her: She once skated with Torvill and Dean.

She says: 'I am going to be one of Scotland's next big exports.'


Lets hope she goes a long way

Regards

T

[Graham C]

I'm trying to work out who the grower will be, there's always one that gets more attractive as the weeks go by.

Is it really a year since it was last on or has it come early?

Regards

G

[KarmaDope]

In for a competition.

Regards

S.

[Amatay]

Click to see full-size image.

Hellooooo

Regards

G

bottom left yum yum

Regards,

A

Oh and yes, yes, yip, yeah, yes, yes, yeah and errrr fk it yes, why not?