“Technology has been my best friend for over 50 years.  But maybe it’s time to make new friends. Joseph, you are going to be my business partner”.

After agonising(supposedly) for what seemed like hours(it wasn’t), last Sunday we saw Lord Sugar finally declare that twenty-five year plumber Joseph Valente was to be this year’s winner of The Apprentice.  Were any of us that shocked at this very predictable outcome, really? After watching the interviews on the Wednesday before, Joseph seemed to be the nailed on favourite to win for me.  Was MANLY Lord Sugar ever going to choose an online dating app over a plumbing firm…….NEVER IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS!

The other finalist alongside Joseph, was American social media entrepreneur Vana Koutsomitis.  Her idea was to create this online dating app that fused together online dating with online gaming. The interviews the week before had highlighted concerns that she would need much more than the original 250k investment to make a success of her new business idea.  I thought this factor would most likely put Lord Sugar off it. I also struggled to picture feisty Lord Sugar who is a definite man’s man, ever getting involved with the lovey dovey online dating industry somehow.  Lord Sugar is more of a Ronseal type of guy if you get what a mean….”IT DOES EXACTLY WHAT IS SAYS ON THE TIN”. I bet he eats McCoy crisps too….”MAN CRISPS”(and very butch ones at that).

I could also see Joseph winning because I could envisage Lord Sugar extolling the virtues of Joseph’s positive life story afterwards to everybody(which he duly has).  After getting expelled from school at the age of fifteen, Joseph very impressively had turned his life around. He became inspired to set up his own business after reading Lord Sugar’s first ever book which was entitled ‘What You See Is What You Get’.  Joseph was a ‘working class kid done good’ and I thought this would be right up Lord Sugar’s street. I sat there watching the final hoping for a shock Vana win, however everything told me this was never going to happen.

The final was an enjoyable watch as they always are.  The thing it missed though was the amusing conflict from the previous eleven weeks.  The final of The Apprentice  is a bit like the nicey nice finals of Strictly and X-Factor ,i.e everybody is on their best behaviour to the point it where they became a bit nauseating and dull to watch.  The most impressive element of the final episode was the stunning setting where both candidate’s presentations took place.  They occurred at the City Hall, London, and the impressive architecture really helped magnify the spectacle element of the occasion.

The final progressed as I had suspected.  Vana’s main issue was one based around of finance. She had to acknowledge upfront that she most likely would require more than the 250k(for winning), in order for her business to stay afloat in coming months .  Joseph’s main issue was making people believe that he could manage and develop a big growing business.  As we duly know now, Lord Sugar chose the ‘safer’ ‘less risk’ plumbing business as I expected he would.  Can you imagine if the Vana venture had gone belly-up within the first six months and gobbled up all of his 250k with nothing to show in return, he would have got vilified in the media.

That said and I speak as a massive Lord Sugar fan here, two years on-the-trot now he has stated that he is a ‘gambler’ in the final(or words to that effect last year), then chosen to go into partnership with the LESS RISKIER business option.  I was pleased when Mark Wright won last year with his Climb Online digital marketing business because first and foremost, I really liked him as a bloke.  Nevertheless, in my opinion his fellow finalist Bianca Miller put a much more ambitious business proposal forward to Lord Sugar.  She wanted to go global with her hosiery business idea. A true risk taker surely would have chosen her idea over Mark’s, just as they would have gone with Vana’s over Joseph’s? Hey, who am I to criticise the billionaire that is Lord Alan Sugar, I just wanted to mention it though because it irritated me after watching the final.

Regarding the rest of the candidates, here are my views about some of them.  My favourite candidate this series was Richard Woods(aka Tricky Dicky).  He was the strongest candidate in the series in my view and although he definitely came across too confident at times, I really liked him.  I liked his manner with the other candidates barring the odd rude moment, e.g talking down to Vana and Ruth.  I liked how rather than wanting to be ‘one of the lads’ he often took up a leadership role.  He seemed a good decent bloke who was highly intelligent.  My favourite bit of the whole series was when interviewer Linda Plant called him out for being a bullshitter.  This funny line was made even more amusing when Richard for some bizarre reason agreed with her that indeed he was this.

At the start I warmed to ‘big man’ Brett Butler-Smythe, then as the series progressed his tough guy demeanor really started to annoy me.  I hate big muscular guys who walk around thinking their King Kong.  Nevertheless, by the time Brett was fired the week before the interviews, I had really warmed to him again.  I liked how he did not go ballistic with the other candidates in the week he got fired.  It was due to him being too aggressive towards Natalie in the boardroom earlier on in the series that made me strongly dislike him for a few weeks afterwards.  He left the show on a high even though after he was finally fired by Lord Sugar. There was no embarrassing speech at the end like unfortunately posh Jenny gave.  Her embarrassing speech at the end in the boardroom was right up there with David Brent in terms of cringe worthiness .  No, Brett took his dismissal from the show like everybody else should. He was exuberant, positive and immensely thankful for the experience.  He had definitely won me over by the end of his stay on the show.

Another candidate who I changed my mind about towards the end of the show was feisty firecracker Charleine Wain.  She really got on my nerves at the start.  She was too aggressive, too shouty and a bit of a trouble causer.  I really disliked how she told Joseph the negatives comments that young pup David Stevenson had said about him in the car.  There was also a boardroom moment where she went way overboard towards David, she was vicious and it was unpleasant to watch.  I also found her running feud with Selina Waterman-Smith become rather tiresome and pathetic to watch too.  After Selina got fired it seemed to calm her down though.  Her crying in the boardroom irritated me but ultimately by the end she came across as a good person. She was a trier and a fighter.  She was never going to get the investment with her weak business model/plan, however in the interviews it was endearing to hear to her say what motivated her to try and succeed in life.

I found Gary Poulton(Mr Corporate) too nice of a bloke that it got to the point when I found him irritating(the Birmingham tongue is probably my least favourite as well).  Mergrim was very entertaining to watch and had a wonderfully inspiring backstory(first came over to the UK as a refugee). I wanted Sam Curry to be less camp even though he seemed like a lovely fella. Finally, eccentric Ruth Whiteley with her overly fussy manner was very funny to watch.  I loved her unique and very amusing touchy feely sales technique.

This series of The Apprentice saw it’s spin-off show You’re Fired, having a new presenter in the form of stand-up comedian Jack Dee.  I am afraid to say that I thought Jack really struggled in this new role.  I missed the amusing delivery style from fellow comic Dara O’Briain(the previous presenter). Jack rarely made me chuckle, it all seemed like a bit too much of an effort from him.  Jack is famous for doing funny deadpan stand-up comedy routines.  Part of the amusement with his stand-up is that he comes across really grumpy and disinterested.  Therefore, with this grumpy persona of him in the back of my mind, I struggled at times when he interviewed the candidates.  I sat there often thinking to myself, is he playing ‘Mr Disinterested’ here or is this just his normal ‘out of character’ delivery style?  I kept questioning the sincerity of his words because of this grumpy perception I already had of him.  I did not find him particularly engaging to watch either. If I was in charge of You’re Fired/Hired , then I would look out for a new presenter to replace him next year.

Overall, it was a good final and a good series without either ever being a classic. After eleven years it is a bit samey in places as you would expect.  Nevertheless, this year I still found it a very entertaining programme to watch and am pleased that a twelfth series awaits us next autumn  Scary Claude Littner was the undoubted star this series for me, replacing Nick Hewer as one of Lord Sugar’s trusted assistants. Critics might argue that it is heavily edited but quite frankly I do not care about this, first and foremost we need to remember that it is an entertainment show at the end of the day.  We now await for Lord Sugar to make new friends within the plumbing world, LET THE BROMANCES WITH U-BENDS AND S-BENDS NOW BEGIN! 4/5.