Kate and Yasmina will contest the final of The Apprentice after James, Lorraine and Debra were fired at the gruelling interview stage.
In keeping with previous series, with this being the penultimate week, the five remaining candidates were grilled by some of Sir Alan's businesses associates.
Tough cookie Claude Litner was joined by Bordan Tkachuk, chief executive of Viglen Computers, Karren Brady, MD at Birmingham City FC, and city litigator Alan Watts.
Before the interviews, Kate and Yasmina said that they were good at them and were looking forward to it.
But Lorraine looked anything but confident as she arrived at Viglen, the interview venue.
It was James who was the first to be put under pressure, though, as Claude ripped into his CV for being full of jargon such as “rate-busting NGN”.
Kate found it easier going in her face-to-face with Bordan and returned down the stairs with a Cheshire cat grin.
Then Yasmina explained her restaurant background to Karren but had her figures torn apart by Claude.
She seemed surprised Claude had managed to get a hold of her business accounts even though it is a public document.
And finance manager Yasmina compounded her uncertainty by mixing up gross profit and net profit, and lost track of her turnover.
It was a haunting repeat of her poor mathematical performance when she and Paula decided to use sandalwood instead of cedarwood in the cosmetics task.
Not that she let the other candidates know of her grilling, unconvincingly suggesting Claude was a “nice man” (*See UPDATE).
Lorraine continued to remain nervous before facing Karren who asked her about her now notorious intuition, which was referred to as a “unique gift” on her CV.
Then Karren dropped a bombshell by uncovering that Lorraine had put the wrong start date of her most recent employer down.
Lorraine attempted a defence of this by suggesting it could be a misprint but this does not seem likely.
She had put May 07 down instead of May 08 – hardly something she would have struggled to remember correctly!
On returning to the seats in the foyer with the other candidates, she called her interview performance “horrendous”.
When the youngest of the hopefuls Debra, faced Claude, he suggested that she could not be relied upon as a team player.
But Debra launched a passionate defence of her style.
James could not do the same, however, as Claude struggled to take him seriously.
He revealed James had written on his CV that his role is “to put a leash on people who spunk money up the wall” and that he could bring “ignorance” to a job with Sir Alan.
Alan Watts became next to provoke a reaction from James by suggesting he was a little immature for a 31-year-old.
On his return, James described his experience as like being “turned inside out”.
Claude and Karren picked up on Kate’s statement on her CV that she would struggle to work in a female-dominated workplace.
Kate suggested that women are too emotional – that they moan and whinge too much.
But this is exactly what Kate did when Karren brought up the touchy subject of Philip distracting her in an earlier task.
Debra, meanwhile, had two horrific references read out to her by Alan Watts and Karren.
And then Alan highlighted the huge risk Yasmina had taken when persuading her mother to remortgage her house for the restaurant’s start-up costs.
In her interview with Karren, Lorraine spoke about some of the difficulties in her life – a divorce and a sickly child – and her failure to develop relationships with the other candidates.
But, other than her problem with a female workforce, Claude admitted he struggled to find any holes in Kate’s CV.
Kate denied she was “Little Miss Perfect” and, equally, denied she was too robotic and not passionate enough herself.
On the following day, Sir Alan’s associates spoke with him about the interviews in the boardroom.
The first candidate to be assessed was Lorraine.
Alan Watts thought she would drive Sir Alan mad with her incessant chatter while Karren and Bordan were sceptical of her “unique gift”.
Margaret Mountford defended Lorraine somewhat by recalling she had often been right during the series but Claude still doubted if she could cope.
Yasmina was next up for discussion.
Claude defended her entrepreneurial spirit but, once again, criticised her figures and her risky decision to get her mother to remortgage her home.
Sir Alan, Nick Hewer and Karren defended Yasmina on this latter point.
But Sir Alan remained concerned about why she wanted a position with him when she already has her own business.
James united opinion from the panel.
All of them considered he was too much of a joker and his final illusion about Sir Alan as Willy Wonka proved to be the death-knell for Karren.
She and Alan Watts also picked up that he was touchy when his immaturity was brought up and said he became completely fazed.
Margaret defended James’s team leader record but Nick suggested he had been extremely lucky to get that far.
Kate also drew similar comments from the boardroom but this time they were more positive.
All of the interviewers were impressed by Kate’s cool performance but worried if her unflappability made her too robotic.
Finally, Debra was bashed for the brutal references which she had provided herself and failed to convince Alan Watts or Bordan who considered her a risk.
But Claude and Karren were more impressed by her bolshie style and believe she can tone herself down as she is still young at 23.
After thanking his advisors, Sir Alan invited the final five back into the boardroom to defend their interview performances.
No one seemed keen to start but James eventually took the plunge and gave another unconvincing defence of his light-hearted style.
Debra repeated she had taken on the negative feedback she had received over her abrasive style.
And Kate once again defended herself against accusations of being robotic.
Moving onto Lorraine, Sir Alan agreed that she was strong for overcoming problems in her life.
But he remained worried about her failure to communicate well with her colleagues.
He also said he was still bemused by Yasmina’s desire to move away from her own business.
But there was a clear weak link in the final five and it was the last standing male candidate.
Sir Alan said: “James, I’ve taken on board what you’ve said and there’s nothing wrong in someone being light-hearted and making people laugh a lot. You’ve made me laugh a lot in this boardroom.
“I think that you’re a corporate man – that environment doesn’t exist in my place. So, with regret, you’re fired.”
James was probably the most popular candidate among his compatriots and tears were shed at his exit by the others.
Sir Alan asked the others to leave to regain their composure and, on their return, he revealed there were only going to be two finalists.
He again ran through each hopeful’s strengths and weaknesses but it was Lorraine’s character flaws which stuck with him.
Sir Alan said: “You’ve had altercations with people, after-the-horse-has-bolted statements. I feel I have seen that in you at least three times.
“I have to balance what I think is going to be suitable for my organisation. So, I’m going to have to say to you – you’re fired.”
And so there were three – Kate, Debra and Yasmina.
Kate was given early cause for celebration as he decided she was definitely going through to the final before deciding which of the others to fire.
It was a tough call for Sir Alan but, in the end, he felt he could not take the risk on Debra though he did ask her to keep in touch.
He said: “Debra, you should be proud of yourself.
“I’ve made my decision and I wish you the very, very best of luck and I know that you’re going to be successful in the future. Debra, you’re fired.”
So, an all-female final for the second time in the history of the show – there was also one in series two.
But it was never likely that James would prevent it.
Kate will start as the favourite but this has not always been the best position.
Highly-fancied Ruth Badger and Claire Young in previous series were both runners-up. The final on Sunday at 9pm will reveal if it happens again.
*UPDATE: the BBC has since admitted production company Talkback Thames used the wrong edit following Yasmina's interview with Claude. She had actually said, "Guys, that was just terrible - a really awful interview". She has accepted an apology.
No comments:
Post a Comment