The Apprentice (UK series one)

The Apprentice UK

►  Series One

The Candidates Name Left Show       Timothy Campbell Week 12 Saira Khan Week 12 Paul Torrisi Week 11 James Max Week 11 Miriam Staley Week 10 Raj Dhonota Week 9 Ben Leary Week 8 Sebastian Schrimpff Week 7 Rachel Groves Week 6 Matthew Palmer Week 5 Adele Lock Week 4 Miranda Rose Week 3 Lindsay Bogaard Week 2 Adenike Ogundoyin Week 1 Hired Runner-up Fired Resigned

Series One of The Apprentice (UK) television programme was broadcast in the UK from 16 February to 11 May in 2005. The format of the UK version was very similar to that of the US original. The format was licensed by RTL Group and the programme produced for the BBC by RTL's Talkback Thames division. It was shown on BBC Two on Wednesday evenings over twelve weekly episodes. The winner was to become an apprentice to Sir Alan Sugar.

The winner was Tim Campbell, previously a transport manager at London Underground, who beat Saira Khan in the final. Sir Alan said that he chose Tim as the winner because of his likeness to his East End self.

Candidates

See also: List of The Apprentice candidates (UK) series one

There were fourteen candidates for this series, and they were initially separated into two teams by gender. The women chose the name First Forte for their team, while the men named their team Impact. Curiously, the two eventual finalists never worked together on the same team - Tim and Saira were on opposing teams every week.

The candidates were:

Name	Age *	Occupation
Lindsay Bogaard	35	Communications Manager
Tim Campbell	26	Transport Manager
Raj Dhonota	30	Internet Entrepreneur
Rachel Groves	32	Charity Fundraiser
Saira Khan	34	Sales Manager
Ben Leary	29	Headhunter
Adele Lock	29	Retail Manager
James Max	34	Investment Banker
Adenike Ogundoyin	30	Restaurant Manager
Matthew Palmer	39	Mature Student
Miranda Rose	26	Estate Agent
Sebastian Schrimpff	29	Financial Analyst
Miriam Staley	26	Hotel Manager
Paul Torrisi	34	Property Developer

* as of the date of the programme.

Challenges

There were 12 challenges, one per weekly episode.

Week 1

• Impact: Tim (Project Manager), Paul, Ben, Matthew, James, Raj and Sebastian.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), Miriam, Miranda, Adele, Adenike, Lindsay and Rachel.
• Task: Buying and selling flowers, the team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result: First Forte spent the first half the day selling flowers at the market before deciding to sell from pavement to pavement. Impact, on the other hand, immediately started selling flowers door to door. Impact won with £865. First Forte lost with £602.
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: A trip to the London Eye with champagne.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, Adenike and Miranda.
• Who gets fired: Adenike, for being openly disrespectful to Saira during the task, for "undermining" the team's sales strategy and for poorly defending herself in the boardroom.

Week 2

• Impact: Raj (Project Manager), Paul, Ben, Matthew, Tim, James and Sebastian.
• First Forte: Lindsay (Project Manager), Saira, Miriam, Miranda, Adele and Rachel.
• Task: Create and design a new toy for a toy company; the team deemed to have created the best concept wins.
• Result: Impact came up with an idea for an electronic trading card game named "Switchbase", while First Forte could not decide between a card semaphore system called "Secret Signals" and a robot (a third idea, a set of electrical plugs that would produce different sounds depending on which order they were plugged into a mains socket, was vetoed early on by the toy company since it would not have met safety regulations). A focus group of Brownies and Cub Scouts came out in favour of the latter, as well as the majority of team members, however project manager Lindsay opted to take a risk with "Secret Signals".
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: Clay pigeon shooting at a country club.
• Brought into the boardroom: Lindsay, Adele and Miriam.
• Who gets fired: Lindsay, for not listening to her team-mates and the focus group, and for choosing a product that was not popular.
• Notes:
  • While Impact may have won, Sir Alan confronted them with similar products from other toy companies in an effort to find out if they had copied the idea of the electronic card game or were simply unaware.
  • Although Lindsay's boardroom defence was focused on the fact that Adele had effectively withdrawn from the task because she hated the Secret Signals, Sir Alan didn't think Adele was to blame and actually appeared to be on the verge of firing Miriam, feeling that she wasn't suited to his organisation. However, Miriam's strong defence after Lindsay accused her of being a bad presenter impressed Sir Alan, and ultimately led to Lindsay's firing.

Week 3

• Impact: Matthew (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, James, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Adele (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Tim, Miranda and Sebastian.
• Task: Purchase a set list of ten items for prices lower than those asked by the retailers. The team which spends the least wins.
• Result: There was friction on both teams, as Matthew's leadership of Impact proved to be weak, resulting in Saira taking over most of the key decisions, while on First Forte Adele took an extremely abrasive approach to leadership, leading to conflicts with her team, especially Miranda who did not feel that her skills were being used. Impact failed to find a new bowler hat, for which they were fined £80. However, an electronics store's shopkeeper decided to give them a Freeview box for nothing, offsetting the fine. First Forte managed to acquire all of the items. Impact spent £447.38, and First Forte Spent £506.94.
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: Dinner with Sir Alan Sugar at an Italian restaurant.
• Brought into the boardroom: Adele, Ben and Miranda.
• Who gets fired: Miranda, for not showing respect to Adele and apparently trying to start a mutiny.
• Notes:
  • Even though Sir Alan thought that Ben had been the worst negotiator and that Adele had been a terrible leader, he considered Miranda's disrespect towards Adele to be unforgivable, particularly since she had been in the first boardroom of the series, where Adenike had been fired for exactly the same offence.
  • The items that the candidates needed to buy were: a diamond, champagne, $100, a bowler hat, a Freeview box, a dental check-up, a mattress, some ginseng and a bowl of jellied eels.

Week 4

• Impact: James (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, Matthew, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Tim (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Adele and Sebastian.
• Task: Select items from the Harrods catalogue and sell them from concession stands within the store. The team that makes the most money wins.
• Result: Impact had a slow start, but James secured a bear costume for Paul to wear, attracting much attention particularly from the younger customers. On First Forte, Tim had trouble dealing with Adele, who was openly rude to the Harrods staff on several occasions, and then gave up halfway through the task upon learning that Impact were over £500 ahead. Despite the problems with Adele, and also Ben's weak performance, First Forte rallied and took the lead late in the day. However, Impact was able to sell a bag just before closing time that gave them almost £100 lead over First Forte and narrowly secured victory. Impact brought in £3,295.38, while First Forte brought in £3,108.50.
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: A helicopter trip around English stately homes.
• Brought into the boardroom: No final boardroom; while Tim had indicated in the task post-mortem that he would probably bring back Adele and Ben, Adele announced her intention to resign during the preliminary boardroom discussions.
• Left: Adele, for personal reasons and for not being able to get along with the other candidates.
• Notes:
  • This is the first (and so far, only) episode of The Apprentice where no one has technically been fired.
  • After her resignation, Sir Alan Sugar informed Adele that she would have been the one who was fired due to her consistent failures and disrespectful attitude.
  • Due to her resignation after the task, Adele was the first candidate ever in the show not to hear the fatal words before leaving the show.
  • Adele leaving also meant that Tim was not in a final boardroom situation until Week 10 (as a losing Project Manager, he would automatically have been in the final three this week, had Adele not left of her own accord.)

Week 5

• Impact: Rachel (Project Manager), Paul, Saira, Matthew and Raj.
• First Forte: Sebastian (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam, Tim and James.
• Task: Selecting an artist and selling their work in an art gallery. The team that makes the most money wins.
• Result: Both teams initially selected Rob and Nick Carter, an artist couple whose works were inspired by light and spectra. After meeting both teams, the Carters elected to work with First Forte. Impact then opted for Lucie Bennett, an artist specialising in paintings of the female silhouette, as their second choice. Despite the higher selling price of the Rob and Nick's works, First Forte sold several and managed to make £19,563. Impact sold more paintings, but Bennett's works generally sold for only £250 to £2,000, and as a result they netted just £6,147.
• Winner: First Forte.
• Reward: A dinner trip on board the Orient Express.
• Brought into the boardroom: Rachel, Matthew and Paul.
• Who gets fired: Matthew, for falsely accusing First Forte of stealing Impact's advertising materials, and for being too awkward and overbearing.
• Notes:
  • This is the first time First Forte wins, as well the first time Impact loses.
  • Matthew is the first male candidate to be fired.

Week 6

• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Saira, Raj and Rachel.
• First Forte: Miriam (Project Manager), Ben, Tim, James and Sebastian.
• Task: Design a TV and print advertising campaign for Amstrad's new Jukebox music system, then pitch it to potential buyers.
• Result: Paul spent much of his time directing the TV advert instead of managing his team, leaving Saira to give a very vague brief to a graphics designer on what was required from their print ad. This resulted in a TV advert that hardly showed the product, and a poor quality print advert. Rachel's sales pitch for Impact involved throwing her shoes across the room and dancing during the product demonstration. First Forte's campaign went much better, and Sir Alan decided to make Raj admit this fact in the boardroom, instead of announcing their victory himself.
• Winner: First Forte.
• Reward: A shopping spree.
• Brought into the boardroom: Paul, Rachel and Saira.
• Who gets fired: Rachel, for delivering a poor sales pitch, despite being an advertising expert and wasting her time doing a mood board.
• Notes:
  • Miriam's victory in this task made her the only woman to claim victory as a project manager this series.
  • After Rachel was fired, Paul and Saira were warned about their conduct and repeated arguments, and Sir Alan decided to separate them for the next task.

Week 7

• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Paul, Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager), Saira, Raj and Sebastian.
• Task: Negotiate with five celebrities for their services or property to sell in a charity auction, with the money going to the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire theatre.
• Result: Raj was awestruck by his assigned celebrity, Paul McKenna, forcing James to step in and negotiate a personal hypnotherapy session. Saira also managed to negotiate some books and DVDs from McKenna, but this backfired at the auction when the audience thought these were the only things on offer, resulting in the session going for far less than it should have done. Sebastian did not push for more from his celebrity, Mel Smith, and only got four theater tickets (compared to the fifty Chicago tickets Impact got) which very nearly failed to sell at all, until auctioneer Griff Rhys Jones stepped in and bought them himself. A guided tour of the GMTV studio donated by Eamonn Holmes also sold at a low price. Impact managed to get Diarmuid Gavin to donate a motorcycle, which ended up being the highest-earning item of the night, and their Chicago tickets also sold well, as did a dinner at The Ivy, donated by Michael Winner. Tim nearly lost the negotiation with former footballer, Ian Wright, but was saved by Miriam, who got him to donate a '98 England golf bag. Impact made £18,000 whereas First Forte made £10,000.
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: No specific reward as it was a charity task, but Impact did get to have celebratory drinks with Sir Alan and Griff Rhys Jones, the auctioneer.
• Brought into the boardroom: James, Raj and Sebastian.
• Who gets fired: Sebastian, (with regret) for staying on the sidelines too much.
• Notes:
  • Impact's celebrities: Two Chicago cast members, Diarmuid Gavin, Michael Winner, Antony Worrall Thompson and Ian Wright.
  • First Forte's celebrities: Eamonn Holmes, Paul McKenna, Mo Mowlam, Mel Smith and the London Wasps (the team initially chose Richard Birkett specifically, but this was changed to the club itself after Birkett had to deal with a "family emergency").

Week 8

• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Paul, Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: Raj (Project Manager), Saira and James.
• Task: Purchase produce and create food to sell at a country market.
• Result: First Forte focused on jellies, jams and chutneys. James was concerned about how much they could make with the cook charging them £50 per hour. The team managed to convince the cook to work for nothing in exchange for promoting her store. Impact focused on soups but spent a lot of money buying the ingredients. Both teams were chastised by the market manager for arriving late. First Forte managed to sell all their stock, while Impact had a lot of soup left over. First Forte made £364.35, Impact made £149.69.
• Winner: First Forte.
• Reward: A trip to Monaco, using the task profits as gambling money in the casino.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ben, Miriam and Paul.
• Who gets fired: Ben, for not taking stronger control of his team, not keeping costs under control and taking a backseat in the task.
• Notes:
  • Paul was cautioned by Sir Alan for losing his temper after Ben and Miriam both claimed he was ineffective on the task and should be fired despite his large contributions to the sales and negotiations for ingredients.
  • Miriam also tried to place blame on him for the excessive amount of money spent on certain ingredients that she had authorised.

Week 9

• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), James and Raj.
• Task: Conduct a marketing campaign for a texhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Apprentice_(UK_series_one)&action=editt messaging service of football team news sent to fans' mobile phones.
• Result: The task was set to take place during a Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United football match at White Hart Lane. Originally, Impact planned to place an advert on the Jumbotron, and First Forte planned to place a slogan on banners and online. However, Saira's rudeness and aggressive behaviour towards Tottenham's marketing manager resulted in the club refusing to give any sort of assistance to either team. In the end, First Forte placed posters around the stadium, and hired professional promotional staff to market their service. Impact also hired promotional staff for their campaign, with the incentive of a percentage (commission) for number of text messages sold. Impact captured 704 subscriptions whilst First Forte got 468.
• Winner: Impact.
• Reward: A meal cooked at the candidates' house by chef Gary Rhodes.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, James and Raj.
• Who is fired: Raj, for failing to step up and make a better effort in the task, despite a previous warning. Also he talked himself out by admitting to Sir Alan that he was not his salesman for Sir Alan's organisation.
• Notes:
  • The task was filmed on September 25, 2004, with the result of the game being a 1-0 win to Manchester United.
  • Sir Alan admitted that he came very close to firing Saira for her being rude to the Tottenham marketing manager and then refusing to acknowledge or apologize for her mistake in the boardroom, but chose to fire Raj instead because he had not heeded Sir Alan's warnings, and was a less impressive candidate overall than Saira.

Week 10

• Impact: Miriam (Project Manager), Paul and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager) and Saira.
• Task: Choose and sell items live on Ideal World shopping TV.
• Result: Miriam and James were chosen as presenters. Tim and Paul of Impact pretended to have picked the same items as Saira of First Forte, so that she got fewer of the products she wanted. Saira ended up with a unisex jacket and a mattress among the items. On the day of the live presentation, Miriam received advice and direction from both Tim and Paul who kept interrupting Tim. Ideal World told Sir Alan after the task that they thought Miriam was a natural and that there was a job for her there. James managed to sell out of mattresses, and also sold a considerable number of unisex jackets. Impact made £2,017 sales revenue and First Forte made £5,407.
• Winner: First Forte.
• Reward: Rest and recreation at a castle in Scotland.
• Brought into the boardroom: Miriam, Paul and Tim.
• Who gets fired: Miriam, for not managing her staff properly.
• Note:
  • Sir Alan Sugar later admitted in the post-series You're Hired special that Miriam didn't deserve to be fired at this point, and heavily implied that he felt he should have fired Paul in retrospect. However, Sir Alan added that unless Miriam put in an exceptionally good performance in the interviews, Tim and Saira would still have been the final two.

Week 11: Interviews

• Task: The remaining four applicants undergo gruelling interviews, after which two applicants will be fired.
• Interviewers: Nick Hewer, Paul Kemsley, Claude Littner, Margaret Mountford and Bordan Tkachuk.
• Who gets fired:
  • James, because Sir Alan and the interviewers were not convinced of his dedication to work for Sir Alan (although he had the best CV of the four);
  • Paul for having unclear reasons to work for Sir Alan considering he had thriving businesses of his own, as well as for being too aggressive and temperamental.
• Notes:
  • In reality, Paul Torrisi was fired before James Max. However, the editing of the programme showed Paul getting fired after James. The continuity error of this editing was evident. When James was fired and exited the boardroom, Paul's luggage was not visible anywhere in reception. When Paul was fired and exited the boardroom, James' luggage was still in reception. It is also possible to see James still in the boardroom when Paul says goodbye to Tim and an empty seat where Paul sat when James said goodbye.

Week 12: The Grand Finale

• Saira's team: Saira (Project Manager), Paul, James and Raj.
• Tim's team: Tim (Project Manager), Ben, Miriam and Sebastian.
• Task: Each team is given a riverboat and £5,000 budget to hold an event. Attendees must buy tickets to the events.
• Result: Tim's team chose to put on a fashion show while Saira's team held a wine tasting event that showcased a new brand of Californian wine. Saira's team more than recouped their budget, collecting £5,800, with a final profit of about £1,600. Despite making only about £2,800 and therefore only managing to break even (despite making less than half the money that Saira's team did, Tim's team kept their costs much lower), Tim explained his long-term strategic vision.
• Runner-up: Saira; despite raising more money than Tim's team, Sir Alan was still concerned about her overly abrasive nature, along with her struggle to control and get on with her staff during this task (something which had also happened during both of her previous spells as project manager).
• Hired: Tim, for his consistency across the whole series, and for being the candidate who Sir Alan considered to be the most like his own younger self.
• Note:
  • Saira and Paul got into another heated argument during the task, with James trying to stop the argument. But in the end, James and Raj decided to leave the room until the argument finished. During the argument, Saira threatened to fire Paul, and Paul refused to accept that she was allowed to do so. Since Saira never carried through on her threat, it is unknown whether she actually would have been able to fire Paul.
  • Although Saira and Tim were asked to choose only three candidates, nearly all of the previous candidates (minus only Adele) returned to help - the ones who weren't chosen simply left after appearing in the boardroom. This is the only time this has happened, as in future series, the candidates have been asked to choose from a smaller pool of candidates, all of which were chosen to be on a team.
  • In the You're Hired special which followed the episode, Sir Alan told Saira that despite her losing out to Tim, if she ever needed a job he would be willing to offer her one.

Elimination history

Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Tim	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	HIRED
Saira	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	FIRED
Paul	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	LOSE	IN	BR	WIN	BR	FIRED
James	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	WIN	FIRED
Miriam	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Raj	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	FIRED
Ben	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Sebastian	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Rachel	IN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Matthew	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Adele	IN	BR	LOSE	LEFT
Miranda	BR	IN	FIRED
Lindsay	IN	FIRED
Adenike	FIRED

     The contestant was hired and won the apprentice.

     The contestant was the runner up.

     The contestant won as project manager on his/her team.

     The contestant lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The contestant was on the winning team or managed to avoid firing (Week 11).

     The contestant was on the losing team.

     The contestant was brought to the final boardroom.

     The contestant was fired.

     The contestant lost as project manager and was fired.

     The contestant left the competition.

Ratings

Episode Viewing figures from BARB.

Episode No.	Airdate	Total Viewers	BBC Two Weekly Ranking
1	16 February 2005	2,020,000	15
2	23 February 2005	Under 2,130,000	Outside Top 30
3	2 March 2005	2,170,000	24
4	9 March 2005	2,350,000	26
5	16 March 2005	2,180,000	26
6	23 March 2005	2,800,000	13
7	30 March 2005	2,820,000	8
8	6 April 2005	2,740,000	13
9	13 April 2005	2,590,000	11
10	20 April 2005	2,400,000	11
11	27 April 2005	2,720,000	6
12	4 May 2005	3,770,000	2

External links

• The Apprentice at BBC Online
• The Apprentice Series 1 on SeeSaw
• Amstrad
• Saira Khan
• James Max
• Paul Torrisi
• Rachel Groves