Jump to content

The Apprentice (British TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 86.133.48.203 (talk) at 01:58, 21 April 2007 (→‎Filming locations: oh for goodness' sake, I'll type this right in a minute). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the series which is currently airing, see The Apprentice (UK series 3).
The Apprentice
GenreReality television series
Created byMark Burnett
Theme music composerDru Masters
Prokofiev
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes24
Production
ProducerstalkbackTHAMES
Mark Burnett Productions
Running time60 minute episodes
Original release
NetworkBBC Two (Series 1&2) / BBC One (Series 3)
Release2005 –
Present
Related
The Apprentice (US version)

The Apprentice is a British reality television series in which a group of aspiring young businessmen and women compete for a £100,000-a-year job as so-called "apprentice" to British business magnate Sir Alan Sugar. It is modelled on the US show of the same name.

The first series aired in 2005 and ran for twelve episodes, and a second series commenced in February 2006. A third series started airing on BBC One on 28 March 2007.[1] Open auditions and interviews are held across the country before the show begins.[2]

Format

The successful candidates, chosen from thousands of hopeful applicants, are split into two teams, initially men vs women. The teams are then given a series of business tasks designed to test their skills in selling, negotiation, requisitioning, leadership, teamwork and organisation. Each task lasts one episode.

At the start of the episode each team chooses a project manager to act for the duration of the task. The teams are followed in the execution of their tasks by Sir Alan Sugar's advisers Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford. After completion of their assignments the teams report back to the "boardroom" where Sugar, with the help of his advisers, reveals the results and dissects their performance, exposing flaws in the candidates' strategies and personalities.

The team that loses the task (usually the one that makes the least profit) is then subjected to a detailed dressing down by Sugar. The losing team's project manager is required to choose two team members to accompany him or her into a further round of interrogation by Sugar. Finally Sugar tells one of the three "You're fired", and that candidate is eliminated from the competition. In exceptional circumstances two candidates may be fired in a single episode.

As candidate numbers are whittled down, the team compositions are shuffled from time to time in order to even up the numbers or just shake things up. When only four candidates remain they undergo individual interviews, resulting in the selection of two finalists. These two proceed to the Grand Finale, after which one is told "You're hired" and wins the high-paid executive job working with Sugar.

For the duration of the competition the candidates live together in a large rented house. Although the audience is given the impression that the candidates stay for 12 weeks in the house, in fact the series is shot over just seven weeks.

The Board

Template:Apprenticecandidates Along with "the boss", Sir Alan Sugar, two advisors follow the contestants during their weekly activities: Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford.

Nick Hewer

Nick Hewer is a former public relations officer. He first came across Sir Alan when his company was chosen to represent Amstrad in 1983. Nick’s role was as a PR manager, working with the media and press. He also became an integral part of Amstrad’s company management.[3] He lives in France with his partner and, contrary to popular belief, is not married to Margaret Mountford.[4]

Margaret Mountford

Main article: Margaret Mountford

Margaret Mountford has worked with Sugar as one of his main advisors for 20 years. She is a non-executive director of Amstrad plc and one of the jury in every episode of the United Kingdom version of the television show The Apprentice. She was appointed to the Board on 22 September 1999. She has many years’ corporate law experience as a partner in the law firm, Herbert Smith, from which she retired in March 1999, and where she met Sugar when working on Amstrad's flotation. She is also a non-executive Director at Georgica Plc.[5] She is divorced.[4]

Filming locations

The tasks are mostly filmed in and around the London area, where the team's house is also located.

Although every show features clips of aerial footage over the skyscrapers of the Square Mile and Canary Wharf financial districts, Amstrad does not have offices in either - in fact the company's real location in Brentwood (on the eastern outskirts of London) is only mentioned a few times in passing in Series 1.[6]

The "boardroom" (and the reception area outside) is in fact a custom-built set in a television studio, and the boardroom receptionist ("Jenny",[7] or in series 3, "Frances") is not Sir Alan's real secretary. She is an actress.[8]

All of the candidates film their post-firing "walk of shame" at the beginning of the series, at the same time as the scene where they are all seen walking into the Amstrad building at the beginning of the first episode. This explains why when their exit sequence is shown after having been fired, their clothes are sometimes different to those worn in the boardroom scene. In more noticeable cases, hair styles have also been different.[9] Only when the fired candidate is filmed on their "walk of shame" back to the waiting taxi is the real Amstrad HQ building in Brentwood used. The taxi ride after being fired only takes the candidate round the block to allow the chance of filming their taxi interview. They are then taken to a local hotel to stay the night and finally leave after packing their belongings from the house.

Seasons

Template:Spoiler

Series One

Main article: The Apprentice (UK series 1)

The first series of the UK's version of The Apprentice began on 16 February 2005. It lasted for twelve episodes and was produced by the BBC and shown on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on Wednesday nights at 9:00pm.

Series Two

Main article: The Apprentice (UK series 2)

The second series of The Apprentice began airing on 22 February 2006, on BBC Two. Sir Alan Sugar continued to serve as the boss where he assigned the teams specifically designed tasks. Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford also returned as Sugar's advisers and observed the teams in action. The second series saw Sir Alan being driven in a new Rolls Royce Phantom. In order to keep the final winner a secret, Sir Alan does not make the decision on the winning candidate until the days before the final episode is screened. It has been reported that both Ruth Badger and Michelle Dewberry (the Series 2 finalists) were working for Sir Alan during the six months between the wrapping of filming and the screening of the final. Michelle Dewberry, the winner of Series Two,[10] has quit working for Alan Sugar to run her own company (which she was doing before winning The Apprentice). Shortly before her resignation, she miscarried a pregnancy. The father was a fellow contestant, Syed Ahmed.[11] The couple unsuccessfully tried to rekindle their romance after the series finished.[12]

Series Three

Main article: The Apprentice (UK series 3)

The third series of The Apprentice began on 28 March 2007 at 9:00pm on BBC One with 16 candidates. The first task was to sell coffee on the streets of Islington, London.[1]

Although many of the tasks are unknown at the moment, it has been reported that filming for the series has been seen taking place outside the Lloyds of London building in Lime Street and at London Zoo where contestants were seen "dressed as gorillas and trying to sell sweets to children but inadvertently terrifying them instead."[13] Series 3 of The Apprentice has 16 candidates instead of 14 which there were in Series 1 and 2. However two people, Ifti and Rory, were fired in the second episode.

In early 2007, the show was mocked in the television programme Kombat Opera Presents The Applicants.[14]

Comic Relief Does The Apprentice

Main article: Comic Relief Does The Apprentice

As part of Comic Relief, the BBC aired a special celebrity version of The Apprentice. The show was broadcast on Thursday 15 March 2007 at 9pm on BBC One and concluded the following Friday as part of the main Comic Relief programme. The contestants were made up of two teams, one with five male celebrities and the other with five female celebrities. The celebrities who took part in the show were:[15]

However, Everett walked off the show during filming on the first day, as he did not like the "Big Brother" style experience.[16] He was replaced by the first UK Apprentice winner, Tim Campbell.

Alistair Campbell was named team leader for the boys and Karen Brady for the girls. The girls won the task, which was to make the best fairground.

On 16 March 2007, the boardroom scenes were shown as part of the Comic Relief Red Nose Day telethon, which saw Piers Morgan fired by Alan Sugar. Template:Spoilerend

Reception

Criticism

Chatshow host Michael Parkinson hit out at the programme during his BBC Radio 2 show. He said "I have an aversion to that programme. I find it very distasteful. It's full of vulgar, loud people who, for all the wrong reasons, are dobbing each other in. When he (Sir Alan Sugar) tells someone 'You're fired' what's funny about that? You're fired. There's nothing funny about that."[17].[18]

Times Online reporter Michael Herman often pans the candidates of the show on his internet blog, sometimes branding them "wannabes".[19]

The Sun newspaper and mental health charity MIND have also criticised the programme for enrolling a candidate who was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2003. The candidate in question was Jadine Johnson from the third series. Although, a spokesperson from the BBC said “As a part of the selection process all candidates are seen by an independent qualified psychologist to assess their suitability for participating in the programme.”[20]

The Daily Star held a story on Friday 13 April 2007, two days after series 3 contestant Gerri Blackwood's final episode was aired, that the female members of the show were forced to shower together. The article also claimed that Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford fed the candidates misleading information so they would fail the tasks and that Sir Alan Sugar's infamous rants were re-filmed to make them look better[21]

Viewing Figures

The Apprentice has received high rating figures in its run.[22]

Season Average viewers
(in millions) 		Peak viewers
(in millions) 		Audience percentage
1st 2.5 3.8 11%
2nd 4.4 6 27%

Awards

In May 2006 The Apprentice won the BAFTA for "Best Feature", beating Top Gear, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Dragons' Den.[23] It is also nominated for a BAFTA in 2007. Again up for "Best Feature", it faces competition from Dragons' Den, The Choir and The F-Word.[24] Other awards that the programme has won are[25]-

  • 2007 Royal Television Society (RTS) Award – Features & Factual Entertainment
  • 2007 Broadcast Award – Best Entertainment Programme
  • 2006 Bafta – Features
  • 2006 Bafta – Pioneer Award (voted for by the public)
  • 2006 National Television Award – Most Popular Reality Programme
  • 2006 Rose D'or – Reality Show
  • 2006 Televisual Bulldog Awards – Best Factual Reality Show
  • 2006 TV Quick/TV Choice Awards – Best Reality
  • 2006 The Guild of TV Cameraman Awards – Camera Team Excellence in Photography
  • 2006 Banff – Unscripted Entertainment Programme
  • 2006 Wincott Business Awards – Best TV Show of the Year
  • 2005 National Television Award – Most Popular Reality Show
  • 2005 RTS Craft & Design Award – Tape & Film Editing
  • 2005 RTS Craft & Design Award – Tape & Film Editing, Entertainment & Situation Comedy
  • 2005 Grierson Awards – Most Entertaining Documentary

Spoofs

The show has been made imitated in the ITV1 programme Harry Hill's TV Burp[26][27]

Music

The Apprentice has used the following pieces of music amongst many others:

References

  1. ^ a b BBC Press Release
  2. ^ THE DAY I TRIED TO BECOME THE APPRENTICE
  3. ^ The Board-Nick Hewer
  4. ^ a b Spying for Sir Alan
  5. ^ Amstrad Board of Directors Margaret Mountford – Non Executive Director
  6. ^ The Apprentice. Series 1, Episode 1
  7. ^ THE APPRENTICE
  8. ^ The Apprentice (2005) Trivia
  9. ^ In series 2, episode 7 Samuel was shown wearing long hair in his exit sequence, the same style as in episode 1. However, between episodes 1 and 7 Samuel had actually shaved off his hair.
  10. ^ Ex-cashier wins TV's Apprentice
  11. ^ Apprentice winner is pregnant by rival
  12. ^ Apprentice star rekindles romance and denies parting with Sugar
  13. ^ 30th October 2006 Media Guardian
  14. ^ How does sir like his TV? Overcooked?
  15. ^ Cheryl Is A Sugar Babe
  16. ^ EVERETT QUIT REALITY SHOW AFTER ONE DAY
  17. ^ PARKY'S SUGAR BLAST
  18. ^ Michael Parkinson slams The Apprentice
  19. ^ The Apprentice: who should stay? Who should go?
  20. ^ Fear for 'fragile' Apprentice
  21. ^ Sugar Show's sex shock
  22. ^ The Apprentice hired by BBC ONE
  23. ^ .BAFTA Nominees and Winners in the 2000s
  24. ^ THIS YEAR'S NOMINATIONS
  25. ^ Boardroom blitz! Sir Alan raises the bar as The Apprentice moves to BBC One
  26. ^ Harry Hill's TV Burp The Apprentice
  27. ^ Harry Hill - YOU'RE FIRED
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Apprentice (UK TV series).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Apprentice_(British_TV_series)&oldid=124513921"