Episode 8 The Apprentice: You're Fired

This programme contains some strong language. Where is your brains?

That's nonsense. The failure's down to you. You're fired. You're fired.

APPLAUSE Good evening. Or perhaps I should

say bonsoir to The Apprentice: You're Fired. We'll interpret the

finer point of selling in France and making a case for compulsory

French for business people. We're always on the lookout for that

piece of new footage that you won't have seen. Why bodger this week,

let's enjoy the greatest question ever asked. Are the French very

fond of their children? Yes. Yes they are. You're an idiot.

There are our panel, investment guru Alvin Hall, Myleene Klass and

comedian Micky Flanagan, welcome to You're Fired.

APPLAUSE Tonight, trip to France led to one

man being sent packing. From a gut instinct, I think I've made my mind

up. Leon, you're fired. Thank you for an amazing

opportunity Lord Sugar. Please welcome Leon Doyle.

CHEERING A plesh tour meet you. Before we

get to this week's task. Let's see the moment where you invented that

slightly creepy technique and brought it to the world. Do that

for me. Give them one liners, we're taking them to the tanning area.

Get you naked and let them smell, hook, line and stinker. Now, it is

the weirdest thing I've ever seen in a shop. I wouldn't be happy for

someone to do myself. Does it work socially, we know you have a

girlfriend. How do you think I got my girlfriend. Delighted to hear.

Happier times. What is your reaction to this week's programme?

I was in the boardroom for the third time. It was Tom's first time.

He made the right choice. Let's see where it unraveled to you.

haven't contributed to the task today. I just can't speak French.

Do you speak English? OK. majority of the people you saw

spoke English. Yes, that's something I missed straight away.

Missed that. I did. I can't be productive if I can't speak the

language. I feel like I'm helpless. You're making it easy for me,

because there's the door. That's where you could be very quickly.

You better speak up now. Drew a picture of a teapot with a light.

LAUGHTER All right. Let's go through some of

these. Firstly, you don't speak French, that's fine. They weren't

speaking French. Did you not notice that? I did. Was it the accent that

threw you? They were speaking English the whole way through.

you going, wow my French is better than I thought? Seems like they're

speaking English or something. missed a couple of shots there. I

sold within the pitches that we got from Melody. It was a good do.

grand, fair enough. Straight to the panel. Alvin, what did you think?

think he went into a state of suspended animation. It was almost,

can you hear English spoken with a foreign ak sent you go, ah, ah. You

become clueless. And did you... Yeah, I lost it didn't I? I handed

it over to Melody. There were only two of nus France. She was making

all the calls. I didn't really do that much. Due forget this was a

competition? Yeah, I did. I thought we were just having a treat in

Paris. Myleene, you have a Baby K range,

this range of baby clothes and accessories and stuff like that.

You have to sell internationally, presumably, this is not an excuse

presumably? I understand you have to walk in and pitch. It's a

foreign language and it can be intimidating. I think that you all

let Melody take over and it became her game. It was almost like

admiration. Whatever she said went. No-one questioned it. She was

speaking another language, but you can't just go up and ask people,

four people at this and decide that is enough market research to

qualify for an entire product. enough. What did you think? I felt

for him a bit being an Englishman in Paris. I don't understand why

you didn't take the approach of British people just shouted a lot

louder, right in their face "Teapot! Cup of tea!" They'd have

got it. To be fair, you did draw a hell of a teapot.

It's really good. Maybe a bit of I feel it's rude, would you draw my

portrait, would it be too much to ask would you draw a picture of me.

Caricature. A brilliant artist like yourself could capture me, like the

teapot. We think you sold yourself short. Some people will have

spotted this excellent painting of a child booster seat. You collect

art, that seat picture, what does it say to you? It says primtive,

raw talent. A little off the mark that day, but you know, if he were

my three-year-old I'd put it on the fridge. That was worth putting with

a magnet on the fridge? If he were three. You almost done? This is

exquisite. This is lovely. You might have saved yourself. We'll

have you speaking French by the end of the show. Eye balls? That would

be good. LAUGHTER

Sign it for God's sake. Are you putting it on eBay. Is that not

just me ladies and gentleman? You've even captured the sadness.

LAUGHTER You weren't the only one who

struggled with the langth. Hello, hello. Parlez-vous inglais? Small,

petit item. Erm... Erm... Bonjour... Erm, I've for gotten. Hello? Leon?

That's my own voice. Bonn holiday. Chou monsieur. It's

not a great add for English French relations. We have various French,

we call them ambassadors, not literally. Bonsoir. (they speak

French) Did you enjoy watching them struggle with the language, that

was embarrassing? It depends for who it was embarrassing. For us,

well, we always struggle with foreign language. Because we are

proud to be so crap at it, we always manage to do it. Now we're

speaking English. Did you see that. You could step in. It's remarkable

like this. One thing I want to check with you, is La Redoute, not

a brand which is very famous over here, what kind of operation are

they? It's one of the biggest retailer in France, if not the

biggest online and they have catalogues as well. So this is like

a huge deal? They would dwarf Argos by a mile. They would probably want

more than... Ten! If you had 560 eventually they might be pleased

with the order. You trade with huge retailers. The first thing you have

to do is you have to know your market. I can give you a perfect

example. I made T-shirts with puppies on them, thinking how cute,

these will be perfect. Just as we were researching, we found out that

it's a no-go area in Dubai and a lot of UAE. They don't have that

same sort of love of dogs as we do. So I had to change all of the

pictures to bears. They loved it! What about North Korea? You could

have taken them there. Hmmm... Thinking outside the box.

You have to change everything, you know I can't use purple in certain

countries. Why? It signifies death. They would love this.

Don't take it too seriously, this is like "Welcome to the show", are

you thinking about death, I bet you are now! Without even knowing it,

could walk in and offend everybody. Do you remember the bit where the

call came through saying "Check out La Redoute?" I don't remember it.

If he said that to me, I used to work for La Redoute, so... AUDIENCE

GASPS We have tape of it being said.

me. I think there was a filter. There was a filter between you and

the information which was... Have you met Melody? What did you do for

La Redoute? I was at a call centre placing orders for them. The market

I think I was handling orders for old knitted hats for the over 70s

and things. Because it never came through as La Redoute for the

boardroom, I put two and two together. They're massive,

absolutely huge. Are they like Argos. Do you have to

sit around like you're own a Jeremy Kyle episode waiting for your

number to come up. It will be up in a minute babe, don't worry. Are

they more upmarket for that. I feel sorry for the guy who mentioned

them in the same breath as Argos "Oh, locking yeah, no, not like

Argos, no, like Waitrose!" LAUGHTER

Excuse my French! That's quite all right. They were talking about

France as if it was a million miles away, rather than two hours on the

train. I was shocked by that. happens in this topsy turvy world.

It's like they never open a newspaper or see BBC World News.

What happened? Is there no curiosity beyond your own business?

No, that's bad isn't it? Yes it is. Tom has given us great movements.

But this is a doozy. This seemed like a good idea at the time.

you take the appointment seriously, because I heard you say that you

flipped a coin to decide who kaz going to give this pitch. On this

pitch... Did you flip a coin? did an equivalent. What did do you?

We played paper scissors stone. two, three... Paper scissors stone?

What is this, are we in the school One, two, three... You win. It's a

sweet moment though, is there an element of... You're not agreeing

They should introduce it into politics. Get the Miliband brothers

playing. It's a coalition Government, your plan for the NHS,

my plan. One, two, three... I'm on Mock the Week.

LAUGHTER Somebody talk over me. OK, could

you believe your eyes when this happened? No. He had no strategy

for me. It just said oh, it's not important. I don't know what it do.

We'll drift with this. He had given up. That was the thing about him.

He had just given up. I don't understand why, because he said,

they seemed like they were defeated. I felt because you guys couldn't

felt the language you admitted defeat on every level. If you walk

into any meeting and you're apologising, you can't speak the

language, apologising for the products. The one thing he's done

throughout, he's been right about stuff. Here, before the event, he

was right about the stuff. He picked the right product. Did he

not even say... It's just that he hasn't got the gumption to sell it.

He said I've got a background in baby products. Blink and you'll

miss it. He was the leader. If that's what his gut was saying,

even without the research, the rest of the products to me are luxury

items, however most people have kids. Most people have a car and

it's by law you need one of those car seats. You don't need the

research to say take this item. When you don't have children you

get excited about music and theatreer and TV. But then, sadly

when you have kids and you see a car seat and it's like "Look at

that! That's amazing." Until you have them, you don't get excited

about it. You go it might work, it might not. Mind you there was one

person who had very strong views on this... Melody. She came into her

own this week, which she should because I'm not sure if she

mentioned it, but she runs a global company. Out of the team that I'm

on at the moment, I have the most experience in terms of I run a

global business. I run a global business. I run a global business.

I run a global business. Woman of the future award. Yes. He read out

each award I've won. Outstanding Asian woman award. I made very good

appointments. I used to speech six languages. I taught myself Italian

as well. I see you've done a lot of high profile things. Volunteer of

the year award. He said that's commendable. That's very nice to

have all these awards. I don't want to set up another government.

Melody's worked all over the world, but in no country that has taught

her sarcasm and she should spot it being used by Lord Sugar. She's

amazing because she genuinely just hears what she wants to hear and

acts on it. I don't know that many people, that's a talent in its own

right. It's quite blinkered. Is it a talent or psychosis? I would not

want her to be a juror or somebody testifying at my trial. She would

be fine and then moving to the next case in. No evidence, I don't have

time for evidence. Look at him, look at him. My favourite thing she

does is absolutely, absolutely, when they're criticising her.

Melody it's a team sport. Absolutely. I'm criticising you.

Absolutely. Isn't there a trend on the show of people only hearing

what they want. Vincent did it with every dog. Natasha did it with

covered magazine. Helen said "Don't we need to upscale it?" They're

almost playing the whole task as a game and they're trying to do what

they want to do because they believe in their strong points of

view. Strong points of view are often market incorrect as this

proved. You may have looked uncomfortable this week and you did,

but it was nothing to how uncomfortable you were during the

beauty task four weeks ago. didn't really want to do it.

the hell are you here then? Because I'm selling tomorrow. I've got a

girlfriend. It won't make you gay. It's not like you both... This will

take five minutes. Just spray him. It was bearable. I spray tanned a

man. I had to take one for the team.

Did you think you were going to catch gay?

LAUGHTER What damage did you think, and your

good lady by the way, she's actually here, how are you? Where

are you? How are you? Very, very good. Did you feel in any way

threatened by his spraying the guy with the tan? Leon is very manly.

Yes. Good. I'm not doubting it. Even the way he did the spraying,

he looked like it should be Creosote and a fence, proper

industrial action using. That model is going all right. That's grand.

OK, but no, you've no ambition to go into spraying men at any stage?

No, there's a great mark up to be had. But I'm not going down that

line just yet... Or ever. Let's hear from Lord Sugar and from your

former colleagues. Leon, had his own business, apparently supposed

to be successful. All I saw of him was can't speak French, not my

expertise, I don't know how to do that. Well, what do you know how to

do? He is talented, however does he do all this he can? Does he push

himself enough? Not from what I've seen. I was frustrated that he

wasn't able to push Melody to do the important things that I asked

him team to do. Let other people do the work, came up with lots of

excuses. I'm not interested in having someone like that as a

business partner, so that's why Leon had to go.

What is your reaction to that? That's his gut feeling. And it's

him giving out the cash. Your business is an online business.

Does that mean that you're perhaps not experienced selling face to

face with people? No, to get them online you have to visit them face

to face. That's what I do every day of my life. I pitch to non-English-

speaking, would you believe... LAUGHTER

I'll not do this, if I use the skills I've built up over the years,

really, and then... You know, it's fast food I'm dealing with all...

Different communities. Yeah. But I don't know, I just missed it. I

missed Paris. It's online but it is face to face. What do you do?

sell takeaways online for fast food. You don't do the food. You network.

You're the one stop shop? Yeah. 2007 you started Baby K. That's

right. And so what kind of advice do you give people starting up a

business? Just have a genuine interest in what you're doing and

know about it inside out. It wasn't just a case of I saw an opportunity

and let's just make money. I do feel I could provoid a service. I

was walking around and if you didn't know the sex of your baby it

was yellow or blatantly pink or blue. There was an opportunity to

create chic clothes. I have a grandfather in textiles. To make

them practical and kind on the pocket. When you learn about how it

genuinely works, it can become a global business. Sometimes it seems

surprisingly eelsy to have a global business. (easy) You have have a

clear idea. You put passion into the business? Hugely so. People

think do I design the clothes, by the end of it there's not one piece

of fabric I couldn't tell you about. I choose the fabric, the style,

even as far as sourcing the equipment, the microchips for the

play mats. Do you do the soldering as well? I solder them down, put in

the batteries. She smells a bit smokey. Alvin, any particular

advice in terms of new business and what people should look for? Lord

Sugar has done you a favour. You aren't suited to this business. You

are too charming, you smile too easily. Those are two frailzs you

would ever associate with Lord Sugar. Stick to what you're good at

and clearly you have a core business of going around talking to

people on a one-to-one basis and selling an idea to them. On that

global scale, I'm not sure you're quite that kind of man yet. Let's

have a look at the winning team and another, we seem to do this every

week, another sterling performance by Helen. We know your cat ling and

website. I've ordered from your catalogue before. I was really

excited to pitch to you today. selling price is for the French

market I think is a little bit too high. With the modern woman we're

all so busy. We'll pay anything for convenience. You can say, we care

about you as our customers. We care about your children's safety. We

know how billsy you are. This is a great, convenient product for you

(busy) Thanks to the fantastic bitch Helen did, they've placed an

order of 214,000 euros. Wow. That's a big one.

You'd have Helen in your sales team? Very much so. She got the

facts across of what the product can do. She put the heart in. She

would go to. Immediately she had her audience. I think that she

really understood, she's very professional. I think that there's

all this drama going on around her. Yet she has a clear idea of what to

do. Helen reads people very, very well. She can read a subtle shift

in that room. She's always looking at the people, looking in their

eyes. She doesn't go into a defensive position. She leans

forward. How she sells, she's on the mark for reading people's

emotions and the subtle shifts she has to hit. She's a clear example

there is a way back from crack addition and prostitution.

LAUGHTER No matter how low you sink... There

are shows like this that can help people. She's a clear example of

what can be achieved. We perform an important social service. I will

tell you what state Helen was in when we found her. I can imagine.

Incredible. I'm Welling up now. Susan is a funny one because she

treds a fine line between brilliance and being entirely

bananas. Here are examples of the latter. You asked very odd

questions I thought. Are the French ecofriendly? Dot French go camping?

Do a lot of people drive in France. I don't think you need to go to

France to know the answers to those questions. Are the French very fond

of their children. It really is beyond stupid. We have, I know, I

need a quick test because I know you're from a very foreign country

where you do things very differently, with thumbs up or down,

I will show you images. Have you I will show you images. Have you

ever used one of these? OK, great. Are you broadly in favour of these?

All the women went... And the three blokes went... Most importantly,

would you buy one of these? Thank you very much. Well done.

APPLAUSE While Susan can be an idiot

sometimes, now and again you can see her shine. You can hook it on

the vents of your car, when you're driving. You can change the song.

No-one else stocks this at the moment. You want to did a contract?

How many pieces are you after? About 1,000. Can I tempt you with

any more than that? Because we have another price bracket to go down.

OK. We'll do that, so 1500 pieces. What do you make of her? She's so

young. It's almost as if she's 15 instead of 21. I think we have to

forgive her for those stupid questions. You can only call them

colossally stupid. She's getting stronger. Yes, she is. That's how

she's evolving from the show. She will be the person who takes the

most from this experience. She started out very nay yeef and she's

learning to watch herself, watch what she says, think a bit before

she opens her mouth. She will come away from this experience with a

lot. Here's an interesting thing that you will get immediately. The

problem of being taken seriously in these situations...

LAUGHTER You know what I mean! Oh, stop.

You know what I mean, right, because you came from a performance

background. I was in Hear Say. Let's get it out. Sometimes it can

work to your benefit, because people don't expect that much from

you. I hope she's kept that thing, I'm thinking like a lovely stand

for a P45. To the vote, alvin was Lord Sugar

right it fire Lee yon? Yes, absolutely. On this occasion, yes.

I think you know that. I don't think so. I think Tom should have

gone. Fine let's put it to the audience. As ever, if you agree

with Lord Sugar, hold up the red for fired. If you disagree hold up

green for hired. Let's see the cards. There's some green. A tiny

pockets of green. It's a broad sea of red. I'm afraid it is fired. I

apologise for that. We like to give our candidates a bit of a gift to

take away. We didn't struggle over this. It was a mistake we don't

want to you make ever again. It's remarkably similar...

APPLAUSE Just listen to this tape.

Stick this on and then on a long drive by the time you get to the

south of France, you'll have it. Let's lock at your highlights.

I like to think I'm a bit of a cool and calm guy. You know what, should

I just become the apprentice. Let's go. Perfect.

I look it looks a bit lick a chicken. I'm -- like a chicken.

There's something different about him. I like to have fun. How do you

blow your load? I like to make money. Easy mate.

# Daddy, daddy cool # Ladies and gentleman, Leon Doyle!

APPLAUSE That's it for tonight. Thanks to

all my guests, Leon will be on BBC breakfast tomorrow morning. If you

want to be a candidate in the next series, find details of how to

apply on the website on bbc.co.uk/apprentice. Lord Sugar

will be looking for a business partner with a �250,000 investment

as the prize. If you have what it takes apply now. Your application

has to be in by Sunday July 3. Next week the teams have to create a new

biscuit. Good evening Lord Sugar. The biscuit market is very crowded.

Yours are going to need to be something different. It's too

sticky. Shit. You're going to pitch it to three supermarkets. I am not

having that at all. One of the bitchiest people I've ever met.