Episode 9 The Apprentice: You're Fired

This is my boardroom, this is my money. The product sucks.

You screwed it up. Who's the waste of space?

You're fired.

You're fired.

You're fired.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Good evening and welcome to The Apprentice - You're Fired.

It's hard to believe we're now three-quarters of the way through

Lord Sugar's gruelling search for his business partner.

This week, we saw a glimpse of what it was like in the playground

back in school for Adam, when he got to pick the best player

for his football team.

THEY CONFER

Nick.

Nick, you're very popular.

Welcome. Welcome back, mate.

As ever, we've a sparkling mix of panellists -

marketing entrepreneur Lucy Jackson, comedian Andy Parsons

and from Radio One, DJ Sara Cox. Welcome to You're Fired.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Tonight's task of promoting English sparkling wine,

left one candidate feeling rather flat.

Jenna, you take sole responsibility for the disastrous

video that we have on this occasion here.

It's not just the disastrous video that worries me.

It is, with regret,

that I'm going to have to say, despite all the hard work,

Jenna, I'm sending you home.

-You're fired.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

Please welcome Jenna Whittingham.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Jenna, it seemed difficult to know which drink

with which to commemorate this particular moment.

Have you tried champagne? It's a fantastic thing.

Disappointed to be turfed out like this?

Yeah, disappointed, really disappointed.

I actually, because I had a couple of good weeks being project manager

and then winning the task

and then doing my Essex tan, you know, they all loved it in Essex.

I thought I was on a good run. I did think it was quite good.

I was going with the bridezilla - she was disgusted at her wedding day,

but obviously, didn't really go down very well.

Did you not think that an ad that basically said,

"English sparkling wine - because your wife's a bitch!"

..might be the wrong attitude to have?

Well, I thought we'd go with a bit of humour because, as you saw,

it was a bit boring, so when we watched it in the boardroom,

I was like, "No, actually I think he might like the humour one",

but obviously he didn't.

OK, let's have a look at where it went wrong.

You're going to be like, "What is this?"

and you're going to be like Basil Fawlty -

Fawlty Towers. "No! Oh, no!"

And then you're like, "No!"

The groom shouts, "No!"

"No!", like a crazy bridezilla.

Spielberg can rest easy, that's for sure(!)

I just don't want it to be too cheesy.

No, it won't be.

SHE SPLUTTERS

Great! This video is going to be you either love it or hate it.

Horrible!

It was a risky choice to go with it, but we wanted something different.

You didn't realise that this was a high-quality product

and you shouldn't have been making a humorous video in the beginning.

You see I watched it and went, "No!"

In that regard it was...

I wanted to, like... he'd come in panicking,

he's always panicking. "The bride's not got what she wants."

He'd be panicking.

There was a strapline as well? Basically you went,

"What she needs is English sparkling wine."

You don't want any line that goes,

"What she needs is a bloody good sparkling, that's what she needs!

"That would sort her out."

It's a better strapline than... what was the one you had?

Was it, "Oozing, oozing..."

Oozing luxury in every pore.

-It sounds comparing...

-Oozing luxury from every pore?

That was Stephen. He was quite good at the lines, Stephen.

Do you know what you ooze from your pore?

Comparing it to perspiration.

Not only can you drink it, but you can sweat it as well!

I like the saltiness of it!

I think in any advert, oozing and pouring should be kept

to teenage face wash and that's it.

Pores just don't really work as a thing.

I think the problem was that your cheese radar is kaput.

I'm a big fan of yours, but I think the whole thing of,

"No, it's not remotely cheesy"

and then it's, "Action!" and Johnny Ball randomly

seemed to be there going, "Less fizz, more sparkle."

Hysterical bride. What's going on?

Lucy, on a proper branding note, how much of a missed step was this?

I think it's really hard to do humour for a premium brand

and I think that's what really got missed.

English sparkling wine is rivalling champagne in terms of quality

and price point. I don't think you'd ever see a champagne house

like Don Perignon putting something together that was

of that kind of quality with that humour. I don't think it worked.

Any other second takes you wanted? Any direction you should have gone?

They were going to go with Mr Fizz and Mrs Sparkle.

That was going to be one.

That was thrown on the board.

That sounds like an advert for bathroom cleaner.

That wasn't my idea, but I was going with it

and we were going to go with Mr Fizz and Mrs Sparkle.

Then I just thought...

I was trying to go with the approach of a disgusted bride, really.

You want the best on your wedding day, so she was disgusted

because English sparkling wine was the best.

But I could maybe have chose my actors better.

Let's not blame the actors!

-That's who should have got fired - the actors!

-You can't bring them in.

"Playing the role of Jenna is the actors from the bride scene."

Were you not given enough of a steer?

I think, what had happened, maybe Ricky should have gone

in more of the video because obviously, we went to

the vineyards and I didn't really know much about how

English sparking wine was made. It's really interesting.

But I thought my point in the boardroom was

that no-one really stopped.

We kept telling them all the time, "We're going to be doing this,

"it's going to have this comedy, you're going to be disgusted."

No-one said, "No, we're not having that, this is the way it'll be."

So I suppose I was getting a bit excited, thinking,

-"I'm the director, let's go with it."

-Fair enough. The key thing here,

obviously is "we", in this situation, because you were the one

who bit the dust, but there was another who didn't sparkle.

# Da-de-diddle-de-de-de-de. #

Another word that springs to mind for me that represents quality

excellence, Britishness, grandeur.

It's a French word.

I like chink.

He's so clever. He's watching Jenna make a terrible advert.

-What's to stop him stepping in?

-That's a very good point.

-Let's go with that.

-Sparkling sun.

Down to a sparkling conversation.

She obviously needs English sparkling wine.

I didn't tell you to make a Carry On Boozing movie - "Ooh, maitre d'!

"Where's me grandeur gone? Someone's nicked my grandeur!"

I like the sound of that.

Stephen, you are this close to going outside that door.

Do you think Stephen should have gone?

I do think Stephen should have gone

in a sense that, yeah, he was with me and no-one stopped me

and I think, out of the three of us,

I think I had a better...

over the process, I had achieved more,

I had done better than him, I won as project manager,

I was always the top seller,

I had a better report to give to the table,

but I think when you're so far in the stage,

one little mistake, you might not see,

"Well, she's tripped up there, she should be on the ball."

OK. Lucy, what do you think? Stephen should have gone?

I do think Stephen should have gone. I think he definitely should take

some responsibility. Ricky should take some responsibility too.

As Jenna was saying, he kept spouting this quality message

which was so important, but then he should have vetoed the concept

of humour in the first place on that basis, rather than just saying,

"As long as it's not cheesy." I don't think he was directing you.

And you interpreted that differently and produced a film he wasn't happy with.

Stephen, I think, he doesn't listen. He likes to say what he thinks.

Specifics, please.

LAUGHTER

-Quite the power move, that, wasn't it?

-You shocked me for a moment!

-Sorry.

-It's all right.

In the boardroom, he does stuff like that.

And he's got that classic salesman thing going,

which obviously works in his job, but I find quite irritating

in certain situations, where someone will say something to him

and he'll not listen, he'll just say, "I love that, good point."

But he hasn't listened to what the point was and moves on to something completely separate,

so even though Ricky was saying the quality message

and you both heard that, in Stephen's head it's gone

straight out the window and he'll do what he wants to.

Stephen, in the boardroom, he wriggled a bit?

I think he was very definitely lucky to be the one that got away.

The thing that I love about Stephen is his various facial expressions.

When he gets blamed for something,

like when he gets brought back into the boardroom

or any gets blamed for something he does a face of, like,

"Unusual decision.

"Not one I'd have gone with, blaming me, but if that's what..."

I imagine him using that as a good defence mechanism, like in court,

"You're guilty of murder."

"Unusual, but if that's what you want to go with."

Or his wife - "I'm leaving you."

"Really? Not what I'd have done. But if you want to do that, OK."

It is to your credit you can't do the full Stephen "Beaker",

as I call it, face, which is the ma-ma-ma-ma!

-I'm taking it on tour!

-Properly curves down on both sides.

Mmm-mm-mmm-mmm. Sorry, Andy.

I think Jenna took too much risk on herself.

She was going, "I'm a risk taker."

The risk was taking responsibility for that task

and deflecting enough of it on Stephen. You kept going,

"I'm a risk taker. Yes, I booked the lion.

"Yes, I've never worked with lions before

"but I'm a risk taker.

"OK, the lion bit me, but hell!"

What I wanted to show him... I was a girl, I've set up my own business,

it's all very new, a very small shop, not like...

You're up against some high-flyers in there

with good businesses, high jobs.

I wanted to show him whatever he threw me into, I could do it.

Whereas Stephen would be, like,

"That's a good question. I've got a good answer for you."

Whereas I'd be, like, "No, we'll do this. We'll go with it."

I wanted to show him I had the confidence to drive with the decision.

It's honourable to admit when you've made a mistake

but you want to be known for making less mistakes

rather than messing up and admitting it

even though it's nice that you admit it.

It wouldn't work in all jobs. If you were a surgeon,

you can't be, like, "I've removed the wrong lung. Hands up. Sorry.

-"I've learned from it."

-I took a risk.

There's two of them. 50-50. What are you going to do?!

How did I know it was his left, not my left, we wanted?

Easy mistake to make.

We're always on the lookout for relationships between candidates.

We've found one which involves you and your new BFF.

My best friend of all time is Jenna, the lovely Jenna.

Gabrielle is so funny. She's always laughing.

She'll laugh at nothing. All you need to say to her is

"I'm getting a brew" and she'll laugh.

She is a bit nutty. Just the way she does it is hilarious.

Gabrielle.

We have a good giggle together.

She's on my wavelength.

If Jenna left, I would be devastated.

I think she is my Siamese twin.

I love Jenna to bits.

She is always laughing.

ALL TALK AT ONCE

She is my all-time favourite girl.

A little bezzie there. AUDIENCE: Ah!

-That's very sweet.

-She's lovely, Gabrielle.

She will... Throughout any task, she will always motivate you.

She motivates the team. She hasn't got a nasty bone in her body.

She won't get in the boardroom.

She'll say it the way it is.

-She's really really lovely.

-Ah. It's very nice.

-A southerner.

-A southerner and northerner.

-Across the great divide. Fantastic.

That's how we spread the word. Eventually, we'll gain control.

Gabrielle's got this weird thing. When she's not in the last three,

when she goes out, she taps the other people on the shoulder.

And sometimes you think... You presume she's being nice

but you think maybe she's trying to give a signal to Lord Sugar,

mafia style. This is the one to go. This one.

Maybe she's hypnotised them all.

When you feel the tap on the shoulder. And you're out.

Where is she?

The contestant walks out and goes...

INDISTINCT

That is the thing. What did you think of Gabrielle?

I liked Gabrielle. She's a contender,

she's a good all-rounder.

She's a team player and that counts for a lot, being a nice person.

She's a nice person.

If Lord Sugar has to think about who he'd work with...

Actually, you're getting so near the end of the series,

he's got to be considering that in more of a sense than,

"I'm not going to give her loads of time to see how she does,

I need to start deciding now, is there someone I can work with?

I think you could. She's a nice girl.

The one thing of the whole process that nailed it

was that wine glass in the shape of a rose.

That was really good. I thought it was really clever.

That showed her creativity.

That showed she can come up with some great ideas.

She has throughout the process. She's one to watch, really.

She wasn't sure if it was going to go down well.

-I know.

-She was a bit like... "I did that. Oh, I did that.

"Yes. That was mine. I'm sorry."

We might as well have a look back at your Apprentice career

and your triumph in week six in the street food test.

Jenna, you'll be the team leader of Sterling.

I can't cook but I've worked in the restaurant trade.

There's a bit of pressure but I can handle it.

You took the quality and gourmet thing seriously.

It had to be gourmet, best-quality ingredients.

Sterling spent an awful lot more, £268.

-Risky.

-I think meatier the better. Why don't you have a smell?

-That will warm you up.

-Gorgeous!

I'm pleased to say that Sterling generated a profit

of £319.78.

-Phew!

-Well done.

APPLAUSE

They set you a gourmet task, you went for gourmet food It would have been irritating

if you'd been beaten by Adam's cheap, rancid pasta.

It was like the battle of the northerners on that task,

me and Adam.

Yeah. Battle of northerners who'd never gone

further north than where you're from.

We might get back to that. Were you impressed with Jenna on that task?

Definitely. You understood the brief really well and created something gourmet. The name was brilliant.

You were enthusiastic and nice to be around.

You did a great job.

You're definitely a people person. Your warmth came across.

People were drawn to you and your enthusiasm. You did brilliantly.

Thank you.

That fake tan selling was incredible, wasn't it?

All the people that bought from you

they'll know that they're on national TV

having paid a tenner for something that you paid

two quid for from a cash and carry.

They'll be embarrassed, but you won't see it in their faces.

The joy of the food task was taking you even more north than you'd normally be

and you did give away a certain lack of...

because you did well but it was despite your concerns about

there being a potential language difference.

Do you think people speak a Scottish language?

A pure Scottish language?

What if someone comes to the stand and speaks Scottish?

-Will you be able to understand what they are saying?

-Stop!

Have you been to Scotland?

There is a language and it's Gaelic.

-Scot's Gaelic.

-Och aye the noo. That is Scottish.

I was hoping someone was gonna go och aye the noo to me!

-Och aye the noo?!

-Don't ask me what it means, but...

LAUGHTER

What would you have done if somebody had said, "Och aye..."

Would you have been scanning their eyes?

Is this meant as an erotic gesture? Is it meant as a fighting thing?

I would have said, "Have a free casserole."

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

The thing about that Jenna charm, though,

it can be switched off just as quickly as it's switched on.

LAUGHTER

-Can I interest you in a chutney?

-No, I won't, thank you.

-OK.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

I don't want to put my face straight now!

Yeah, that's a bit of the charm.

DARA LAUGHS

I was going into the next thought process.

"I'll go with someone else, they seem a bit happier."

And switch it back on. It's hard to keep up the charm all the time.

You weren't keeping up the charm all the time!

The point of what we showed you is the charm went...voom, gone.

You waited to unleash the charm, which is carefully rationed by you.

And then, "No, you're not getting my charm any more.

"You don't want our chutney, so no charm for you."

She's smiling now but when she'd done this show,

she'll be going, "Bastard! Bastard"!

Let's find out what Lord Sugar and your former colleagues

have to say about you.

Jenna totally missed the plot on this task.

She created a stupid video. Nothing wrong with a bit of humour

but went too far, degraded the product,

Finally, we have our fine English sparkling wine.

Jenna told me it was classy. It certainly wasn't classy.

She took responsibility for the video.

She has to finish a point. If it's in her head

she will bulldoze through whoever's speaking.

She was totally responsible

for this terrible video

that she produced and it showed me

that she had a lack of understanding

of the project and that's why I fired Jenna.

AUDIENCE: Ah!

At least it was only with that task.

What have you learned from the process?

I've learned a lot. I'd do it again,

which sounds mad cos it's the most stressful thing.

It's an amazing experience and I've learned if I do have an idea,

not to be a risk taker and go too much.

If I had an idea, I'd go with it now.

Although I'm disappointed I didn't get to the final,

cos I did want Lord Sugar to be my partner

and I was ready to give him my idea and go into business with him,

now it's made me more determined to do it on my own and get there.

OK. Lucy, how did you set up your business?

It was a happy accident.

I wasn't intending to have my own company.

I was quite young - I was a student at the time.

I was working at lots of events and I was promoting

a new luxury vodka that had just come to the UK.

This guy came up to me and chatted about the product and said,

"What do you think about this brand

"and what we're doing at this event and the sponsorship?"

And I said, "Oh, I think it's fine, I think it's great,

"but if it was my brand I probably would have considered X, Y, Z.

"I might have been a bit more creative,

"I would have tried to have made it more of a luxury experience,"

and, you know, was continuing blagging and saying what I thought.

And he said, "Oh, you seem to have quite a lot to say for yourself.

"This is actually my brand."

So I was like, "OK, let's just turn this into an opportunity."

So I said, "Oh, really? Perhaps we could have a discussion,

"because I'm just about to set up my own agency doing marketing

"specifically for luxury drinks brands."

And he was like, "OK, that's very interesting."

Immediately went home and registered a domain on the internet

to get a professional-sounding email address, and shot him an email

saying, "There's a great opportunity I think you should be involved in,"

a prestigious event I knew was coming up,

"Why don't you let me negotiate some sponsorship for you

"and run that for you, because I'd do a really good job for the brand."

And he said, "All right, give it a go, and we'll see what happens."

They were my first clients.

It grew from there, and then attention to detail,

hard work, did a good job and lots of clients started coming my way.

Work begets work, I suppose.

APPLAUSE

Adam picks up skills every week in this process, even if

sometimes it's not entirely clear that he understands the job titles.

My role and responsibility is choreographer once again.

I'm choreographer.

Adam's suddenly become an expert

on wine tasting, wine pouring, wine holding,

glass holding.

They all hold by the stem and the base. We don't want any of this.

It's not this, it's not this, it's not here - it's this.

OK?

Yeah, I do have to bite my tongue,

but I'm not going to work with him forever, so it's fine.

That's going to upset people.

Move it there, cos you can still see it in the reflection. I hate that.

'He's decided he's a choreographer,'

which is quite funny cos there's no dancing.

Cheers. If you ever need any choreography doing, any directing.

-I do know all about him.

-See you now.

Do you know what choreography means?

It means making sure everyone's in the right place and knows what they're doing.

-It does!

-No it doesn't!

-I've checked with everyone.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Every week there's another new, exciting experience for Adam.

A whole world that he wasn't aware even existed.

Have you been impressed, Andy?

He's a life choreographer, that's what he is.

If he doesn't win, he goes back to being a market trader,

he won't call himself a market trader.

He'll be a fruit and veg choreographer,

and he'll be there going, "Anybody for grapes?

Anybody for grapes?" "I've got a melon! I've got a melon!"

I think most of the candidates are out of their comfort zones

a lot of the time, cos it's not their business,

but sometimes as a Northerner you can feel more intimidated

so he has to get it out there

cos he imagines people are thinking it anyway.

I mean, but he did really well with the art task last week,

he sort of threw himself into it.

And this time with the wine-tasting, I loved it. He's having a sip -

"Ooh, Granny Smiths, Christmas cake..."

It was a stream of consciousness. "Roller skates, mattresses, cats..."

He was just saying words. But good on you, mate - at least he had a go.

I like that he always has a go. He's a hard worker,

and a nice guy, I think, at the end of the day.

I'm kind of warming to him.

Some of the tasks I've just thought, "What are you doing?!"

But his heart's in the right place and he makes an effort.

He's had an arc, as they say,

a narrative arc from when all women hated him to this point

where he's at now where people are kind of like, "Yeah..."

He's been put into more and more things to which he goes,

"I don't understand!"

There seems to be a lot of sexual tension

between him and Jade at the moment.

You're wondering if the two of them should just get it on.

Next time they get sent out of the boardroom together...

Trouble is, you could never have a threesome with Jade, could you,

cos she'd never be able to decide who else to bring into the bedroom.

We deal...

LAUGHTER

Is that mental image not playing well with your mind, there?

It's nothing to do with Jade, but Adam...

And also, if you're going to have sex with Adam,

he'd probably do that thing he did earlier -

"Are you sure you can have sex? It's very complicated."

I'd almost do it to Adam just to go,

"You're out of your comfort zone now, eh?"

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

We were going to show you one sequence of images, but there are

broadcasting regulations that you have to be responsible

in the portrayal of a lifestyle that could be mimicked by people.

You can't show that this is in any way aspirational,

that it would make you more socially successful.

Basically alcohol consumption, when represented on television,

has to be done with a great deal of responsibility.

So it's with a heavy heart we present Adam And Tom's Big Day Out.

If you just take a glass each.

It's been a great day. Me and Adam have had a lot of fun.

HE GIGGLES

Should the project manager be having fun?

NICK: If you do that too vigorously, it will go down the wrong way.

Strat... Strategy. Hang on. Too much wine.

We've really got to grips with the English wine sparkling... Sorry.

We've really got to grips with English wine...sparking...

I've had a few glasses of wine, so I'm looking forward to

going home tonight and having a good night's sleep.

-Cheers, Tom, mate. You're a legend.

-Well done.

Went down really well, that.

APPLAUSE

I love the "Cheers, Tom, mate."

He's just stopped from going, "I love you. You're my best friend!"

Tom does that for a living. You've a feeling he's like that every night.

Cos whenever you see him in the morning at 6am,

he's always struggling to get up.

Now we know why, don't we?

Every show starts with his head coming from underneath.

"Is it half five? Hammered again!"

"And Adam's in my bed!"

Which two candidates would you like to see make the final?

I'd like to see Tom, I think he's a really good all-rounder,

and obviously we don't know what their business concepts are,

but I think he's quite strong.

And also Nick. I think he's quite a dark horse.

He reminds me of Boris Johnson - he's quite foppish and quite funny.

-I'd like to see him get to the end.

-Andy, you the same?

Well, I think Nick got chosen, didn't he?

He was chosen by the other team to come over,

so he's got to be doing quite well at the moment.

I'd like to see Ricky do all right, myself.

-Sara?

-For me, I think it's Tom and Gabby,

because they've both got the right amounts of creativeness,

-and they're smart but they've got their heads screwed on as well.

-OK, grand.

Now, as for the vote itself, with regard to yourself, Lucy,

-do you agree with Lord Sugar's decision?

-I don't,

-I wouldn't have fired Jenna.

-Aww, thanks!

I would have fired Stephen, purely on the basis

that I can't imagine working with him.

I can't imagine Lord Sugar thinking he could work with him.

-So I think yeah, Jenna, you'd have stayed.

-Thank you.

-Andy?

Well, Dara, I'm a risk-taker.

I'm going to take a risk even though Jenna's in the building,

and say that not deflecting enough of the blame on to Stephen,

I think Jenna should have gone.

-OK. Sara?

-I think Jenna should have stayed

and I think Stephen should have gone, for similar reasons.

I think he'll do Lord Sugar's nut in

if they have to have much more contact,

-which makes it really exciting for next week's episode.

-Really, yeah.

Cos he's got to put his money where his mouth is. Well, his mouth is usually here.

OK, let's throw it to yourselves. Very, very simple.

If you agree with Lord Sugar hold up "Fired",

if you disagree hold up "Hired".

That's a pretty solid "Hired" there, congratulations.

They're the Northerners, aren't they? They like that.

Cross-Britain support here.

As you know, we always like to

give a gift to candidates before they leave, something we think

they'll find useful and enjoy

and that will be of use in their life as they move ahead.

For you we think the most obvious thing was that next time

you're up in Scotland...

LAUGHTER

..that you can have that.

APPLAUSE

"Och" - an expression of surprise,

contempt, annoyance, impatience or disagreement.

"Och aye the noo." Occasionally mispronounced as "hochindenin".

-That's for you.

-Thank you very much.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Congratulations for making it to week nine. Here are your highlights.

Jenna, how does it feel?

I feel, like, very important.

# I got a girl they call the queen of the hop... #

Hi!

I am witty, charming, high sense of humour.

I'm too lovable to be intimidating.

I'm up for anything.

Yeah?

# ...Everybody knows I love my queen of the hop... #

Are we doing video now?

Go go go go! Let's hope it's a win.

Let's see who's going to be the Stig after this.

I nearly died!

But I'm alive!

Sterling. Cheers.

Yeah. That's about me.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jenna Whittingham.

Thank you!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

That's all for tonight. Thanks to all my guests.

Jenna will be on BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning,

and don't forget to go to our website at bbc.co.uk/apprentice

for Matt Edmondson's funny bits.

Next week, the teams have to secure competitive deals at luxury venues,

but who will end up being discounted?

We aim for the higher end of the market.

Is that Thai massage and steam?

-Every Tom, Dick and Harry is selling it.

-At a discount.

-How did they get on?

-They drew a blank.

-Not even a pound off.

-Not a fantastic start!

-Er...yeah.

-I think that was a whorehouse.

Oh, Jesus, it's horrible! Oh, my God.

This is the most passionate I've seen you in the whole process.

-I feel a bit of pressure.

-You should have negotiated for more.

-Can't do it.

-No.

-We couldn't do it.

You were running around like headless chickens.

-Stop being so condescending.

-God.

-You lost.

See you next week. Good night.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd