The Final The Apprentice

Welcome to the final of The Apprentice.

Tonight, we'll finally answer the question formed over the last three months -

will it be Tom, Susan, Helen or Jim who'll be going into business with Lord Sugar?

It's not a job at stake this year, but a £250,000 investment.

Over the next hour, we'll discover who the winner is.

Straight after, stay with us on BBC One for an extended edition of You're Hired

with all of the candidates, our panel and Lord Sugar himself.

But first, sit back and enjoy the final of The Apprentice 2011.

MUSIC: "Dance Of The Knights" by Sergei Prokofiev

This is not a job. I'm not looking for bloody sales people,

but someone who's got a brain who'll start a business with me.

Heading to London -

16 of Britain's entrepreneurial elite keen to start a company.

I'm going to inject £250,000 into a business,

your business, and you're going to run it.

On offer - a 50/50 partnership with the nation's toughest investor.

If you sit in the office for three hours and do nothing, or three weeks or three months,

I won't be a very happy bunny.

Passionate about new money-spinning ventures,

Lord Sugar's on the hunt for a winning business partner.

If you see someone else in this you think is superior to you, you might as well go home.

-We're not...

-Slang!

-We're having problems with everything.

It's a deal worth fighting for.

-GROWLING

-Ted, pack it up.

-Ted, chill out!

16 candidates...

The Olde Boot, or the Olde Soak?

-Bonjour.

-12 tough weeks....

-Stop being such an angry person today...

-I'm not angry, I'm telling you how I feel!

One life-changing opportunity.

You're fired. You're fired.

I don't think I could go into business with you. You're fired.

Previously on The Apprentice...

Your task is to create the next fast food restaurant.

-My Py, M-Y P-Y.

-I quite like that, Tom.

While team leader, Helen, crunched the numbers...

The signature dish with a side and a drink that takes us to £7.

..Tom scrambled history.

Christopher Columbus was British.

Oh, you are kidding me?

On the other team...

I've got a BA honours in hospitality management.

..a headache for head honcho Jim.

-I put forward my idea of...

-Jim?

-I'm not finished, Natasha!

Work together for a successful outcome, please!

Open for business, My Py.

-First order is ready to go.

-That was quick!

-Fast food!

-While for Caraca's...

-Service!

-..not so speedy.

-Your food will be ready in about 10 minutes, OK?

60 people at £7 is £4,800.

-With numbers overcooked...

-Sorry. £420, of course.

..industry experts cast their votes.

And in the boardroom, five stars for My Py.

You two, you're in the final.

With two more places up for grabs...

-You've got a dark side. You're underhand.

-It's called passion!

-..battle commenced.

-Talk about box of tricks, I can do it all.

What you need is someone who will come up with original ideas.

-Susan shot through...

-You're in the final.

..but Natasha shot herself in the foot.

Within my degree, I wasn't interested in the food side.

A bit like me saying, "I've got a degree in first aid,"

and I see someone dying in the street and saying,

"I haven't done it for 10 years so I'll leave him alone."

-Natasha, you're fired.

-Much appreciated.

Natasha became the 12th casualty of the boardroom.

Now, just four remain to fight for the chance

to become Lord Sugar's business partner.

-Three!

-Oh, my God. Is it just you?

-Anybody order a final four?

-LAUGHTER

I can't believe it.

I thought you might be at risk being project manager.

-If it was based on the, um...

-TELEPHONE RINGS

Oh, my God.

RINGING CONTINUES

Good evening.

'Lord Sugar would like you to meet him in the city in 48 hours.

'Please have your business plans ready.'

Lord Sugar would like to meet us in 48 hours to discuss business plans.

It's all just down to us as individuals.

-Yeah.

-Now we're all just four people standing on our own two feet.

48 hours for the final four to knock their business plans into shape.

Helen Milligan, an executive assistant, has the best record.

Winning ten tasks and losing just one.

I'm really confident in my business plan.

It's a bit of a new idea, it's slightly risky,

but I've taken risks in the tasks and I think Lord Sugar likes that.

Next best - Susan Ma.

Running her own skincare business at 21,

she's the youngest left standing.

I'm the only one who shows really strong, natural initiative to do a business.

I cannot wait to show Lord Sugar what I've been working on.

It's something I know will work

and I want him to recognise that I deserve to win.

I am the best in this house and I'm going to go for it.

Third survivor,

sales and marketing manager for a printing company in Northern Ireland

and never lost for words, Jim Eastwood.

I've been amazed and I've amazed myself that, task-on-task,

I just seem to be growing in confidence, growing in ability.

And I have, in my business plan, something which I think is amazing.

It's brilliant. It seems as if everything's coming together at the right time.

Full of bright ideas - inventor Thomas Pellereau.

He has the worst record, winning just three tasks.

I've saved it all for the last. The last few tasks, I've really started to come together.

My business plan, I think, is excellent.

The idea within it is fantastic, so I'm feeling there really is

a possibility for me to win

and it spurs me on to try even harder to really make this happen.

ALARM BLARES

Today, plans printed, it's off to the city.

It's just a bit of paper at the moment,

but hopefully, it'll become a huge organisation one day.

A last chance to show Lord Sugar

they have the skills and vision to be his business partner.

I'm so nervous, I actually didn't sleep a wink last night.

Today is the biggest day of my life.

New Broad Street House -

meeting place for the big guns of British business.

City hub of the Institute of Directors.

Good morning. ALL: Good morning, Lord Sugar.

Now it's time for you to convince me that

you're worthy of the £250,000 investment

I'm going to make in our joint company.

I'm not going to take this decision lightly, so today,

you're going to be interviewed by four top, business experts.

When it comes to starting companies,

they've been there, seen it and done it many times.

They'll scrutinise your CVs and business plans

and, tomorrow, they will be reporting back to me.

So, hand your business plans to Nick and Karren

and I will see you in the boardroom tomorrow.

This is it!

Everything that we've worked for so far. Four interviews, boom.

My heart's pounding, is yours?

If you don't know your own life and your own business plan,

then you're in trouble. We should know it.

Claims have been checked.

Backgrounds researched.

Business plans scrutinised.

-Good luck, Tom.

-Thank you.

Time to face four of Lord Sugar's toughest task masters.

-Please take a seat.

-Good morning, sir.

Claude Littner, formerly Lord Sugar's global troubleshooter

and expert at steering companies through rough and smooth.

Would it be fair to say, Tom, your career is floundering at the moment?

Um, I don't believe that's fair to say,

but I wonder what would point you in that direction.

Well, just looking at your CV, really.

OK.

Sharing Lord Sugar's passion for young entrepreneurs,

-Margaret Mountford.

-Nice to meet you, I'm Helen.

A key member of the Bright Ideas Trust,

helping to kick-start first-time businesses.

You have a pretty spectacular record in this process, haven't you?

-I have, yes, I've been very lucky.

-Lucky? Do you think it's luck?

I think it's a combination of a lot of hard work

-and a little bit of luck.

-Hmm.

-Adios, amigos.

-Pioneer of Britain's free magazine industry -

-Mike Soutar.

-Please take a seat.

Awarded Innovative Business of the Year in 2010.

So I've read your application,

it's packed with cliches and buzzwords and blarney.

Jim, do you have difficulty expressing yourself succinctly?

-I'm trying to get better at that.

-I guess that's a succinct answer.

-Finally...

-Hello.

-Hi.

..Matthew Riley, Young Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2007.

-Just stand behind the chair for a second, don't sit down.

-OK.

His telecommunications company is now worth over £300 million.

OK, Susan, I'd just like you to pretend you're in an elevator.

-OK.

-It's called the elevator pitch.

-You've got in at the ground floor and we're going to the penthouse.

-OK.

-I want you to tell me why Lord Sugar should invest in your business.

-OK.

Essentially, I have a fantastic business plan of creating

a 100% natural, very niche organic skincare range

targeted at the mass market,

so to go into big drugstores, big supermarkets.

I've been selling my own range of natural products

over the last three years and have had tremendous results.

There's over 10,000 users of my products in the UK alone

A good product will keep on multiplying and more will buy it

and those who have bought it will continue buying it.

So, I see no end to this business.

I see it growing, maybe even becoming global

-and getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

-That'll do.

-OK.

-Well done.

-That was really nerve racking.

-There was a lot of things to say...

-This'll be a long interview.

-Sorry about that!

-I'm only joking.

-I'm really, really, excited.

I've read your business plan.

I do, I have to say, find some of it confusing and almost obtuse...

-OK.

-..so perhaps you could sum it up for me in a sentence or two.

The business is to save organisations money

by reducing the financial and the personal cost of back pain.

That sounds like an objective. What's the business?

The business is two fold. It's a service

to measure the likelihood of employees having back pain,

and it's a set of chairs or furniture that will actually

help you to train those muscles so you're much, much less likely

to have back pain or other problems in the future.

So, the majority of your revenues are coming from the chair.

Product sales, yes.

100% of your business plan doesn't mention the word "chair".

I believe it talks about the "devices" and it has the...

It didn't use the word "chair".

Um...

Er...I would...

You'll just have to take it as a fact.

OK. Um...

Well, I must say, I've never seen a longer application form

and some of the things you say are just incredible.

"I'm not a show pony, or a one-trick pony,

"or a wild stallion that needs to be tamed, or even a stubborn mule.

"I believe I can become the champion thoroughbred that this process requires."

What impression does that give me of you? That you're a bit of an ass?

Jackass, maybe.

-Um...hopefully not, Margaret.

-Did you take it seriously, this form?

Absolutely. But I think a lot of run-of-the-mill people

can't set themselves apart. How do you set yourself apart?

By swallowing the Oxford Book of Cliches?

Well, I believe all that. I'm not a one-trick pony.

This process was designed to tease out all different areas.

I can't think of one were I haven't excelled.

-So have you got any weaknesses?

-Any chink in the armoury is an area for improvement.

-I think we're back in the cliche book.

-I don't mean to be, but...

"After all, it's not about the fancy headlines or the bronzed tan lines,

"but the health of the bottom line."

Jim's good at spinning things, quite good at charming round things.

He's good at talking about himself.

Whether the interviewers will fall for that,

I'm not sure, but he'll definitely give it a go.

Just one final question...

-Oh, really?

-What would you like to tell me about yourself

that you don't think I've gleaned from your application form,

your CV and your performance so far in this process?

And try and say it without cliches and say it very quickly.

About me, I'm exactly what it says on the tin.

-Jim jam!

-Hello, ladies.

-You look happy.

Big happy smile on your face.

How was it?

-It was really good.

-Yeah?

-It was really good.

-If you have the minerals, you'll be fine. If you don't, you won't.

-Yeah.

I can't believe Tom's still in there. Maybe he's getting his arse kicked.

Do you believe that, as a businessman, as an engineer, that accuracy must be important?

It's possible you're alluding to some fairly big errors in my financial...

You haven't got one error, it's full of errors.

There's not a single number that adds across correctly.

Coupled with the fact that, normally, when you have a product like this invention,

-you've a pretty good idea of how much it'll cost to manufacture.

-Yes.

-You know the components.

100 components, 1,000 components.

You've got to know the cost, and the selling price,

-see if there's a margin.

-Yes.

-Nowhere in this...

-Have I listed it? No, I haven't.

-You've got no idea.

-You've got no idea of what...

-I have a pretty good idea.

-How can you have a pretty good idea?

-In the fact that I know the price of certain aspects.

-You don't know anything.

-I know the costs

of the two different parts which do the majority of the work.

-Where have you got that from?

-I've purchased them and made some prototypes.

Why didn't you indicate that? Nowhere here have you said you've got a prototype.

-All I can say as I apologise.

-No, an apology's no good,

because I've got no way of ascertaining

whether this chair works, doesn't work, is going to get a patent.

It's complete nonsense, OK? The only thing I can understand

and that any other businessman can understand is the numbers. Has it got a chance of...

You know, is it credible? And the answer is it's not.

-Well, thank you very much indeed, Tom.

-Thank you.

-He's back.

-Hello.

How did it go?

-Good luck!

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh...

-SUSAN: Oh, God.

-Yes.

Was it very tough?

If you've got any errors, he will definitely find them.

-Hi, Helen.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, I'm Matthew.

-Hi.

-Stand there for a second...

-OK.

-..what I'm going to ask you to do.

-Pretend you're in an elevator.

-OK.

-It's called the elevator pitch.

-Right.

-I'd like you to imagine you're going to go up

and to tell me all about your business.

-Go.

-My business is basically helping the nation get back on its feet.

It's an assistant service for the mass market.

So, there's a number of mundane jobs that you can

offload on somebody else which helps your work-life balance

Hopefully, it will go nationwide through a franchise model.

OK. That's it. SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

So, Helen, I'm just trying to get my head around,

you know, the average person who's going to use your service.

What are they going to use it for?

I think they would use it for general day-to-day things.

Making appointments for things, dental,

waiting in for food shopping, sending birthday cards to people,

organising things like holidays, any house moves.

The list is absolutely endless.

Why would I pay you to ring my dentist for an appointment?

-Because...

-I can't get my head round that! I'm a bit busy, but I can ring a dentist.

-It's as hard work to ring you to get you to ring my dentist.

-Yeah.

It's the whole reminder service as well.

Dentists give you reminders. They text to say you're due for an appointment. Mine does.

No, I've never had one like that. That must be a very expensive one.

I suspect Helen's business plan will be very well put together.

She'll come under the same cosh as the rest of us.

Yeah. She'll get nailed.

I'd be very impressed if it's really, really good and it is her first one.

I hope it's a massive shock, leaves her tongue tied and she's unable to answer.

SUSAN LAUGHS

But what contacts have you got to get things done? Have you got any? Have you got a contact book?

-Get things done as in...?

-OK, I'm your customer.

-OK.

-Can you get me a table at The Ivy for tonight, please?

-I'd like the one by the window.

-I think contacts are easy to find.

It's having the business acumen to be able to run it.

So, you can't get me the table tonight?

No, because I'm not a trading company yet.

That's it - I don't think you've got the address book to do this.

Most people who do this have somebody with all the contacts,

who knows all the hotels, the chauffeurs, the shows and you don't have that experience.

What I'm saying is I want to open this service up to the mass market.

I think the problem you've got is, if you can't do the first thing, how will you get massive?

These people are successful, because it's all about contacts.

I think you're going to really struggle with that.

-Thank you very much.

-OK, lovely to meet you, thank you.

I think Susie will go in, she'll get strips torn off her,

ridiculed, hauled over the coals and she'll come out and say it went really well.

-Yeah.

-I've seen it a lot in Susan, that bravado.

-While doing your degree, a very good degree, congratulations...

-Thank you.

-..you made quite a bit of money running your own business?

-Yeah.

Before I did my A-levels, I worked for a guy at Greenwich Market

selling skincare products and I made just over £1,500 for that weekend.

After that one weekend, I quit, because I realised how much money I could be making,

so I created my own range of body scrub and then creams

and eye gels using all 100% natural ingredients

and then sold them at Greenwich Market and shows and events.

And I've been doing that for the last three years.

-You say you employed over 15 people to work for you at one show.

-Yeah.

-How did you pay them?

-It was all cash.

-No tax?

-Um...

-No national insurance, no nothing?

-No.

-Your degree was in philosophy and economics.

-It was.

Yes.

Clearly, it's very enterprising to have started this business, no doubt about that.

A young woman to have done what you've done is commendable.

-Thank you.

-That leads into your business plan.

-Yes.

You seem to have gone into a lot of detail, and that's great, about how much it costs

to produce the product, the wholesale price, retail price and, therefore, some margins.

It says, "The business plan outlines my aggressive marketing and sales strategy

"to turn over £1 million profit in the first year."

-Sorry, that's really stupid. To make one million...

-I agree it's really stupid,

-but I don't know what it is you're trying to tell me.

-To make one million profit.

-Profit, in year one?

-Yes.

I think, what I've tried to do with my business plan is every decision I've made, with all the figures,

I tried to back it up with experience I've had.

So, in terms of how much I sell on a day-to-day basis at Greenwich Market,

I take those figures and applied them to how much that can be sold

-in a shopping centre...

-When you've done is tested something

in a very small niche area, then said, "I can now go global."

What worries me is whether your product is just great for markets,

but has got no chance against the heavyweights of the industry

who put millions of pounds behind the backing of their product.

Hello.

Oh, my God!

Was it that good?

That was all right, actually.

Everything he said to me, I shot back. It was OK.

So, that went better than I thought it would.

Describe really briefly, if you can, the business that you would like Lord Sugar to invest in.

My business is called AMsmart, purposely designed by title

to play into Lord Sugar's previous businesses with the AMS.

What it is is providing employability skills to UK schools,

promoting entrepreneurship and employability via e-learning.

This gives scope, scale and inclusivity for every UK pupil. I think it's quite amazing.

The title that you've given it, as you say, uses AMS within it.

Isn't that a feeble attempt, really, to curry favour?

I could be successful in that business by myself,

but the critical linchpin,

where to hang your hat and the figurehead is Lord Sugar.

You're just using his name, using his brand he's built up

-over the last 40 years...

-What does Lord Sugar mean to you?

What he means to me is entrepreneurial figure,

someone who cares about future growth of the economy,

cares about the future of the economy,

in terms of children in education, someone that likes to give back,

someone that hails from small beginnings and has made it big.

That's exactly what AMsmart tackles.

I think it's amazing, brilliant, impactful,

unique and perfectly suited to Lord Sugar's motivations.

Jim said the best ideas he's ever had

are in his business plan, so it had better be good.

-No pressure, then, Jim!

-No pressure! Better be good!

How much hands-on research have you actually done?

How many headteachers have you spoken to to verify

that they would sign up for this e-learning service?

Direct delivery of this is time consuming, it's labour intensive...

So, my question is, how many head teachers have you spoken to

about their willingness to actually pay for an e-learning service?

-In Northern Ireland, the uptake on direct delivery was very high.

-How many?

-In e-learning, the delivery mechanism will be even better.

-I just need some numbers.

I haven't divulged the nature of e-learning.

-So, you haven't spoken to any head teachers?

-Not for e-learning.

What you're doing is asking for investment of £250,000...

-Yes.

-..but what you're saying is, "I haven't done the market research required..."

I haven't asked the question, "Do you want e-learning to be the mechanism, the vehicle?"

But I think it's obvious at this stage that that is the key, unique selling point.

-Hey, guys.

-Hi.

-You look happy!

You know me, always the optimist, even in the face of a firing line!

-Halfway through.

-Yeah. Bring on the next one.

-Yeah, I just want to get them done.

-I'm so pumped, so pumped.

-Good luck, Helen.

-Thank you.

My business plan is about helping the nation get back on its feet.

We have less hours in our working day,

we're working harder and harder all the time.

-Well, you are, yes.

-I would certainly use this service.

You would, yes, but I think you may have a problem with your work-life balance.

You said at some point, "My personal and social life have absolutely no bearing on my life.

"My work has always come first and always will do."

Yes, that's true. The thing with my work is that it sort of is my life.

You come across very professional, very controlled.

Tell me something about yourself that shows me your human side.

Tell me a joke, make me laugh.

OK, um...

Um...

There's nothing like being put on the spot for a joke!

Can I come back to that one a bit later?

-Is it not that you're just a really good sales guy, Jim?

-I am, thank you for pointing that out.

It's certainly not the only thing. I can negotiate, I can pitch, I can be creative.

I certainly have so much potential. I'm scratching the surface on what I can actually do.

-You had one business launch already, I think, didn't you?

-Yes.

The world's first curved nail file.

-And was it a success?

-It was a very good success.

-It was on sale in pharmacies and one of the major retailers.

-Are you still involved with that business?

The business still exists and sells a certain amount of the nail file.

It has other ones that are gradually coming out.

I've remembered my joke.

A fish is swimming along

and he swims straight into something and he goes, "Oh, dam!"

LAUGHTER OK, you made me laugh.

OK, Tom...

-You're a really nice guy, aren't you?

-Um, thank you.

I like nice people, Tom. My wife's probably one of the nicest people you'd ever meet.

-Would I go into business with her? Not on your nelly.

-Absolutely.

I'm not surprised at all that, firstly, you have a very nice wife.

But, secondly, that is a concern.

-Maybe that's why you've not been as successful as perhaps you might've been?

-Perhaps.

But I've been running my own business for the last five years. I know how tough the world really is.

My first invention, the nail file,

coming up with the idea took 10 minutes.

Getting something to market, licensing it, getting it to Boots took about a year and a half.

But you got it out to one of the biggest retailers out there.

-You had it in their stores.

-Yeah.

-Why didn't you fulfil that?

That is dream stuff for most people. Why didn't you make it successful?

The bottom line with the nail file is, I'm not Mr Nail File Guy.

I did it because I wanted to experience getting an invention to market.

Actually, I lost interest in that and I wanted to have a look at other things.

My concern is you're going to keep moving like a conveyor belt.

"Month one, I've invented this!" "Month two, I've invented that!"

I'm not sure what Tom's business idea is, but he did say he'd had 22.

-22?!

-What I always say to him is he comes up with loads of ideas,

you've got to sift all the way through them.

-Then there might be one that's like a little gem waiting to be polished.

-Yeah.

So, as you'd expect, I've taken a reference from a previous employer.

-Yes.

-One of the things the previous employer said is that you aren't a starter-finisher.

-Right.

-And that sent alarm bells ringing in my head.

If you're going to go into business with Lord Sugar,

you absolutely have to have the capabilities to deliver from start to finish.

There are plenty of inventors, creators, who have never got any invention to market.

But one of the things I've proved with the nail file,

I was dedicated to making that happen and did make it happen.

And, in terms of this back problem area,

I am incredibly passionate about this.

-Thank you for your time, Tom.

-Thank you, Matthew.

Excuse me, I've just knocked that over.

Well, Jim... It's hard to know where to start.

But you've always been a high achiever.

You're the number one salesperson, you're a high-calibre business professional.

You've had a meteoric rise from zero to hero.

The fact of the matter is, for all the pages and pages of success that you allude to,

your salary and your job doesn't appear to indicate that's the case.

OK. I disagree with that. I feel that, throughout life, I've been a high achiever.

-I feel that my salary is well above average.

-Yeah.

But it's not super. You know, you're not setting the world alight.

Well, day by day, give me a chance and I'm netting it a little bit more.

You've got all the answers! All the answers, but no proof of it.

I do have proof of it.

-Ask me to talk about something, I'll tell you...

-I'm sure you'll talk till the cows come home.

I'll give you hard, bare facts, whatever you want, because I am exactly what's on that paper.

-I really believe that.

-YOU believe it! It's finding somebody else who believes it.

-Jim. That was quick.

-That was really quick.

What was it like?

It was a walk in the park.

With people shooting at you as you're walking through the park, and throwing hand-grenades at you.

Hello.

Susie is driving me potty today.

She's very positive about things.

Everything.

You're sure you don't need any sort of

chemist qualifications to put these together?

Or could I just get a load of different products,

put them all in a cauldron and then go out and start selling it?

Anyone can start their own skincare company.

But there are some laws with regards to having all the products tested.

Tested on what? Tested by who?

The government? Is there a government body or something?

Tested by any chemist, just to see that I don't have any, like, arsenic or anything in my products.

You see, I'm really struggling with this. I have to say.

I've got a pretty good radar for bullshit, and this smells like bullshit.

-Well, it's...

-You're saying I could walk down to the local chemist...

-No, no, not the local chemist.

-Who, then?

-Like a cosmetic chemist.

How much does it cost?

It doesn't cost that much. It depends on the product.

-How much is "not that much"?

-It depends on the product and it depends on...

-Do you have to do it per product?

-You have to do it per product.

I've got a real issue now, because that's not in any of your business plans, the costing.

In my business plan I have noted in the cost area legalities.

So, the legalities would literally...

Yeah. Legalities for setting a company up, though.

Legalities of going to Companies House, setting a company up.

You didn't include it in any detail. Because I've read the business plan.

I should have done and I did overlook it when I started the business.

-You can't run your business without it. It is important,

-but it doesn't take long.

-You don't have a business without that.

-You're right.

You have not got the fundamentals right in your business plan.

I should have been more specific.

-So, tell me how much it's going to cost for the four products you want to launch.

-It will cost between £100

to £2,000, depending on the product.

So it could be £8,000 expenditure

that we've not already got in here? How much did you put in for legalities?

I think I put in £6,000.

That was really tough.

Really, really tough.

I don't think I've ever seen Susie without a massive smile.

It's the first time I've ever seen your cage rattled.

Just absolutely grilled me.

OK, let's move on to your business idea.

Well, the thing is,

it certainly isn't your idea because I was amazed at how many companies

there are providing pretty well exactly what you're suggesting.

There's definitely companies out there that are quite similar.

But there's no market leader.

I'm not looking into doing this as something I would do to earn 50-100k.

I want to make some serious money out of this and I want it to grow quite big.

OK. Let's just say for example that, on further scrutiny, you find that this doesn't work.

Have you got any other business ideas,

or is this the one that you're setting all your heart on?

I mean, this is obviously the one I'm very passionate about.

I have got other business ideas.

I've won 10 out of 11 tasks and I ultimately feel that I would make

a success of anything that I put my mind to.

-OK, thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

Oh, my God. We're finished. This is it.

Yeah...

I am resilient, because I took a hammering.

This was the last bitter blows of a long-fought campaign.

I came with a single-minded focus and that was to be Lord Sugar's business partner.

I'm still on track and let's hope it goes according to plan.

You don't get to the final just by being a nice guy.

I will be fighting tooth and nail, every single moment in that boardroom

to become Lord Sugar's next business partner.

This is most important thing I've ever done in my life. I want this so much.

I'm the perfect candidate.

I am who he's looking for.

I do feel like I've outperformed the other candidates in the tasks. Obviously I've only lost one.

And they should be really worried this morning.

As far as I'm concerned, I should be the front runner now.

-Good morning.

-Morning.

-Good morning, everyone.

Margaret, welcome back to the boardroom again.

-Thank you.

-Claude, of course, very familiar with this process.

-And two young men. And it's young people...

-Three young men.

TWO young men

-who want to get their views together with your more mature...

-Thank you.

-..views on the applicants.

So, Margaret, would you like to kick off with anyone in particular?

Well, why don't we start with Helen?

She's got a fantastic track record.

She's obviously a terribly hard worker. I'd say she's actually a workaholic.

But there wasn't any entrepreneurial flair that I could see.

Her business plan involves providing what you might call a concierge service. I find it deeply flawed.

The point you hit on, which is quite right, is that, out of all of the candidates, she has flown through.

It maybe endorses the fact that she's good at being told what to do.

Yeah, I think one of the things that I certainly picked up on was you'd employ her tomorrow.

I'd put her in my business tomorrow. No problem at all with that.

Would I want to go into business with her? I've got a question mark, certainly around her business plan.

I don't think she's done anywhere near enough research.

She wants to go in with no experience of this market,

no contacts with restaurants or travel agencies or anything like that.

She'd be starting from scratch.

Basically, what she's talking about here is a local business.

It doesn't have scale, it's not scalable.

Her idea of creating a franchise out of it is, I think, optimistic.

One of the things I've noticed in all her tasks is that she is incredibly organised.

That is the one thing that she does and she does extremely well.

And I guess in her business plan what she's doing is using those skills and trying to expand that

in a much bigger way and make a business of it.

Mike, start me off with someone else.

-We could talk about Jim.

-Mm-hm.

Terrific sales patter.

But yet, in the interview, he was so slippery when it came to details.

-What a surprise!

-It was like trying to nail custard to the ceiling.

Did you ever manage to corner that chap?

Eventually, yes. That was whether he had really done

the market research that was required in order to validate his business plan.

I said to him, "How many head teachers and principals have you spoken to?"

And after a whole load of blarney, eventually the answer was none.

-Not a single one.

-I've never come across so many cliches.

I asked him to tell me about himself without using a cliche and he said,

"Well, I am what it says on the tin."

At the end you thought, "Well, what was all that about?"

The only glimmer of hope, if you like, is his idea of some type of e-learning.

Which actually is one that might hit some hotspots in terms of young people coming up

into the world of work and having the tools to be able to do that.

But, you know, Claude, we know from one of our businesses, what have schools haven't got?

-Money.

-Yeah.

I think that he studied you before he started to write the business plan.

And that is one long seduction latter.

Nick is right. You are an inherent part of his business plan.

You're not there as a financier and business adviser, consultant, experienced person to help him along.

You are in the forefront because it doesn't work without you.

That's a good point.

We've got to start a business with this guy. What's he going to do on Monday morning?

Talk. He'll annoy you.

-Constantly.

-Well, one of the others?

Matthew?

-Shall we go on to Tom?

-Sure.

-The mad professor.

I think the problem you would have with him, Lord Sugar, is that

he would genuinely invent something every other week.

He loves inventing things. He doesn't love seeing things through.

If you could bottle it and point him in the right direction, there's a chance.

-One of his products was sold by some leading retailers in America and England, I think.

-That's right.

He said he's got three other versions of the nail file.

I think that's a great product, I really do.

That's what you normally do, once you've got one thing going,

you bring out the second, next, third generation.

I'm just not sure he's got that much focus.

If you look at his business plan, the majority of his revenues are derived from this chair.

Yet not one place in his business plan does he mention the word "chair".

-Really?

-It's not in there.

The other thing, of course, is that his numbers are completely wrong. That's just ridiculous.

I think of all candidates we have, he's the one who would most benefit from your involvement.

Because he is an inventor, he has got ideas, but he doesn't have that

cutting commercial edge which, actually, you could contribute.

Yeah. Susan. Do you want to tell me about Susan, Claude?

The intriguing thing about her is that she actually has run a small business.

From a very young age she had the enterprise to get up in the morning and sell some product.

Against that, I think that she is very naive.

She thinks she's going to make a million-pound profit in year one.

And there are not too many companies that manage to do that.

She built her entire business plan out of a series of small assumptions that just multiplied.

So that, ultimately, she was making millions of pounds.

In her first year, she's making over £4 million turnover.

-I think it's just totally unrealistic.

-Margaret, what do you think?

She is, I think, what one would call an entrepreneur.

She worked on one of these market stalls for someone selling

and thought, "Hang on, I can do that myself and earn more money from it. Why should I work for him?"

She got out there and she sold, she paid her way through university and she must have worked jolly hard.

Well, excellent input. Certainly you've given me a lot of food for thought.

I've going to digest it a little bit more. Thanks a lot for all your help. Yeah?

Thank you.

PHONE RINGS

-Hello?

-Yes, could you send the four of them in, please?

-Yes, Lord Sugar.

Lord Sugar will see you now.

Well, here we are at the end of the road.

As you've known right from the very beginning, this is not about a job.

This is about someone coming into a business with me.

And that's what I've got to judge.

So, I'm going to make up my mind based upon your business plans

and what I've experienced in the last 11 weeks. Right?

Now, Susan. Yeah.

You've been able to go into the market place, make yourself

a few pounds in order to take itself through university.

But Claude says to me that you looked him straight in the eyes

and said, "In my first year in business with Lord Sugar, I'm going to have a £4.5 million turnover."

Well, everything that is in my business plan is all based

on facts and figures I've collected throughout the last three years.

If you have a look at the figures, they are all very, very realistic.

I have looked at the figures. And they said

it took us a long time to get up to £4.5 million and make a £1.3 million profit in the first year.

Maybe I am being ambitious, but they never pinpointed which part of my plan is excessive.

-Let me do a better pinpointing at the moment, shall I?

-OK.

You said that you've made £1,000 on Saturdays, sometimes,

going to a particular market, selling your merchandise. Yeah?

On average I make £1,000 per weekend.

So £1,000 per weekend.

I can see you standing there on your little stall, selling them. I can see that.

Now extrapolate that out to £4.5 million, and that's how ridiculous what you are saying sounds.

Because all you've done so far, you've done yourself. Right?

Well, I've also worked on bigger things as well - I've organised

an event where I employed 15 members of staff. Hold on a minute.

Do you know how much a company like L'Oreal, or a company

like Revlon or a company like Lancome spend to get consumers to walk into shops to buy stuff?

Do you realise that the quarter of a million pounds I'm proposing to inject into this business,

you flick your fingers, and that's it. Spent in a day. Gone.

I did break up all of the different sales and those were the figures that I came up with.

-Are you listening to me?

-No, I'm listening.

Because I'm telling you, I know about this business, and I'm telling you

that you haven't got a hope in hell of having a £4.5 million

-turnover in the first year, but it doesn't mean it can't work.

-Brilliant.

Well, Helen, I have an ethos which I preach throughout the country.

It's very simple. For you to start a business, you have to have some experience in that field.

I saw your business plan, of course.

-OK.

-And how can I say it. I feel,

terribly disappointed, to be honest.

To be frank. Because you've come up with this concierge service

which has got nothing whatsoever at all to do

with the business you've been in.

-Where was your head on this one?

-I completely understand what you're saying, but if you

spot a gap in the market, you don't think, well, actually I haven't been doing

that particular job for the last 10 years, so it's out of the water for me.

What nobody has succeeded in doing, is opening up across the nation.

We'd be the market leader. There's a market out there.

Helen, Helen, forget about the nationwide, you've got to walk before you can run.

I appreciate what you're saying, but there's definitely

a market out there for it, so I could absolutely turn my hand to this.

The two tasks that you excelled at in my opinion were biscuits and the pie task.

-Yes.

-Both of those were in the bakery business, which you happen to know

a lot about, so I think we were quite surprised

that you didn't stick to the business that you knew about.

I did absolutely think about that and that was my second choice.

-OK.

-However, I felt it wasn't unique enough for you.

-OK. Tom.

If I have to precis your business plan,

it's all about eventually getting to a chair that prevents back pain.

-That's a part of it.

-I also understand that your business plan

talks of not just the chair, but actually going into offices

so that you can perform some tests on people to see whether they're going to get backache in the future.

What I'd come to you and suggest, as an employer,

is that back pain is costing you, wasting you, £300,000 a year.

-Tom, Tom, I'm a man from the big world out there.

-Yes.

And a long, long time ago, I stopped worrying about people taking time off of work, OK?

-But...

-Under health and safety regulations I have to ensure

that the working environment in my building is a certain temperature.

-Yes.

-That there aren't any things on the floor that they can trip up,

that lifts work properly, fire extinguishers, washroom facilities and all of that type of stuff.

But I've got to tell you, as an employer, I would give up

and emigrate if someone said to me, now, what you've got to do

is to allow all your employees to have a desk chair check.

If something was in your business that was costing you money... electricity,

your heat was flooding out, you'd get someone in to test, to identify how it was wasting money.

If you can show me how to save electricity, certainly, yes.

I got to look at my businesses, that I've had over the years, and I've got to tell you, Tom,

the absenteeism is not all to do with back pain.

You could just as well argue that if you put alcohol rub on everybody's desk,

then X amount of people wouldn't have flu.

I could also supply them with bouncing keyboards so they wouldn't have arthritis in the left thumb.

And all that stuff. It's just a flawed plan, Tom.

Jim, when did you write that business plan?

-In the two weeks prior to this process.

-Really?

-Yes.

If you hadn't met me, you were actually going to start

a business on your own, you'd have come up with that?

Well, I currently do that, Lord Sugar, I go into schools

in Northern Ireland and deliver employability skills to children.

-I thought you sell print?

-I do, yes.

And you do the other thing as a kind of...

I take leave to do that, yes.

What worries me about your business plan is that what you're selling is me.

You're jumping on the back of my brand, if you like.

Yes, very unashamedly, Lord Sugar.

I even branded it in line with your companies, for the sheer reason, that I need the clout.

I make no bones about that.

I don't actually want your time commitment, Lord Sugar, I'll drive it,

I'll make it successful, and I'll put in all the hard yards, but...

How would you do that, then? Where's the money?

Well, you know what, I actually considered it being

a non-profit business initially, but I thought that that wouldn't appeal to your sense of making money.

Jim, Jim, I don't wish to boast, but as far as my philanthropic activities are concerned,

I've got enough of them. Trust me, I do my bit.

This is about business. Where is the money?

Sugar... Lord Sugar, what I'll admit is that it's not a million-dollar idea where we're

going to get rich in the morning, but the future of the economy and the future of children...

-Don't play the sympathy thing.

-No, I don't mean to.

I told you before, I do enough of this stuff.

This process here today is all about my commercial life.

You knew from the very beginning, we're talking about a business here, to make money.

That's right.

Now, it's time for me to get realistic about the person I'm going to go into business with.

Tom, maybe there's some legs in offering a chair.

A chair that has its own USP, its own special thing, some real special reason as to why people buy it.

-OK.

-But if you're thinking of me and you going into a business where we're going to be

wasting time talking to companies about testing their employees out,

that ain't going to work.

-OK.

-The chair might work.

Right. Good.

Jim. In the past 12 weeks, you've shone through as a great salesperson.

But I've struggled to differentiate between salesmanship

and business acumen.

And I believe you wrote the plan that you thought was going to make me happy,

because of all of the other work that I do outside of business.

Lord Sugar, it wasn't to make you happy. I had that idea,

but I had a eureka moment when I've seen, goodness, there's an opportunity to be a business partner.

And my business idea needs clout and I'm very unashamed about that.

Jim, there was an opportunity to become a business partner

and I'm afraid to say that that opportunity is not open to you any longer.

-Jim, you're fired.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

-I couldn't have given anything more, and thanks for the opportunity.

-All right.

Cheers. Best of luck, guys.

Helen.

I cannot express my disappointment in your business plan.

You kind of threw a bit of a curve ball at me, really,

because you have demonstrated to me that you know what you're doing.

You work very, very hard, you're just relentless at working.

You won't need to babysit me.

You know that you could leave me to get on with it.

Susan.

If I decided that you were going to come

into business with me, I know exactly how the road map of this thing would work.

But I don't think you know the amount of costs that are going to be eaten up to professionalise

what's actually a bit of a make it in the back of a kitchen type of thing

with a few ingredients, stick it in a pot and flog it in the market.

I absolutely understand that there are plenty of costs and perhaps...

Susan, don't keep telling me you absolutely understand something. You don't absolutely understand.

I'm saying that I understand that I didn't understand.

Susan,

whilst it's always been my intention one day to get into the cosmetics industry,

this time, it's not going to happen.

So, Susan, I'm afraid to say, you're fired.

Thank you, Lord Sugar.

I think Susan will go on somewhere, do something. I think we're going to hear about her one day,

but I've got to think about the immediate future.

Do me a favour, step outside. I'm going to speak to Karren and Nick here. I'll call you back in.

Thank you.

If this was "give me a job,"

Helen would just walk home, because she's won so many tasks and she has shone, if you like, flown through.

This is difficult.

The thing about Tom is, everyone knows, he's a nice fellow.

He had a good product, he's terribly personable,

people like him.

The combination of those two things, that's a powerful combination.

I think he'll need a lot of managing because the only times

he's been truly successful in tasks is actually when he had Helen alongside him, who's the organiser.

PHONE RINGS

-Hello.

-Could you ask the two to come in now, please. Thank you.

You can go through to the boardroom now.

Helen and Tom, this is a tough time for me now.

I've got to make a decision - who's going to partner me for this very first time.

-I'd like to add something.

-Yes, sure.

I feel like my an initial idea

is not suited to you, it's apparent,

and I had a second business plan, I thought may be more appealing to you,

which was a chain of bakery stores, specialising in home-made breads and cakes.

I know I'm taking a bit of a risk saying this at this stage,

but I do feel like I have exceptional strengths in retail and also bakery.

I've done it ever since I started work.

I know the business inside and out, and it was a very close call

which business plan to choose and I think I've chosen the...

Is that right, Helen, or are you just being ultra-shrewd, which I know you are?

-No.

-That was your number two plan, was it?

This is what I really wanted to do. To start my own business.

You know you can give me the business, leave me to get on with it and I'll make it a success,

I'll work exceptionally hard at it and I can lead...

I don't understand why you haven't before, in some respects?

-Started a business?

-Yes.

It can obviously be batted back, so if you started your own business and had five, six years at it,

it should be a success by now and you shouldn't be here.

I would hope after five or six years of starting my own business,

I wouldn't have to be coming here and asking for funding. I'd have made it a success already.

Tom. Let me into your secret, because I'm dying to know.

How did you manage to get into somewhere like Wal-Mart?

By using my creativity, Lord Sugar.

I knew that to get into the major retailer, as an individual, I'd just get batted away.

So I found out who the buyer was, which was no mean feat in itself.

And I created a beautiful parcel and I said to the receptionist,

I have a special delivery, it has to be hand delivered to this certain buyer.

She said, I'll put it on the side, and I said no,

it's got to be hand-delivered, it's an incredibly special parcel.

The lovely lady came down and I explained that I was an inventor and I had this fantastic concept for her

and she was really very, very shocked, but yes, she'd give me half an hour,

and it was from that half an hour that it went into the American retailer and the UK retailers.

I didn't know you'd it in you, Tom.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

-I didn't know you had it in you!

Well, look, Helen and Tom, anybody can dish out a job,

but in these difficult economic times, where people are complaining that nobody wants to help,

I'm going to get a lot of pleasure, I hope,

out of working with a young entrepreneur in proving that this can be done.

Helen, you have been exceptional in that you've won so many tasks

and you've understood the plot and shone through.

You can see that I wasn't too happy about your business plan idea.

OK, you've come up with an alternate.

Tom, you've got the experience of actually making stuff, selling stuff, inventing stuff.

The current business idea needs tweaking, a lot of tweaking.

And that's what business is about.

My decision is that...

Tom, you're going to become my business partner.

Tom, you're hired.

Thank you!

Well done, Tom.

Thank you, Lord Sugar.

Yes!

Yes!

Wow.

No longer is Lord Sugar sitting on the opposite side of the table.

We're on the same piece of paper. At Companies House, we're registered with the same company.

I just can't wait to open for business.

Sixteen candidates - one winner.

Lord Sugar's search for his business partner is over.

APPLAUSE

And that is the result,

ladies and gentlemen!

Welcome, welcome, to The Apprentice: You're Hired.

In this special hour-long programme,

we'll be hearing from Susan, Jim, Helen and Tom,

the rest of the candidates are also here, plus Nick, Karren, and Lord Sugar.

First, let's meet our panel - the co-founder of Innocent Smoothies, Richard Reed, columnist Jane Moore,

-and comedian Michael McIntyre. Welcome.

-APPLAUSE

Whoa! We have so much to get through after the carnage wrought by Lord Sugar's interview panel.

First tonight, even the promise of £1m profit in the first year

couldn't save Susan from being shown the door.

Susan, whilst it's always been my intention

to one day get into the cosmetics industry,

I'm going to have to say, Susan, this time, it is not going to happen.

So, Susan, I'm afraid to say you're fired.

Thank you, Lord Sugar.

Please welcome Susan Ma.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Hey, how are you?

-I'm very good, thank you, Dara!

-Congratulations on getting this far,

commiserations on not going that tiny bit further - are you disappointed?

I am very disappointed. I was really hoping to make it all the way to become Lord Sugar's business partner.

-At the end of the day, it's his decision.

-Do you think £1m might have been a bit much?

Even half a million? Quarter of a million? Do you think you overestimated slightly?

I had two very innovative skincare innovations I was looking to develop

with Lord Sugar, and I thought that with his name behind the brand,

we could really make it work.

I was so overexcited with the concept, I just wanted to give him as much money as possible

to go with the business plan, and I was a bit overambitious of that.

Let's take a look at where it went wrong for you tonight.

She is, I think, what one would call an entrepreneur.

While doing your degree, you made quite a bit of money

-running a business.

-To have done what you've done is commendable.

I worry about your numbers. They're a bit flaky. £1m profit,

in the first year.

I think she is very naive...

-You employed over 15 people to work for you?

-Yep. How did you pay them?

-It was all cash.

-No tax?

-Um...

-No National Insurance?

-No nothing?

-No, no.

Phew... That was really tough!

Do you know how much L'Oreal and Lancome spend to get consumers

to walk into shops to buy stuff? A quarter of a million pounds.

You flick your fingers, and that's it spent in a day. Gone!

-Looking back, what would you have done differently?

-In the interview stage, I would have clarified

to Margaret that I'm not cheating tax! The people I did employ for the couple of days of the exhibition

were students, and were earning under the minimum threshold...

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE DROWN SUSAN OUT

I think it was a tough interview, and you just freeze.

Is it easier to make £1m a year if you don't pay tax...?

-I wish it was that easy! Not in this country.

-OK, Richard, what do you think, as a businessman?

I thought you did really well.

You had an idea everyone understood, and I'm not sure we can say the same

for some of the others. I'd employ you like a shot,

but you don't need employing - you're clearly an entrepreneur,

and I thought it was fascinating - you did work at a market stall, realised you could do it yourself,

and took that risk and went for it.

You don't need a job, you'll make your own, and for many others too.

-It's a very exciting prospect.

-Jane, what did you think?

I think you did incredibly well! HD television, this programme is in,

and your skin is amazing!

So whatever your product is,

I'd dive into it, and you're the best advert for it, so what I'd say

is sell yourself, as well as your product,

as a living example of how good it is.

You're a better face for skincare than Lord Sugar is - I'd put you on the front!

I presume it wasn't going to be Lord Sugar going, "When I use skincare..."

It could have made for a decent "before and after".

I think you missed a trick - you have amazing skin,

and in the interview, if you'd said, "Look, I'm 78 years old."

There was a feature of your work, and how you conducted yourself -

always with the questions!

ALWAYS with the questions!

You did ask some very odd questions, I thought.

Are the French eco-friendly?

Do the French go camping?

Do a lot of people drive in France?

I don't think you need to go to France to know the answer to those questions, do you?

-Are the French very fond of their children?

-What?!

That really is beyond stupid.

Thing is, your story, your back story - you were born in Shanghai?

-Yes, I was.

-And lived in Australia...

-I did.

-Then moved here.

-You're by some distance the most cosmopolitan, well travelled...

-I'm multicultural.

-Multicultural, yeah!

So what's your problem with the French? Presumably, the Chinese,

Australians and English all love their children -

why do you presume that just that small body of water away,

they're just banging them about, "I'm not buying you a chair in a bag! Get your own!"

I was brainstorming to myself,

and talking to myself - Zoe completely ignored me, actually. She thought I was crazy.

It was those stupid questions that led me to choose the two products

that went on to break an Apprentice record, so perhaps not too daft!

APPLAUSE

I wanted to ask you, cos through the whole process, you were the one

that often spoke great sense.

The task was going severely off the tracks, and you were going,

"Excuse me, I don't think we should do that, we should do this." Nobody listened to you.

When you look back now, having seen the programmes yourself,

do you think it was because of your age, or do you think it was because of your personality,

and you've learned now to have a bit more...

To be more confident about your own point of view?

Yeah, in the beginning, I was very wary of the fact everyone else

had more experience than me in a corporate environment,

and I probably wasn't going to be taken seriously,

and because I was aware of that concept, I automatically backed down

whenever someone said, "You're wrong...", "We don't trust you..."

The turning point was when Jim called me a mouse in the boardroom -

I was absolutely fuming!

I made sure that he never could call me that again, so after that point,

I made sure that every idea I had, that I thought was right,

I bulldozed across and didn't care what anyone else thought.

As much as that, more than that, there were moments of great insight.

-You spent 170 quid, approximately.

-Yeah.

And I gave you £250.

We have £91 left over with £250 to spend. We could still buy stuff.

If I'd wanted you to spend £170, I'd have given you £170.

Zoe's thought of a good one -

Hip Replacements.

-I'm just thinking, is that a bit of a sensitive topic?

-No.

It is bad.

If anyone cottoned onto the business task here, on Day 1, it was Susan.

-150, flat rate.

-If it was me, I would just do it for free.

You'd have got the furniture pitch had you offered 50 quid for it,

-as the other team got it for nothing.

-So I'm NOT an idiot!

Now, let's discuss that back story, because as you mentioned,

there was a lot of travelling, from Shanghai, Australia, then over here.

Your mum is actually here - Shu Mai Lu. Hello, how are you?

How would you sum up Susan?

-She's brainy!

-AUDIENCE: Aw!

I'm very proud of her.

APPLAUSE

You've had to work - the two of you have had to work your way up

to where you are. Your mum is in the market in Greenwich as well?

She is. My mum is an incredible woman. Coming here to the UK with pretty much no grasp of English,

with a 12-year-old daughter, cannot be easy, and looking at her

working at the markets, and seeing all the other traders selling what they sell, I got ideas

of what else could sell onto the markets, and slowly developed my skincare business,

and sold it at the market next to her stall, sometimes,

-and built my way up from there.

-OK.

You've given us fantastic moments. I do a gift thing every week,

and we wanted to find one thing

that - and you may not be aware of this - but in this part of the world... You came here at 12.

If you grew up here, the one thing that gave you correct answers was the Amazing Robot, right?

It always gives you the right answer!

I can demonstrate. It's exciting.

This is the robot. Some of you will remember this. What you do, right,

you get the robot - I love this -

and then you pull him into place,

and then you find what question to ask. For example...

This one. "Do the French love their children?"

And you lift the robot, put him on the mirror,

And he magically spins around until the answer comes up...

Yes. Yes, they do love their children. That is a gift from us,

in case that question ever pops up again.

APPLAUSE

Susan, you made it to the final, and here are your highlights.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God!

(Oh, my God!)

Oh, MY GOD!

MUSIC: "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters

I'm short, sweet and smiley,

but when I do business, I mean business.

It's amazing.

Have a look.

Can I tempt you?

Hi, sir, can I tempt you? Just £1.

Ten stars!

Oh, God, this is heavy.

Susan, it's a win, by eight quid.

Team Venture, guys!

Flying!

COME ONN-N-N-N!

-Ladies and gentlemen, Susan Ma!

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

And now, to a man who's been one of the stars of this series.

His business idea didn't find favour with Lord Sugar, however,

so his Apprentice learning curve came to an end with these words.

Jim, there was an opportunity to become a business partner,

and I'm afraid to say that opportunity is not open to you any longer.

Jim, you're fired.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar. I couldn't have given anything more, and thanks for the opportunity.

-All right.

-Please welcome Jim Eastwood.

-CHEERING

Why don't you do the talking here?

You have again redefined, on behalf of the Irish people,

redefined the chatty Irishman, giving it a sinister edge occasionally,

-which we desperately needed. Are you disappointed?

-Yeah. I wanted to win.

I was in it to win it.

LAUGHTER I just can't help it!

I wanted to win, but I gave it my best shot, and when you do that in life,

you can leave with your head held high. APPLAUSE

Let's remind ourselves what sealed your fate.

I think that business plan is one long seduction letter.

The business is called AMSmart, with the "AMS".

Isn't that a feeble attempt to curry favour? So I said to him,

"How many headteachers and principals have you spoken to?"

He was so slippery.

-I haven't divulged the nature of e-learning.

-Where's the money?

You know what, I actually considered it being a non-profit business,

but I thought that wouldn't appeal to your sense of making money.

-Trust me, I do my bit. This is about business.

-SUSAN: What was it like?!

That was a walk in the park! With people shooting at you!

And throwing hand grenades at you!

Was there a point, maybe the words,

"This is a non-profit business", that you realised it wasn't going to work out?

I suppose it doesn't appeal to Lord Sugar's sensibilities,

but he does so much in that line,

it was a big idea, and you have to have big ideas.

-Big charity idea - the wrong time to bring this in?

-I kind of think so,

I don't know, pitching non-profit to Lord Sugar is interesting,

but I got a sense you really care about that topic. It's something you do personally?

Absolutely. It was a "eureka" moment when it came about,

the format of The Apprentice had changed and it was an investment

into a business. I thought, "This guy loves education, I love education,

-"there's a fit here."

-Jane, what did you think of the idea?

All the way through this, you have been the most amazing salesman,

you could sell ice to the Eskimos, but at the very end when it really matters, you come up with a plan

-that doesn't have anything to do with business at all, really.

-Michael, what did you think?

Your skill is selling, and year on year, people come on and lots of them

say, "I'm a brilliant salesperson." I think you're the best I've ever seen.

You were tremendous. That day when you were selling the umbrellas in the street, and selling it as a pointer,

as a landmark pointer, and hugging people after making the sale,

and they would hug you!

Strangers hugged you! That's insane. Imagine any of us going shopping

and getting a hug at the end of that process! I thought you were absolutely brilliant.

I don't think it was a letter of seduction, your pitch.

I think it was a moment of seduction.

When you dropped the "Lord", right at the end.

And you just thought,

"I'm losing here..." -

"Sugar!"

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

I've enjoyed watching you over the course of this process,

cos you really are the best thing since sliced bread and,

at the end of the day, you might always look like the cat that got the cream,

every dog has his... listen, you're the master at this, you do it better than I do.

If I give a dog a bone, they don't have to eat it.

That's another one of my sayings that nobody will understand.

I'm not a show pony.

Or a one-trick pony.

Or a wild stallion that needs to be tamed.

Or a stubborn mule.

A bit of an ass?

Jackass, maybe!

# Champion the wonder horse... #

Jim, do you have difficulty expressing yourself succinctly?

If you sit on the fence, you get splinters in your ass.

Too sweet to be wholesome.

It's a whisper in the night.

I am the champion thoroughbred this process requires.

Try and say it without cliches.

About me, I am exactly what it says on the tin.

LAUGHTER

# Champion the wonder horse. #

I've got loads of sympathy for this, because you talk a lot,

so therefore the old cliche might slip in now and again.

Your strike rate might be quite low on the cliche front,

but you're banging out words and phrases!

Were you impressed with the use of language that Jim had?

There were a lot of cliches.

When people hear that, then they automatically switch off

because they think it's patter and that you don't mean what you say,

it's just something that you've taken out of a book or whatever,

and you might be completely sincere about it,

but instantly as soon as you hear that phrase you just kind of go,

"Oh, I'm just hearing noise."

There was that great bit in the interview when the guy said,

"Do you have trouble expressing yourself succinctly?"

and I could see you sort of pause and breathe and you said,

"I'm working on that," and it was such a good succinct answer,

-so you rose to the challenge.

-No would have been better. Even more succinct.

My absolutely favourite Jim bit, and there was many great Jim bits,

but the absolute bit that I thought was the coolest thing I've seen in The Apprentice,

where you talked yourself out of being brought back into the boardroom. That was genius.

APPLAUSE

That is the epic Jim moment, I have to say,

is the one thing that you will be remembered for, that uncanny ability

to influence the people around you,

using not just words, but also the force.

There are people who are happy and full and they need to know what they're doing.

They can take their hearts, they can take their minds.

I'm good at making them do what I need them to do.

I'd like to bring back Alex and Jim.

I'm not the person you should be bringing in.

If you want to change your decision...

OK, I'm going to bring in Glen.

LAUGHTER

-A box of red peppers.

-Box of red peppers?

-Six onions.

-Go on.

-Good man.

-They're £1.50 a bowl.

-We're really desperate.

OK.

You have this kind of manner

of getting people on your side, uh, and controlling.

Lord Sugar, make me a millionaire overnight.

No, but, but, I...

LAUGHTER

-Yeah.

-Thank you, Lord Sugar.

APPLAUSE

How is the old Jedi Jim nickname working out for you at the moment?

I would take it over Manipulator any day of the week.

Depends what side of the dark side you're on, I feel.

Were you impressed with him?

-I see you're married, are you?

-I am, yes.

What was your chat up line to your wife?

IN JEDI VOICE: "We are going out tonight."

That's like number 73.

She was with Leon at the time and you went, "No!"

Leon's got a girlfriend.

Oh, wait, Leon has a girlfriend which is why...forget about that!

Which is why he can't spray tan a man.

AUDIENCE: OH!

That actually isn't a gag, that is genuinely...OK.

Could you use this? This is great, that power over people.

Well, I'm not so...

LAUGHTER

It's an excellent ability and he's a fine man.

APPLAUSE

For your gift, and a parting gift from us,

actually this is as much a gift from me, sometimes we mock stuff up,

this is genuinely mine, by the way, that I'm passing on to you.

But to do it we really have to,

if we could just bring down the lights slightly, that's be great.

Oh, wow!

And, look, it does the noise as well.

LIGHTSABER HUMS

That, Jedi Jim, is my gift to you to take away,

cos you have earned it, Jedi Jim.

APPLAUSE

-I get to milk it?

-Yeah, course.

-If I'm Jedi Jim...

-Don't hold it by the bit, it'll cut your hand off.