The latest Apprentice series ended with yet more drama, which isn't always the case with reality tv shows as often the final turns out to be something of a damp squib. However, the makers of the Apprentice have ensured that doesn't happen by inviting back the finalists former team-mates for one last task. Simon was facing hard-working Kristina along with their selected fellow contestants, both teams were set the task of re-designing Alan Sugar's latest acquisition, a £120m building which is situated on London's South Bank on the edge of the river Thames. The two teams had just three days to gather and then present their schemes to a huge gathering of London property experts along with Sir Alan and his acolytes, aka Margaret and Nick.
Against all of the odds, given the sheer scale of the project, the teams triumphed when they created what can only described as two stunning schemes. One has to add here that a great deal of credit must go down to the unnamed architects practice who rejected Simon's initial design which was based on the Angel of the North.
However, Rory who hadn't really contributed that many outstanding ideas during the series thus far, to his eternal credit had actually penned what was viewed as a far superior design which the architects loved. To the consternation of Tre, Rory's nemesis, whose boat scheme had already been abandoned and beached, the man who had been made bankrupt twice also came up with the brilliant idea of using dancers during the presentation of the new building which would be been known as
The Wave.From then on it was down to Simon to present the numbers behind the scheme, and he did not disappoint. The former public schoolboy had the assembled audience transfixed and in the palm of his hand as he gave good answers to every searching question from the floor. Sugar sat smiling throughout as he stroked his silvery whiskers while often nodding approvingly, he was like the proverbial cat licking the cream as Simon went through the potential numbers - you could almost see the pound signs lighting up in Sir Alan's eyes.
Next came Kristina with a more low-key presentation of
The Phoenix, that was an equally stunning design which was also backed up with solid numbers. Once again as hard as the audience tried to poke holes into the scheme they were effortlessly batted away.
Both teams had seriously impressed this gathering of city experts, there was nothing between the two schemes. But as Sir Alan later said, the game show rules dictate that there could only be one winner and in the end, after much soul-searching, Sugar decided that Simon fitted the bill as his operation is now moving ever more into property. It was a very closely run final, the Amstrad boss later admitted that it was his toughest call yet on the Apprentice.
The fun did not end there though as once again the superb BBC2 Adrian Chiles show
You're Hired ended the series with both finalists, their fellow contestants and Sugar himself talking about the final in front of a live public audience.
Katie Hopkins who'd given up the chance of a final place because she'd not consulted her family support unit on her plans to uproot to London, was once again in the spotlight as previous footage of her slaughtering Kristina behind her back was aired, in what must have been cringing moment for Katie who had no alternative but sit and grin through the ordeal.
In response Kristina let it be known that she would never stoop so low and the audience just loved that. However, this was slightly disingenous as Kristina had previously outed Paul and Katie for 'carrying on' in the house.
Then somewhat surprisingly, Sir Alan piped up stating that he'd never employ someone like Katie in his organisation, this after he'd offered her the chance of a final place in the previous episode - it actually smacked of Sugar still smarting because Katie had made something of a fool of him when it looked as Katie had only entered to competition for her own ends with a possible career in the media which is what we've been saying on this site for some weeks now.
It was a dramatic end to what has been a great series which left the viewers wanting more.
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