A smorgasbord of stupidity and an embarrassment to the BBC: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews The Apprentice final [Video]

17:00 EDT 18 Apr 2024, updated 21:35 EDT 18 Apr 2024

The Apprentice (BBC One)

Rating:

For pity’s sake, someone take this show and put it out of our misery. Stagnant, moribund, drained of imagination, wit or entertainment, The Apprentice now typifies the worst of BBC1’s output.

When the series began in 2005, based on the U.S. original starring a has-been named Donald Trump, its British presenter Alan Sugar was still in his 50s.

Now 77, he might be younger than either of the American presidential candidates but that’s about the best you can say for the old boy. As the final dragged towards the finish line, Lord Sugar looked less like an aggressive entrepreneur and more like a doddery head of the family, trying to decide which of his scheming young relatives was going to inherit the remnants of his pension.

The finalists, gym owner Rachel Woolford and pie shop boss Phil Turner, were smarming up to him …