The Apprentice - Another One Bites The Dust...

So Noorul has finally got his walking papers after managing to slip under the radar for weeks on end. Ironically, it seemed to be the first week that he actually tried to contribute something useful to the task but them's the breaks I suppose.

Was it the right decision?
Yes, I think so. He had to go. He probably should have gone before now and he wasn't really that entertaining. What about Debra? Well, as irritating as she is, she's very funny to watch, if she could just tone down the screaming a little bit. At one point last night, when she was arguing with Ben in the boardroom, I just thought 'This isn't fun television, I'm getting a headache'. Someone should have intervened long before Sir Alan eventually did. Don't get me wrong, I love a good scrap but when both of them are screaming at the same time then you can't even hear the great insults that are flying around! Pointless.

Aw Phil…
I've been championing Phil since week one. Why? Well, I'll be honest, mostly because I pulled his name out of the hat in the office sweep, but I also thought that he had his head screwed on and knew what he was about. The Pants thing last week was a set-back and I was hoping that he could recover this week but his treatment of Lorraine was not pretty. He was also a pretty useless team leader. He seemed to do precious-little research himself and then when Lorraine actually tried to offer him some useful advice he just dismissed her because he doesn't like her. Now I get that she's a bit annoying but she also speaks a lot of common-sense and, as team leader, Phil should have taken her advice on board and tried to put it to good use for the sake of the team. Instead his ego took over and the power of being team leader just went straight to his head. His card is marked I fear.

Ben the Brilliant
How great is Ben? (in a comical sense of course) He made the same mistake that so many before him have made. He championed himself ridiculously loudly before the task, with the usual 'I was born to lead' nonsense. It was just so cringeworthy to watch, especially when Margaret showed him up by revealing that all his talk of combat and warzones was utter fiction. Ben likes being the boss but he's no good at it. Every time Sir Alan challenged him on something in the boardroom he just backed down and squirmed in a 'you're so right Sir Alan' sort of fashion - embarrassing to watch. A classic example (which also produced the line of the night) was when he decided to bring James (the most entertaining one in the pack) back into the boardroom with him. James' reaction was the funniest thing on the show this week. Ben wasn't deterred by that but when he saw Sir Alan's face and heard the classic 'are you just worried there's a village somewhere missing an idiot?' line he changed his tune completely and turned on Debra instead. Nobody likes a turncoat, who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. Make a decision, stick to it, back up your reasons strongly. Otherwise Sir Alan is never going to even consider you for the job.

More of James please!
James was a little bit quiet this week (apart from his 'give the man an Oscar for over-performing in the boardroom' moment) but let's see more of him in the future. He might not be the most business-minded of the team but he's hilarious. The way he just speaks without ever stopping to process just cracks me up. I'd be disappointed to see him starting to self-edit. His charm is in the quick-witted speaking-without-ever-thinking action.

Linda McGee