As if the first 10 weeks of BBC One’s “The Apprentice” were not hard enough for the five surviving candidates, last night they faced their toughest challenge yet - gruelling interviews with some of Sir Alan Sugar’s most trusted business associates.

Every detail of their personal and professional lives was to be picked apart by the fearsome panel and there would be a further grilling by Sir Alan back in the boardroom.

The interview stage has thrown up some memorable moments in series past (remember Lee McQueen’s reverse pterodactyl?) but the remaining candidates; James, Kate, Lorraine, Yasmina and Debra all pretended not to be bothered, with Yasmina boasting: “I’ve never had an interview and not got the job.”

She was the first to be made to eat her words when Sir Alan’s trouble-shooter Claude Litner produced her restaurant’s accounts. Yasmina, supposedly one of Britain’s “brightest business talents”, did not know the difference between gross profit and net profit or what turnover is. “It’s what you are turning over,” she muttered. “You’re talking nonsense,” said Claude.

So was James. He has been the most entertaining element of this series, most memorably when Sir Alan referred to him as being from a “village that is missing an idiot”, but he has been lucky to get this far. His self-diagnosed foot-in-mouth syndrome returned last night: he failed to answer a single question coherently and his CV was branded “90 percent unreadable.” Comparing Sir Alan to Willy Wona was perhaps the moment that sealed his fate.

Lorraine was even worse, prattling on to Birmingham City Football Club Managing Director Karren Brady about being able to read people’s minds. Her “gift” should have told her that Karren was really angry she lied about dates of employment on her CV.

Debra’s hot temper has landed her in trouble throughout this series and it returned to haunt her again last night. Sir Alan’s advisor Alan Whitter had spoken to some of Debra’s former colleagues who, it turns out, do not like her very much. “She is loud, obnoxious and inexperienced,” he said, summing her up rather nicely.

Kate, once again, sparkled. Claude struggled to find something negative to say about her before settling for her being “too perfect.”

Back in the boardroom, the associates delivered their verdicts to Sir Alan. The panel was not impressed with Lorraine, one of them saying “I couldn’t shut her up. You’d ask her one question and 10 minutes later she would still be going. I think she would drive you up the wall.”

Only Kate received a glowing review and as this blog said last week, she is the only stand-out candidate. As Karren Brady said: “She won’t let you down.”

When Sir Alan called the contestants in to learn their fate, poor James looked like a broken man and he barely put up a fight as time ran out on his time in the competition. Even Sir Alan agreed that James has made this series entertaining, but he was still the first to be booted out of the semi-final.

Lorraine was next, off to pursue a career as the next Mystic Meg. Which left Yasmina, Debra and Kate competing for the two places in the final. Fortunately, there was no repeat of some of the terrible decisions Sir Alan has made in the past, and an elated Kate was told she was in the last two. Always confident and impressive, she looks unbeatable in the final.

There was nothing between Yasmina and Debra - they have been just as bad as each other. Debra has upset everyone in this competition, including the judges. She calls herself “tenacious” whereas we call her tyrannical. Yasmina already has a successful business, so why does she want to work for someone else?

Sir Alan appeared genuinely unsure who to fire, but in the end it was Debra’s aggressive nature, which she had been told to curtail almost every week, which led to her downfall. “Keep in touch,” he said as she walked out the door. Be careful what you wish for, Sir Alan.

Kate Walsh and Yasmina Siadatan go head-to-head in “The Apprentice” final on Sunday June 7 at 9pm on BBC One. Can Yasmina stop Kate? Who do you think would be a worthy winner?

The task on last night’s episode of “The Apprentice” had to be the hardest of the series so far. Sir Alan Sugar met the candidates at the O2 Arena, formally the Millenium Dome, and gave them all a lesson in the art of re-branding.

Their challenge was to use their creative and marketing skills to re-brand one of the UK’s faded seaside tourist attractions - Margate.

The teams had to choose a theme for the makeover and produce a series of posters and leaflets to attract a new generation of tourists to the Kent town and then pitch their ideas to industry experts and local residents.

Yasmina’s team, Ignite, made the sensible choice and decided to aim for the family market. Team Empire, on the other hand, decided to sell the various delights of Margate to… the gay community. It was James, who Sir Alan memorably described as being from “a village that is missing an idiot”, who suggested the idea because “these people have lots of money.”

It was a shocking performance from Empire. Their research involved walking into a local gay bar to find it almost empty - and then deciding to do a photo shoot there anyway. The posters were awful (they should contain no more than 10 words - they used 70!) and team leader Debra made a complete hash of the leaflets. After leaving half of the leaflet blank, Debra told the tourism experts that this was space for local advertisers, which did not fool them one bit.

Ignite performed admirably, taking great photos on the beach and producing a rather attractive series of promotional material. The experts liked them and so did the locals. Once again it was Kate who excelled - at the moment she is the only candidate who looks like she can win this competition.

Her team won handsomely and Sir Alan wasted no time in laying into Empire’s incredibly inept campaign, telling them: “You made a brave statement by going for the gay market and then you whispered the message!”

Debra came back into the boardroom with James and Tanzanian beauty queen Mona and it was time for the weekly back-stabbing to commence. They were all hopeless but, in the end, it was Mona who got the chop for not getting behind the campaign to target the gay market

You could hardly blame her, it was a terrible idea and it should have been Debra who went for only giving herself 30 minutes to create a leaflet and for her astounding belligerence, both during the task and in the boardroom.

Anyone who raises their voice to Sir Alan is surely not long for this reality TV world.

After shouting his way through the previous tasks, estate agent Philip Taylor was booted off ”The Apprentice” last night for breaking that age-old rule: never mix business with pleasure.

Sent to Manchester and Liverpool to sell products pitched to them by inventors, loudmouth Phil instead spent the entire task flirting with Kate — favourite to win the competition — and cheekily saying things like “I’d buy anything off her” as if he was auditioning for a role in a Carry On film.

The products chosen by both teams were just ridiculous.

Ignite team leader Lorraine, who has had a bust-up with Phil in every episode so far, went for a cat playhouse and a bicycle luggage holder, while team Empire, led by Mona, tried to flog a two-person dog lead (don’t ask) and a silk sleeping bag that can be worn like a jumpsuit.

Autocrat Lorraine decides she is the person to pitch the products to retailers, despite her shocking attempt at selling exercise equipment a few weeks ago. The most over-used — and irritating — phrase of this series is surely one candidate yelling to another: “I’m just as good as you are at selling.”

Back in the boardroom, a bewildered Sir Alan Sugar immediately panned the teams’ product choices, particularly Debra’s attempt to sell the sleeping bag suit to a retailer specialising in high-end designs, who summed it up rather nicely by saying: “It’s just not very stylish.”

Kate, Philip and Ben failed to make a single sale between them, however, and team Ignite were heavily outsold by Empire. Lorraine brought Philip and Kate back into the boardroom with her to face Sir Alan’s wagging finger and cleverly chose to bring the pair’s romance to the overlord’s attention.

After being picked on by Philip for weeks, Lorraine got her revenge when Sir Alan fired Philip, saying: “Your bravado and attitude isn’t going to fit in my organisation.”

A teary-eyed Phil then stormed out of the boardroom in a way that his Y-front-wearing breakfast cereal creation Pants Man, for which he will be remembered, would have been proud.

So long Noorul Choudhury, we barely knew you. Mainly because we did not even know you existed.

After surviving for five weeks by lurking in the background and hoping Sir Alan Sugar would not notice he was there, Noorul has finally been ejected from this series of “The Apprentice”.

The good performance by last week’s winning team turned out to be a blip and last night the candidates were back to what they do best: making a complete pig’s ear of a rather straightforward challenge. Tasked with selling a range of bric-a-brac, team Ignite left the most pricey item — a rug — in the back of their van until it was almost too late, while team Empire did not even bother to have the items valued.

Both teams made a net loss and it was back to the boardroom for more infighting.

This series the section of the show devoted to the task has been getting shorter and shorter and last night the grilling by Sir Alan and his aides started after 35 minutes, which tells you everything you need to know about the amount of business acumen on display.

Project manager Ben, who is clearly starting to agitate Sir Alan, made a total mess of choosing which two teammates to take back into the boardroom with him. For the first time in Apprentice history, a team leader changed his mind and one poor candidate who thought she was free to go was called back in.

The result was a formality, however. Taciturn Noorul offered nothing and whichever team he ended up on was effectively a man down.

It was Sir Alan’s easiest decision so far. Choosing a worthwhile winner, on the other hand, may be his hardest.

The chief villain of the latest series of “The Apprentice”, now at the half-way stage, is undoubtedly Belfast-born Ben Clarke, who has wound up not just his fellow contestants and Sir Alan Sugar but everyone at home watching the show.

His claim three weeks ago that he should not be fired because he had “won a scholarship to Sandhurst” will surely become part of reality TV folklore. The former stockbroker is on top form again this week, when viewers finally get to see if he can live up to his own hype as project manager of team Empire.

Ignite, meanwhile, get motor-mouth Philip (pictured), the second most obnoxious contestant on the show and the man responsible for last week’s cereal box character, “pants man”.

This week the candidates are given an inventory of bric-a-brac to sell and warned not to take any of the items at face value. The team which makes the most profit wins.

It is not long before cocky Ben is back doing what he does best - talking about himself. He says, modestly: “I am a natural born leader. Sandhurst clearly saw that in me and that’s why I got an army scholarship. Under those situations where I am under extreme pressure, i.e. heavy gunfire, explosions going off around me, people getting injured - that’s when I can bring a team together.” Something tells me Ben is proud of the fact he was once offered a scholarship to Sandhurst.

Deciding that time is money, Ben then rules that team Empire should not even bother having their items valued. His cheap, quick-sale techniques returns to haunt them in spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile, Philip tries to stay calm but his feud with Lorraine soon resurfaces. Lorraine is — understandably — convinced that an old Persian style rug is the prize item but Phillip ignores her advice and focuses on… a skeleton. Sir Alan’s adviser Margaret Mountford watches on in disbelief, saying: “This has got to be one of the most stupid activities they have yet engaged in.”

Which is really saying something.

“The Apprentice”, Wednesday April 29 at 9pm, BBC ONE.

Cheerio Paula Jones! You may have had nice hair, but you were rubbish at counting.

It has to be said, however, that once again Sir Alan Sugar fired the wrong candidate in last night’s episode of “The Apprentice”. Charged with setting up their own cosmetics business, the two teams had to make and sell their own beauty products using all natural ingredients.

Paula’s team, Empire, came up with by far the better product. Choosing seaweed as the main ingredient, they put together an attractive soap and shower gel range that even Sir Alan acknowledged looked the business.

Unfortunately, they made a costly error when selecting an essential oil for their beauty brew, confusing sandalwood (which is very, very expensive) with cedarwood (which is not). Under the impression that they had spent practically nothing, the moment Sir Alan’s aide Nick Hewer broke the bad news and their jaws hit the floor was the best moment of this series so far.

Empire had blown their budget and no amount of ineptitude from the opposing team, Ignite, could save them, though Team leader Nurool certainly gave it his best shot. The former chemistry teacher should have been good at this challenge, but he has to go down as one of the worst project managers ever. Ignite’s honey-based soap was a gloopy mess and Nurool was practically invisible.

Had Empire not made their costing error, they would have strolled to victory. As it turned out, they ended up making a loss and were left to reflect on what might of been in loser’s cafe.

Paula understandably chose Ben and Yasmina, the two candidates she had put in charge of finances, to accompany her back into the boardroom for the showdown with Sir Alan. Before long, the two turned on their team leader and, rather unfairly, it was Paula who got the chop. It should have been Ben, who took credit for other people’s efforts and boasted “I did outstandingly well on sales… and I’ve got a scholarship to Sandhurst.” Priceless.

The wrong team won and you could feel Sir Alan’s disappointment at not getting the chance to fire Nurool. Something tells us he won’t have to wait long.

Incompetence, in-fighting and all-round confusion. That’s right folks, “The Apprentice” is back on our screens tonight and this time “Britain’s best business prospects” (their words, not ours) are here to show us how not to sell beauty products.

Sir Alan Sugar shuffles the teams again (as if that will make any difference) and picks two of the “quiet ones” as project managers. Paula and Noorul lead the teams as they try to create and sell their own line of cosmetics and, for once, they both get off to a good start.

But don’t worry, it doesn’t last. Under Paula’s rule, team Empire plug for a shower gel and soap combo and head to Poole beach to collect their key ingredient, seaweed (as you do). It all falls apart, however, when they misread the formula of their product and confuse three percent with three grams and, to make matters worse, expensive sandalwood with cheap-as-chips cedarwood.

When Nick Hewer, Sir Alan’s right-hand man, points out how much product they will have to shift to make any money, the candidates are, for once, speechless.

Meanwhile, team Ignite put all their faith in a honey-based product which, despite team leader Noorul’s chemistry background, does not turn out as planned. Unable to start again, they are left trying to sell a product that is sticky and congealed.

Needless to say, the punters are hardly enthused. But when faced with sales-pitches like “Come on, you can give it to your mother” and “It’s a personal favourite of the Queen” (lie), who can blame them?

Not so much soap as soap-opera. And all the better for it.

– The Apprentice, Wednesday April 15 at 9pm on BBC ONE –

After a monumentally useless performance in last week’s opening task, “The Apprentice” candidates return to our screens tonight to add further ridicule to the claim that they are the “brightest business prospects in Britain.”

This week’s task sees them struggling to… make sandwiches. It is boys versus girls again and team Ignite and team Empire have to set up a catering service in the City of London, pitching for business, sourcing ingredients, creating menus and basically making a pig’s ear of the whole thing.

Yasmina and Rocky, both from catering backgrounds, are team leaders and you would expect them to know what they are doing. Fat chance. After over-spending last week the girls try to make up for it by offering chicken wraps without chicken and adding their own budget ingredient to a salad - hair.

The boys, rather brilliantly, go for an Olympic themed catering service and don togas to serve their food to bewildered city professionals.

A recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

Sir Alan Sugar’s henchman Nick Hewer is not impressed. “The togas haven’t gone down terribly well… the young ones find it rather a turn off.”

Speak for yourself Nick.

– The Apprentice, Wednesday April 1 at 9pm, BBC ONE –

You have to ask yourself, following last night’s opening episode of the fifth series of reality show “The Apprentice”, why lawyers even bother entering the competition. Sir Alan Sugar reportedly has little time for legal eagles and it was pretty clear, once her team had lost the first task, that poor Anita Shah, pictured, was going to be the first one booted out of the competition.

Mind you, she was pretty useless.

The show’s opening claim that the candidates, who are competing for a job with Sir Alan Sugar and a six figure salary, are “Britain’s brightest business prospects” is patently untrue. “The Apprentice” seems to have adopted the Big Brother mantra of selecting candidates not for their worth but because of their oversized egos, unwarranted self-belief and willingness (in some cases eagerness) to stab each other in the back.

Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson did not get to where they are today by saying things like “To me making money is better than sex” (contestant Ben Clarke) and “Business is the new rock ‘n’ roll and I’m Elvis Presley” (Philip Taylor, an estate agent).

Best of all was Business Development Manager Majid Nagra’s assertion that “Business is the backbone to this world, without companies buying and selling there wouldn’t be any economy.” Thanks for that.

Anita said modestly that “I have the rainbow of skills” and “people want to chat with me.”

Wrong! As it turned out, Sir Alan Sugar had heard enough as the girls team Ignite lost the challenge in which they had to go and earn money cleaning cars (or not as it turned out - they couldn’t get the power washer working).

Neither team earned very much money and the boys team, Empire, jet-washed cars with the doors open. Margaret Mountford, Sir Alan’s aide-de-camp, said, Churchill-esque: “Never before in the history of car washing have so few cars been washed by so many people in such a long time.”

Back in the boardroom the show’s producers got what they wanted as the candidates wasted no time savaging each other in an attempt to save themselves from the words, “You’re fired!”

But it was Anita who exited stage right, using her taxi monologue to fire a parting shot at the Big Boss. “I just think that Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers. Let’s see in 10 years if he doesn’t sit and think: maybe I made the wrong decision.”

Then again, maybe he won’t.

One thing is for sure though - it all makes fabulous telly.

What did you think of last night’s “The Apprentice” curtain raiser? Share your thoughts with us below.