It is slightly redundant for me to now post details this late in the day on how to apply for the Irish Apprentice, given that Jazz Biscuit has already covered it, but I think I should anyway as I mentioned it on Sunday and got great amusement making up the graphic and coming up with the “First one to mention penny apples is fired” line I don’t think Bill Cullen should bother with the whole competition though. Instead he should just hire me for my amazing ability to come up with amazingly funny lines like that.

That isn’t the end of my talent though. I could also make posters and things for his garages or take photos of him at various society events and photoshop him for public viewing (double chin no more) or I could set up a blog for him and make it look nice or I could video him at his seminars and create the DVD’s. Yes Billy boy, if you’re reading this I can do lots of things like that and a lot more but you won’t be seeing me at the interviews as I just couldn’t perform with a camera shoved in my face. Your loss is my sanity.

Dirk Diggler types (he had no problem performing in front of the camera) can apply to become Bill Cullen’s Apprentice and bag a €100,000 salaried job for a year on the TV3 website. Just fill in the form. Make sure and read the terms and conditions and be comfortable that if you get through to the televised stage, you will be the production company’s bitch and they can do what they want with you, allegedly (just thought I’d throw that in there á la Have I Got News for You).

I predict there are going to be a lot of Estate agenty and buildery types applying for this show. The show will air in the autumn.

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As you’re no doubt aware, tomorrow night is the finale - it’s the one where someone (hard to believe this year, I know) gets hired. In 24 hours time we shall know who the mighty Sugar will crown as his Apprentice. But before all that, you get one final pre Apprentice show Apprentice bits.

Paul Groves looks back over this series ahead of tomorrow’s show and can’t pick a winner. Not because he can’t but because he doesn’t rate them. I tend to agree and think this series doesn’t have any stand outs like previous ones.

Trey Azam has the same opinion - but he IS going to say that isn’t he. Clever guy though.

The editor in chief of Reader’s Digest magazine has a very interesting take on reality TV and why Lucinda was never going to be the Apprentice.

‘Entrepreneurial expert’, Guy Kingston believes the Apprentice could lead to poorly run companies. Don’t see it myself, you would want to be a pretty naive individual to think running a business was anything like the Apprentice.

Previous apprentice winner, Michelle Dewberry has a new boyfriend who is a very well heeled friend of Prince William.

Claire and Lee dating apparantly, unless they are just perfecting dinosaur impressions together.

I didn’t get to see the programme “Why I fired them”, where Sir Alan gives his reasons for firing the candidates this series. Britishtvblog has a review of the programme. The only person Sir Alan regretted firing was Lucinda :

“He acknowledged that she was very intelligent and if she could settle down would run a division for him incredibly well. But he doubted she would ever settle.”

A fair enough comment I think.

That’s a full lid for this weeks bits. Don’t miss the final now…

Didn’t see this coming. Screentime Shinawhil are set to produce the Irish version of the Apprentice which is to be fronted by Bill Cullen.

The Sindo reports that the winner of the Irish version of the show will become Cullen’s “high flying” personal assistant.

The Guinness World Record Holder, Entreprenuer and Socialite is a multi millionaire with an estimated net worth of €120 million. One of 14 children, he was brought up in a one room tenement in Dublin’s north inner city. He started selling from street stalls at the age of 4. He is a long time supporter of various charities and has helped raise over €30 million in 20 years. His best selling book “It’s a long way from Penny Apples” recounted his rags to riches story.

Cullen also has eyes on the title of the first Irishman in space and has paid €250,000 for a ticket on Richard Branson’s space flight.

No further details on when production is due to start on the programme but no doubt we will hear a lot more about this over the coming weeks. The programme is being sponsored by Blue Cube Loans in a €200,000 deal.

Read the Sindo story here.

Well, we’ve come a long way baby. At the outset we were told that finest business people in Britain all gathered in London to compete for a job with Sir Alan Sugar. 10 weeks later there are 5 left standing. 2 men and 3 women.

This was the week of the interviews - something we can all identify with. The last interview I had was for a large multinational which was almost 10 years ago now but it’s as vivid in my mind today as it was then. I got the particular job I went for so the interview isn’t etched in my mind because I made a mess of it. It sticks in my mind because of how I felt before it. Not quite as bad as waiting to be called by the dentist to have a tooth pulled, but not far off.

Therefore, I could feel how the candidates were feeling. Most of what has gone before WAS just entertainment. It can’t really be viewed as a serious effort at finding out who is the best candidate for a job in business. A look back at the tasks prove that point. The interviews, although still a bit showy, are pretty much the real deal in terms of really finding out who the candidates really are. Rather predictably, current earnings and job status seemed to be used by the candidates as evidence of their worthiness for the job. From what I have seen on both this series and previous ones is that you don’t actually need to be in a well paid, high flying job to go far in the Apprentice, but having one or both is the only way you will make it into the final cut in the first place.

Sir Alan invited 4 colleagues to do the interviews, each very successful in their own way - a property “tycoon”, a global troubleshooter, the chief exec of Viglen and Karen Brady who took over Birmingham FC at the age of 23. Each had a very different interview style but the one that annoyed me the most was Paul Kemsley, the stubbly faced guy with the abrasive character. He’s appears to be the hard nosed, no friends in business kind of guy. This type of character gives business a bad name in my opinion. You can be tough in business but still keep friends. Being in business doesn’t mean you leave your sense of decency or compassion at the door. This guy makes business sound like it’s all cloak and daggers stuff where you’d kill your own mother to make a buck. Amazingly, he said good things about the candidates he was hardest on in the interview.

The editing of the interviews had to be done in such a way to keep the entertainment value high and the highlight was an encore of Lee’s famous dinosaur impression. In a real interview he’d never have done that I’m sure, but it was classic to see Kemsley give it the thumbs down and give Lee a dressing down for doing the impression at all. The Viglen exec that picked over Alex’s college record was sneaky but jusitified in doing it to see what reaction Lee gave. He totally failed on that point, instead of coming clean about it, the best he could muster was “I’m disappointed in myself”. Wrong answer Lee - just hold your hands up and say “yeah, sorry about that I lied but I felt my lack of formal qualifications might go against me and I really want this job”. He’s a likeable chap and I think he let himself down there.

Alex came across like a petulant child when challenged about his CV and experience even though the interviewers said he was a nice chap when giving their opinion in the boardroom. His charm was commented on by both male and female.

Claire was Claire… Confident in her abilities and generally liked by all.

Helene had something of a hard background which was touched upon and overall she seemed to be liked by the interviewers as well.

Lucinda came off worst in the interviews which wasn’t unexpected and she was totally sabotaged by Alex who told tales to Sir Alan that she had said she didn’t know if she wanted the job. That wasn’t something he should have brought up as Lucinda was only voicing some doubts early on in the day, but she was naive to voice those opinions in front of the other 4.

No surprise that she was let go. Although she was my personal favourite, I don’t think she would have worked well in the cut and thrust of Sir Alan’s empire.

As already flagged in one of my Apprentice bits, the remaining 4 will now fight it out next week. What I didn’t know is that there will be 2 teams. The winning candidate will come from the winning team. Alex and Helene are paired up against Claire and Lee in a task to come up with a new perfume.

Who will crowned Apprentice next week? If I was a betting man, I’d say Claire but it all depends on who wins the task. We might be in for a surprise next week though, can’t wait now.

Tomorrow’s episode is the one that I generally watch from behind my fingers. It’s the interview week and it is can be cringeworthy. Before all that though….

Nick Hewer is off next month on a 10,000 mile trip to Mongolia in a 20 year old Renault 4L. He is fundraising for the charity ‘Hope and Homes for Children‘ which focuses on closing down state welfare institutions in Eastern Europe by reuniting children with their families or close relatives. Best of luck to him, you can help Nick reach his target by donating on his web page here.

The chief exec of the Association of Professional Recruitment Consultants say the Apprentice casts recruitment in a bad light and he didn’t warm to any of the candidates.

My Booze Hell (and other stories) of the remaining candidates laid out for the world in the Mirror.

More revelations, this time from Michael who reveals the worst sex of his life with a “size 20 lady who looked like Dawn French with a moustache”.

Alice Wignall of The Guardian has an Apprentice related illness, poor dear.

Previous Apprentice winner Tim Campbell goes from strength to strength. Decent bloke, my favourite Apprentice winner.