Review: BBC's The Apprentice, Episode 11

Thursday evening saw the Final Five candidates of The Apprentice Series 19 take on their toughest challenge yet – the infamous interviews. 

Mike Soutar, Linda Plant, Claude Littner and Claudine Collins arrived on the scene once more to grill the business owners on their business plans, ideas and personal expertise. 

Overall it was an entertaining episode – Mike Soutar showcased his usual detective work as he went to Anisa's restaurant, Bombay Pizza, in London, to try her food, along with vanquishing Amber-Rose's fantasies of having created a unique product. Furthermore, unseen footage on BBC 2's You're Fired showed him bringing out his predictable, yet still stellar move, of having bought Jordan's domain name beforehand. Soutar always ensures that he brings viewers TV gold - Karren Brady and Tim Campbell need to be watching their jobs!

It was quite clear from the beginning that Anisa was going through to the final, as she has been one of the standout competitors from week one of the process, as well as conducting herself extremely professionally, and yet pleasantly, in each of her interviews this episode.

Linda Plant toned her aggressiveness down slightly this series, however we still got to witness some shrewd insights into her opinions of the candidates' business ideas, which were most amusing. 

It would have been nice to have slightly longer clips of each interview as it felt like we only saw a few seconds of a much longer piece, and the moments of the candidates waiting to go into the interviews get a little bit repetitive after a while. 

But most importantly, should Anisa and Dean be in the final?

Anisa should definitely be there in my opinion – I've said from week one how much she has been impressing me, and my view has not wavered at all after last night. Hearing that she gained twelve A stars at GCSE level shows how smart she is as a person, and her track record of volunteering to take on leadership positions in this process, even if she knows it will place her in the firing line, is impeccable.

However, I'm slightly more sceptical about Dean – he seems like such a nice human being and he had such a lovely story about his wife and children, however personally I would have put Jordan through to the final ahead of him. It seemed from the edit that Jordan is the one that needs the money, and Dean needed the mentorship, therefore perhaps Lord Sugar would have made a better decision had he given Dean his contact details instead, and given Jordan a shot at the grand prize.

Jordan also has a heartwarming backstory and has not been at all afraid to use his voice throughout this process when he disagrees with things, feels strongly about something, or sees a way that something could be done better, and all the comments about him having grown so much definitely seem to be well-founded. I also liked the fact that his business idea – a 3D animation company – is something more unique than the usual Apprentice business plans, and it would have been great to see that get launched in the final.

Amber-Rose has also been a very strong candidate throughout the process and I think improved a lot from week one up until the interviews stage, but unfortunately there wasn't anything that exciting or new about her business idea, therefore there was always going to be very little chance of her making it through.

And then there's Chisola – I think that if she had come in with a stronger business plan then she would be in the final, because Lord Sugar seemed to really like her and he said himself that he thought she was a very accomplished woman, but it was her business idea that was letting her down, and ultimately that is what he is investing the £250 000 in. 

So, with just one week left of this year's The Apprentice, who will come out on top – Pizza or Air Conditioning, Anisa or Dean? 

'The search for Lord Sugar's next business partner, continues...' for one more week. 

The final of BBC's The Apprentice will be aired on Thursday 17th April on BBC1 at 9pm.