Series 1 (UK)

Series One of The Apprentice (UK), a British reality television series, was broadcast in the UK during 2005 on BBC Two, from 16 February to 4 May on Wednesday evenings. There were fourteen candidates for this series, who called their teams First Forte and Impact, with Tim Campbell winning the series.

Candidates

Candidate	Background	Age	Result
Tim Campbell	Transport Manager	26	Winner
Saira Khan	Sales Manager	34	Runner-up
Paul Torrisi	Property Developer	34	Fired after Interviews stage
James Max	Investment Banker	34	Fired after Interviews stage
Miriam Staley	Hotel Manager	26	Fired after tenth task
Raj Dhonota	Internet Entrepreneur	30	Fired after ninth task
Ben Leary	Headhunter	29	Fired after eighth task
Sebastian Schrimpff	Financial Analyst	29	Fired after seventh task
Rachel Groves	Charity Fundraiser	32	Fired after sixth task
Matthew Palmer	Mature Student	39	Fired after fifth task
Adele Lock	Retail Manager	29	Quit after fourth task
Miranda Rose	Estate Agent	26	Fired after third task
Lindsay Bogaard	Communications Manager	35	Fired after second task
Adenike Ogundoyin	Restaurant Manager	30	Fired after first task

Performance Chart

Candidate	Task Number
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Tim	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	HIRED
Saira	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	RUNNER-UP
Paul	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	LOSE	IN	BR	WIN	BR	FIRED
James	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	WIN	FIRED
Miriam	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Raj	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	FIRED
Ben	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Sebastian	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Rachel	IN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Matthew	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Adele	IN	BR	LOSE	LEFT
Miranda	BR	IN	FIRED
Lindsay	IN	FIRED
Adenike	FIRED

Key:

Template:Color box The candidate won this series of The Apprentice.

Template:Color box The candidate was the runner-up.

Template:Color box The candidate won as project manager on his/her team, for this task.

Template:Color box The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team, for this task.

Template:Color box The candidate was on the winning team for this task / they passed the Interviews stage.

Template:Color box The candidate was on the losing team for this task.

Template:Color box The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task.

Template:Color box The candidate was fired in this task.

Template:Color box The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.

Template:Color box The candidate left the competition on this task.

Episodes

Week 1: Wilting Blooms

• Original Air Date: 16 February 2005
• Impact: Tim (Project Manager), Ben, James, Matthew, Paul, Raj and Sebastian.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), Adele, Adenike, Lindsay, Miranda, Miriam and Rachel.
• Task: Make money by buying and selling flowers. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte spent the first half of the day selling flowers at the market before deciding to sell from pavement to pavement. However, the team's performance was exceptionally poor, as Adenike and Adele frequently argued with Saira, while Miranda sold their flowers at a loss at more than one point in the task. Meanwhile, Impact focused on door-to-door sales, though began slowly after Matthew suggested selling in a residential area which proved to be almost totally deserted. The team quickly regrouped and started selling much better in a nearby area, with the men managing large mark-ups on the price, and Paul in particular proving a strong salesman, which ultimately secured them victory.
• Result: Impact had a profit of £865, while First Forte had a profit of £602.
• Winner: Impact - By £263
• Reward: A trip to the London Eye with champagne.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, Adenike and Miranda.
• Fired: Adenike - For being openly disrespectful to Saira during the task, "undermining" the team's sales strategy and for poor defence in the boardroom.
• Notes:
  • While every episode of the show features a trailer of the following episode directly before the closing credits, this episode is the only one to have the trailer run during them.
  • In his autobiography, Sir Alan revealed that due to the production schedule he was not given the chance to consult with Nick and Margaret before the initial boardroom session, and had to rely purely on what he was told in the actual boardroom, therefore insisting on having a full debrief on the outcome of a task, before he spoke to the candidates. He implied that had he been given more information, he would probably have fired Miranda rather than Adenike.
  • After the candidates were dismissed after the task, Sir Alan expressed surprise that the girls had lost this task as he had bet that they would have won, considering the task involved flowers.
  • During both the You're Hired programme following the UK Series 10 Final and a special documentary commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the show, Sugar named Paul's flower selling montage from this task as one of his favourite and lasting memories from the show's entire history.

Week 2: Child's Play

• Original Air Date: 23 February 2005
• Impact: Raj (Project Manager), Ben, James, Matthew, Paul, Sebastian and Tim.
• First Forte: Lindsay (Project Manager), Adele, Miranda, Miriam, Rachel and Saira.
• Task: Design a brand new toy for a toy company. Best concept, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte came up with two designs that they could not decide upon - a card semaphore system called "Secret Signals" and a robot with collectable and swap-able body parts. A focus group of Brownies and Cub Scouts came out in favour of the latter idea, as well as the majority of First Forte, though Lindsay ignored and opted to take a risk with the former idea. Meanwhile, Impact came up with an idea for an electronic trading card game named "Switchbase", which proved to be a better concept after the toy company and Sir Alan agreed that "Secret Signals" was boring, outdated and not particularly innovative.
• Winner: Impact - For having a far better toy concept that was positively received by Sugar and the toy company.
• Reward: Clay pigeon shooting at a country club.
• Brought into the boardroom: Lindsay, Adele and Miriam.
• Fired: Lindsay - For not listening to her teammates and the focus group, and for choosing an unpopular product.
• Notes:
  • First Forte's initially chose to go with an idea for a set of electrical plugs that would produce different combinations of light and sound depending on how they were plugged into an electrical outlet. However, the toy company immediately vetoed this, as it would not have met safety regulations.
  • Despite being informed that her fears of expensive costs were unfounded and that her team's robot idea could be easily manufactured for under £2, a factor that both teams were told would ensure their toy ideas could be profitable, Lindsay disregarded this to focus her efforts on pushing ahead with the Secret Signals idea. Had First Forte stuck with the more popular choice of the robot, they would have likely won as the toy would have been more profitable than the "Switchbase" idea, as Impact took a gamble that greater profit margins would have been made with the trading cards than the Switchbase unit itself, which would be produced at a loss.
  • Matthew was warned by Sugar to improve his behaviour after he was accused of rudeness towards the staff at the Vivid Imaginations toy company.
  • In the final boardroom, Sir Alan did not feel that Adele was responsible for First Forte's loss, despite backing out on the presentation and showing signs she was unenthusiastic. Miriam, whom Lindsay brought back to help get Adele fired, soon found herself in the firing line when Sugar criticised her for being indecisive on the task and for having an unsuitable personality, while Lindsay turned on her and backed up his criticism. However, he soon decided to let her stay when Miriam was spurred into defending herself, yet warned her to be more proactive in future tasks.
  • After Lindsay's firing, the footage cut straight from the candidates leaving the boardroom to Lindsay's taxi interview. This is extremely rare on the UK version of the show, as nearly all other episodes are edited to show the fired candidate leaving the boardroom's building and getting into the taxi waiting for them, before showing their taxi interview.
  • This task featured as part of the one-off special Worst Decisions Ever. During the task's segment on the special, several of the guests, including Nick and Saira, saw Lindsay as someone who could go very far in the process, but were shocked at her poor decision making and completely ignoring the focus groups.

Week 3: Shop Till You Drop

• Original Air Date: 2 March 2005
• Impact: Matthew (Project Manager), James, Paul, Rachel, Raj and Saira.
• First Forte: Adele (Project Manager), Ben, Miranda, Miriam, Sebastian and Tim.
• Task: Purchase a set list of ten items, negotiating for lower prices. Least amount spent, after addition of fines, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte managed to acquire all of the specified items, though the team suffered problems as Adele took an extremely abrasive approach to leadership that caused conflicts, especially with Miranda who did not feel that her skills were being used. Meanwhile, Impact failed to a bowler hat and were fined for it, though this was offset by an electronics store's shopkeeper deciding to give them the Freeview box they needed for free. Although the team had poor leadership from Matthew, resulting in Saira taking over most of the key decisions, their negotiations were more effective and secured them victory.
• Result: Impact's total spend was £447.38 (including fines), while First Forte's total spend was £506.94.
• Winner: Impact - By £59.56
• Reward: Dinner with Sir Alan Sugar at an Italian restaurant.
• Brought into the boardroom: Adele, Ben and Miranda.
• Fired: Miranda - For lacking respect for Adele and openly questioning her decisions throughout the task, and for having been a generally weak performer on all three tasks.
• Notes:
  • The items that the candidates needed to buy were: a diamond, champagne, $100, a bowler hat, a Freeview box, a dental check-up, a mattress, pie & mash, some ginseng and a bowl of jellied eels.
  • A condition with this task is that candidates are advised to arrive back at the boardroom, or designated finish line, by a certain time or receive a fine for lateness; in this instance, the candidates had to be back at the boardroom by 5:30pm on this task. Although there appeared to be considerable uncertainty over whether Impact's sub-team of Saira, Paul and Raj would arrive back in time, it was later revealed that they had done so comfortably ahead of the deadline, and had been told to wait outside for a while by the production crew in order to add a degree of suspense to the final edit.
  • Even though Sir Alan thought that Ben should have contributed more to the task and that Adele had been a terrible leader, he considered Miranda's disrespect towards Adele to be unforgivable, particularly since she had been in the first boardroom of the series, where Adenike had been fired for exactly the same offence. Her cause was not helped by the fact that she had contributed little to the last two tasks, although Miranda claimed that Adele had effectively sidelined her by giving her the role of "personal assistant" in this task.

Week 4: The Harrods Sales

• Original Air Date: 9 March 2005
• Impact: James (Project Manager), Matthew, Paul, Rachel, Raj and Saira.
• First Forte: Tim (Project Manager), Adele, Ben, Miriam and Sebastian.
• Task: Select items from the Harrods catalogue and sell them from concession stands within the store. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: Impact had a slow start, but soon attracted customers, particularly younger ones when Paul was given a bear costume to wear, with the team working well and securing a sale just before closing time. Meanwhile, First Forte had difficulties, as Adele was openly rude to the Harrods staff on several occasions, and then gave up halfway through the task upon learning that Impact had a strong lead. Despite rallying well with the task later in the day, the problems from her, Ben's weak performance, and Impact's last minute sale, effectively ended any chance of a win.
• Result: Impact brought in £3,295.38, while First Forte brought in £3,108.50.
• Winner: Impact - By £186.88
• Reward: A helicopter trip around English stately homes.
• Brought into the boardroom: No final boardroom; while Tim had indicated in the task post-mortem that he would probably bring back Adele and Ben, Adele announced her intention to resign during the preliminary boardroom discussions.
• Left: Adele - For personal reasons, and for not being able to get along with the other candidates.
• Notes:
  • This is the only episode in the show's history in which no final boardroom session took place, as well as no one being technically fired. To ensure this didn't occur in future, production staff in later series increased the number of candidates recruited for the process, meaning that in the event of someone voluntarily leaving, Sir Alan could still conduct a final boardroom session and fire a second candidate, effectively creating opportunities for multiple firings in some episodes. An example of this change was within the third episode of Junior Apprentice, where despite Adam Eliaz departing due to illness at the end of the task, the boardroom sequence went ahead anyway, complete with a firing at the end.
  • After her resignation, Sir Alan Sugar informed Adele that had Tim brought her up, she would have been the one who was fired due to her consistent failures and disrespectful attitude, while also adding criticism for not admitting to being at fault in this or any other previous task.
  • Although he wasn't fired for the failure of the task, Sir Alan criticised Tim for his constant complimentary attitude, especially due to the fact of him being in the firing line as project manager, while also accusing him of digging a hole for himself and being too nice. Until Adele's resignation, Tim was also warned that his complimentary attitude should stop shortly because he would not be able to compliment anyone when he was asked to bring two people back into the final three.

Week 5: Art with a Capital F

• Original Air Date: 16 March 2005
• Impact: Rachel (Project Manager), Matthew, Paul, Raj and Saira.
• First Forte: Sebastian (Project Manager), Ben, James, Miriam and Tim.
• Task: Select an artist and sell their work in an art gallery. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte managed to secure Rob and Nick Carter as their artists, whose works were inspired by light and spectra, and while their artwork had a high selling price, the team managed sell several without issues. Meanwhile, Impact opted for Lucie Bennett, an artist specialising in paintings of the female silhouette, after losing out on securing the Carters, but while they sold more of Bennett's artwork, each piece netted less money, and ultimately lost them the task.
• Result: First Forte made £19,563, while Impact made £6,147.
• Winner: First Forte - By £13,416
• Reward: A dinner trip on board the Orient Express.
• Brought into the boardroom: Rachel, Matthew and Paul.
• Fired: Matthew - For falsely accusing First Forte of stealing Impact's advertising materials, not selling a single item, providing little contribution, and for having an unsuitable personality.
• Notes:
  • One of the factors that caused Sir Alan to fire Matthew was his confrontational attitude with other candidates, affecting the unity of any team he was part of. This was noted during a fight with Tim from First Forte, when suddenly he made a baseless accusation about Tim stealing their equipment.
  • Rachel was criticised for bringing back Paul instead of Saira, whose condescending behaviour toward Rob and Nick Carter was noted to have been the reason why the artists chose First Forte instead of Impact; during a discussion with Raj in one of the cars, Saira also said that Rob and Nick went for First Forte because Impact didn't fit their "cultural fit." Raj notably commented that Impact had "snotty" people in the case of Sebastian, Miriam and James.
  • When Saira and Raj left to go back to the house, Rachel went to see them off, leaving Matthew and Paul alone together in the boardroom reception. Matthew tried to discuss tactics with Paul to ensure their survival, but Paul did not pay attention, and also implied that having a female project manager was a reason for the team's loss.
  • This task marked the start of Paul and Saira's ongoing feud, which continued until the end of the series.

Week 6: Advertising Executives

• Original Air Date: 23 March 2005
• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Rachel, Raj and Saira.
• First Forte: Miriam (Project Manager), Ben, Tim, James and Sebastian.
• Task: Design both a TV & Printed advertising campaign for Amstrad's new Jukebox music system, then pitch it to potential buyers. Best campaign, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte built their campaign around comparing the music system to a larger, classical jukebox, even using the size differences between the two as part of it, with their overall presentation being viewed as impressive. Meanwhile, Impact suffered major issues throughout the task, as Paul spent less time managing the team and more on directing their TV advert, leaving Saira to give a very vague brief to a graphics designer on what was required from their print ad. Both adverts were deemed poor, with the TV advert hardly showing the product, while their sales pitch failed to improve things, and Sir Alan felt that First Forte's was clearly the better campaign.
• Winner: First Forte - For having a far better quality campaign than Impact.
• Reward: A shopping spree.
• Brought into the boardroom: Paul, Rachel and Saira.
• Fired: Rachel - For delivering a poor sales pitch despite her background, and for wasting her time doing a mood board.
• Notes:
  • Rather than announcing that First Forte were the winners, Sir Alan forced Raj to admit that Impact's campaign was inferior to the other team's.
  • Paul came seriously close to being fired, for not only seemingly abandoning the team for the majority of the task, but also because he lost his temper with Saira during an argument late in the day. In the boardroom, in spite of criticising their contributions, Paul refused to single out Saira or Rachel to be fired, annoying Sir Alan further. However Paul survived due to the fact that Rachel failed to deliver a successful pitch despite her experience, and had an inferior track record over him.
  • After Rachel was fired, Paul and Saira were warned by Sir Alan about their conduct and repeated arguments, particularly when they briefly argued in the boardroom over a fact that he dismissed as being irrelevant for discussion, before deciding to separate them for the next task. Before leaving, Saira was seen in tears, mainly because she was upset that Rachel had been fired instead of Paul.

Week 7: Apprentice Celebrities

• Original Air Date: 30 March 2005
• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Miriam, Paul and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager), Raj, Saira and Sebastian.
• Task: Negotiate with five celebrities for their services/property to sell in a charity auction; money goes to the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire theatre. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte negotiated with Paul McKenna for a personal hypnotherapy session, but this sold for a lower amount than hoped-for after the audience assumed that the books and DVDs that Saira negotiated from him, were the only things being offered. The team also nearly did not sell four theatre tickets from Mel Smith, until the auctioneer himself, Griff Rhys Jones, stepped in and bought them. Meanwhile, Impact sold a guided tour of the GMTV studio, donated by Eamonn Holmes, for a low price, while Miriam prevented Tim's negotiations from losing them a donation from Ian Wright, who gave them a '98 England golf bag. In the end, the team had good auction sales, thanks to a motorcycle from Diarmuid Gavin, a dinner at The Ivy from Michael Winner, and their Chicago tickets, which won them the task.
• Result: Impact made £18,000, while First Forte made £10,000.
• Winner: Impact - By £8,000
• Reward: No specific reward as it was a charity task, but Impact did get to have celebratory drinks with Sir Alan and Griff Rhys Jones.
• Brought into the boardroom: James, Raj and Sebastian.
• Fired: Sebastian, with regret - For mishandling the negotiations with Mel Smith, his lack of presence in prior tasks, and for having a personality and background unsuited for Sir Alan's businesses.
• Notes:
  • Impact's celebrities: Two Chicago cast members, Diarmuid Gavin, Michael Winner, Antony Worrall Thompson and Ian Wright.
  • First Forte's celebrities: Eamonn Holmes, Paul McKenna, Mo Mowlam, Mel Smith and the London Wasps. The team initially chose Richard Birkett specifically, but this was changed to the club itself after Birkett had to deal with a "family emergency".
  • In the boardroom, Sir Alan revealed that Griff Rhys Jones had conspired with Mel Smith's wife, Pamela (who bid against him), to artificially inflate the price for his theatre tickets and prevent what would otherwise have been an embarrassingly low final bid for that item, if not an outright failure to sell it. Were it not for this, First Forte would have made only £7,800 and lost by an even larger margin.
  • After Sebastian was fired, Raj was told that he was on his last warning. Raj himself admitted that he had been extremely lucky to survive, considering that he was the only candidate on either team who failed to successfully complete a single negotiation.

Week 8: Food Fight

• Original Air Date: 6 April 2005
• Impact: Ben (Project Manager), Miriam, Paul and Tim.
• First Forte: Raj (Project Manager), James and Saira.
• Task: Purchase produce and create food to sell at a country market. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: First Forte focused on jellies, jams and chutneys, though James was concerned about how much they could make with their cook charging them £50 per hour, but the team managed to convince him to work gratis in exchange for promoting her store and sold all their products. Meanwhile, Impact focused on soups and spent a lot of money buying the ingredients, while being chastised by the market manager for arriving late. The team ended the task with a surplus of soup, which when combined with their overspend, resulted in an effective loss.
• Result: First Forte made £364.35, while Impact made £149.69.
• Winner: First Forte - By £214.66
• Reward: A trip to Monaco, using the task profits as gambling money in the casino.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ben, Miriam and Paul.
• Fired: Ben - For his lack of control on the team and costs, bringing Paul back into the boardroom instead of Tim, and because he was not seen to be really responsible for his team's previous victory.
• Notes:
  • Paul was cautioned by Sugar for losing his temper after Ben and Miriam both claimed he was ineffective on the task and should be fired. Miriam also tried to falsely place the blame on him for the excessive amount of money spent on certain ingredients that she had authorised. However Sugar accepted that Paul had made large contributions to sales and the negotiations for ingredients, and had been by far the strongest member of Impact's team throughout the task.
  • While Tim had been responsible for overseeing Impact's finances, despite performing this role badly, Ben decided to bring Paul back into the boardroom instead. Sir Alan questioned Ben's motives for this choice and suspected that it was due to personal reasons.
  • In the boardroom, Ben tried to use his previous victory as a defence, but Sir Alan rebutted it, as despite getting the huge number of tickets for a good price, it wasn't a major role in the victory. While Ben was ultimately fired, Sir Alan warned Miriam about her attempts to scapegoat Paul rather than take responsibility for the overspending, but survived due to having the best sale figures behind Paul and Sir Alan believing Ben was more at fault for the loss.

Week 9: Team News

• Original Air Date: 13 April 2005
• Impact: Paul (Project Manager), Miriam and Tim.
• First Forte: Saira (Project Manager), James and Raj.
• Task: Conduct a marketing campaign for a text messaging service of football team news, sent to fans' mobile phones during a Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United football match. Most subscriptions received, wins.
• Task Review: Impact planned an advert that would be used on the Jumbotron, while hiring professional staff for their campaign, with the incentive of a commission for number of text messages sold, which helped to earn them a good number of subscriptions. Meanwhile, First Forte planned to place a slogan on banners and online, but later placed posters around the stadium, and hired professional promotional staff to market their service as well. However, their efforts secured less subscriptions and ultimately lost them the task.
• Result: Impact received 704 subscriptions, while First Forte received 468 subscriptions.
• Winner: Impact - By 236 subscriptions.
• Reward: A meal cooked at the candidates' house by chef Gary Rhodes.
• Brought into the boardroom: Saira, James and Raj.
• Fired: Raj - For failing to step up after being warned, his mediocre track record throughout the series, and for admitting that he was a poor salesman.
• Notes:
  • Sir Alan admitted that he came very close to firing Saira, for her rudeness to the Tottenham marketing manager, which resulted in neither team receiving any assistance from the club, and then refusing to acknowledge or apologise for her mistake in the boardroom. However, he chose to fire Raj instead because he had not heeded Sir Alan's warnings, and was a less impressive candidate overall than Saira.
  • Raj's firing had a major impact on Saira, who was in tears before he left her and James.

Week 10: Apprentices on TV

• Original Air Date: 20 April 2005
• Impact: Miriam (Project Manager), Paul and Tim.
• First Forte: James (Project Manager) and Saira.
• Task: Choose and sell items live on Ideal World shopping TV. Most sales made, wins.
• Task Review: Miriam was chosen as presenter for Impact, with Tim and Paul picking out the items. On the day of the live presentation, the team struggled, as Miriam found herself receiving advice an direction from both men, with Paul constantly interrupting Tim. Meanwhile, James was chosen as a presenter for First Forte, with Saira picking out items, though got fewer of the products she wanted thanks to Tim and Paul pretending to pick the same items as her. Despite this, James sold well with what was picked out, including a mattress and a unisex jacket, allowing his team to secure more sales and effectively win the task.
• Result: Impact had sales of £2,017, while First Forte had sales of £5,407.
• Winner: First Forte - By £3,410.
• Reward: Rest and recreation at a castle in Scotland.
• Brought into the boardroom: Miriam, Paul and Tim.
• Fired: Miriam - For her poor management of staff, and because Sir Alan felt she had an unsuitable personality.
• Note:
  • The final edit of the episode removed a scene from the final boardroom, in which Tim said he thought that Paul was a stronger candidate overall than Miriam.
  • Sir Alan Sugar later admitted in the post-series You're Hired special, that Miriam didn't deserve to be fired at this point, and heavily implied that he felt he should have fired Paul in retrospect. However, Sir Alan added that unless Miriam had put in an exceptionally good performance in the interviews, Tim and Saira would still have been the final two.

Week 11: Interviews

• Original Air Date: 27 April 2005
• Semi-Finalists: James, Paul, Saira and Tim.
• Task: The four remaining candidates undergo a gruelling interview process from five interviewers - Nick Hewer, Paul Kemsley, Claude Littner, Margaret Mountford and Bordan Tkachuk. Sir Alan decides on which two proceed based on the feedback.
• Candidate Reviews: Despite her having the weakest track record of the final four and her unwillingness to admit ever being wrong about anything, the interviewers unanimously considered Saira to be the most impressive of the candidates, giving her much praise for her prior accomplishments and salesmanship, and even feeling that her abrasiveness could be a strength in the right circumstances. The interviewers noted that while James was, on paper, the strongest of the four candidates, they found him unconvincing in the interviews and questioned whether his heart was in the process. Meanwhile, Tim was commended for his passion, determination and business knowledge, but the interviewers considered him to be naive and were concerned that stepping up to run one of Sir Alan's businesses would be a step too far, while Paul was deemed the weakest of the candidates, mostly due to his short temper and background in businesses that had very little relation to anything Sir Alan did.
• Fired:
  • James - For his unconvincing dedication to working for Sir Alan, despite his CV being best.
  • Paul - For having unclear reasons to work, along with being too aggressive and temperamental.
• Notes:
  • This episode featured a continuity error made in the final edit, in which Paul was shown to be fired after James, when in reality it had been the other way around, as James' luggage was still visible in reception when Paul left, yet Paul's was not when James departed. A further example of this mistake was that James could be still seen in the boardroom when Paul says his goodbyes to Tim, while James' departure reveals Paul's seat to be empty.
  • James' firing was handled rather gently than other candidates, with Sir Alan refraining from using his famous phrase - "You're Fired" - towards him.
  • Despite being fired, Paul was later offered a job by Sir Alan Sugar, working with his son Daniel for his private jet company Amsair, but turned down the offer sometime later. Whilst promoting the fourth series of The Apprentice, Sir Alan specifically named Paul among one of his favourite candidates that he didn't employ.
  • Whereas the interviewers are generally introduced to the viewers by the show's narrator, Mark Halliley, this is the only series where Sir Alan introduced the interviewers himself, and also to the candidates that made it to this stage.

Week 12: The Final

• Original Air Date: 4 May 2005
• Finalists: Saira and Tim.
• Saira's team: James, Paul and Raj.
• Tim's team: Ben, Miriam and Sebastian.
• Task: Each finalist is given a riverboat and £5,000 budget to hold an event, selling tickets to their attendees. Sir Alan decides on who is hired based on sales and overall performance.
• Task Review: Saira's team held a wine tasting event that showcased a new brand of Californian wine, with her team managing to more than recoup their budget and make a profit of around £1,600. Meanwhile, Tim's team chose to put on a fashion show, but although they made around £2,800 and therefore just managed to break even, his team managed to keep their costs down significantly. This, coupled with Tim's explanation on his long-term strategic vision, impressed Sir Alan enough to declare Tim the winner.
• Runner-up: Saira - For concerns about her overly abrasive nature, as well as poor control and relationship to her staff in the task.
• Winner: Tim - For his consistency across the whole series, and for being the candidate whom Sir Alan considered to be the most like his own younger self.
• Note:
  • This is the only series in the show's history that the finalist were asked to choose just three candidates to help them, out of those who had been fired from the process; those that returned, with the exception of Adele, who weren't chosen, simply left after appearing in the boardroom. After this series and up until the end of Series 6, the show altered this arrangement to let finalists form their teams with a smaller pool of candidates to choose from, while after the task format was reverted to its original setup for Series 9 onwards, the arrangement was changed again so that finalists could call up "any" fired candidate to be a part of their team. Furthermore, this is the only series where returning candidates were given his business card before they were dismissed; the other time this was down was in the penultimate episodes of the second and third series of Young Apprentice.
  • During the task, Saira and Paul were involved in another heated argument between themselves, with James initially trying to stop it, before he and Raj decided to leave them alone until it was finished. During the argument Saira threatened to fire Paul, who refused to accept that she was allowed to do so, though she never carried through on her threat, making it unknown if she would have been allowed to do so.
  • In the You're Hired special which followed the episode, Sir Alan told Saira that despite her losing out to Tim, if she ever needed a job he would be willing to offer her one.

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers (millions)	BBC Two weekly ranking
1	16 February 2005	2.02	15
2	23 February 2005	Template:N/A	Template:N/A
3	2 March 2005	2.17	24
4	9 March 2005	2.35	26
5	16 March 2005	2.18	26
6	23 March 2005	2.80	13
7	30 March 2005	2.82	8
8	6 April 2005	2.74	13
9	13 April 2005	2.59	11
10	20 April 2005	2.40	11
11	27 April 2005	2.72	6
12	4 May 2005	3.77	2

Specials

Airdate	Viewers (millions)	BBC Two weekly ranking
The Story So Far
2 April 2005	N/A	N/A