“As measly and dull as a stale bun”
The Apprentice, BBC1
“Despite the allegedly high stakes, the final was as mealy and dull as a stale bun. There were few thrills or spills and little genuine jeopardy. As was the case across the previous 12 weeks, it was, in particular, lacking in the white-collar prat-falling so crucial to the Apprentice brand.”
“The Apprentice is tired, and to my mind, we’d all be better off if Lord Sugar and everyone else were fired.”
“For a change, you feel as though Sugar doesn’t actually begrudge them his largesse, in this case an equity stake of £250,000 for 50 per cent of their business (as they say on rival show Dragon’s Den).”
My Grandparents’ War, Channel 4
“In these politically turbulent times, the Second World War has been fetishised by excitable types as a toxic campaigning meme. My Grandparents’ War, which immersed celebrities in the facts of the war effort, has been a welcome and cleansing tonic.”
“In Japan Carey Mulligan met a man whose brother had sacrificed himself at 19; he carried his photo everywhere. ’I’m grateful for your interest,’ he said, quietly. If just four celebrities can unearth all these stories, imagine what remains untold.”
Stick and Stones, ITV
“The problem was that Bartlett, who has spoken of being bullied as a child, transplanted that traumatic memory to a workplace context. His characters – especially the two sidekicks Becky (Ritu Arya) and Andy (Sean Sagar) – were essentially puerile fifth-formers in business threads.”
Did I watch the finale of Sticks and Stones, or did I eat too much cheese and dream it all? Because, sweet Lord, what was that about? I hoped there would be a twist, and there was (although it was more of a kink), but at no point did it feel tethered to reality. I mean, an entire ’solutions’ company in a Reading office block staffed by sociopathic monsters? Reading must be darker than I thought.
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