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Apprentice Watch: 'Tory boy' is casualty in robot wars

One of the two Jewish contestants has been shown the door by Lord Sugar

October 18, 2017 19:51
Elliot Van Emden.JPG
2 min read

Three episodes in and the barmitzvah-year series of The Apprentice has more than delivered.

In case Succot interfered with your viewing of the first two episodes (as it did our weekly recaps), we’ve had the entirely foreseeable disasters (a burger stall set up too late, in the wrong place, making pitifully few sales and leading to defeat for the Vitality boys), jaw-dropping shows of arrogance (from Jeff “throw them under the bus” Wan, summarily sacked after refusing to do the numbers in week two’s hotel decoration task) and repeated cringe-inducing moments.

The series’ two Jewish contestants, Mancunian management consultant Charles Burns (who in the first outing came across as the definition of the word chutzpah, but has since flown under the radar) and legal firm owner Elliot Van Emden (dubbed Tory Boy for having previously worked for David Cameron) avoided the chop in week one despite a dressing down from Lord Sugar. Overall it’s been two-nil to the girls’ team Graphene.

Which brings us to the third episode, and the rise of the robots. No, not the suit-wearing, cliché-spouting automatons vying for £250,000 investment, but actual robots, with the teams tasked with programming and branding a prototype, then selling both this and a toy robot. I’m almost certain the task was chosen so Lord Sugar could make a groan-inducing Terminator joke in the boardroom. “I can promise you one of you won’t be coming back.”