Apprentice Watch, week 9

After last week’s hat-trick of sackings, you could be forgiven for wondering how on earth you’d summon up the will to watch The Apprentice anymore. How to survive without Anisa’s infectious giggle, Andrew’s youthful capers, and not least without Charles’ King Solomon-esque capacity for wise hindsight? How indeed, and yet somehow the show must go on.

With Charles gone, the vacuum for resident Jewish contrarian was more than filled this week by Lord Sugar and his trusty lieutenant Claude Littner. Both were on top form, casting derisory looks at the candidates as they attempted to rustle up and brand recipe kits – a task that ultimately saw Joanna pitch dressed in a giant pea suit and Bushra make Donald Trump jokes to an aghast audience - with Claude rolling his eyes at every poor decision made by Team Vitality.

And he wasn’t short on opportunities. The team – a paltry foursome at this late stage – was led by Harrison, in his first outing as project manager. Harrison’s big business idea relates to the healthy food market, so this challenge should have been child’s play. But paired with Michaela, who was having trouble relinquishing power after having to backseat drive Charles last week – “did she at least let you lick the spoon first, if you was a good boy,” teased Lord Sugar – it was a recipe for disaster.

Jade and Joanna were dispatched to take charge of branding, but managed to spend most of the time bickering over what to call their healthy brand (eventually they came up with NutraFuel, a name so forgettable I had to look it up three times), while their colleagues tried their skills in the kitchen. Neither turned out to be a latter day Evelyn Rose, and not just because of the decidedly unkosher yoghurt in their chicken curry. “It’s supposed to be healthy but there isn’t a vegetable in sight,” groaned Claude, while Lord Sugar looked baffled by the idea of a nutritious curry in general.