All hail S'Ralan's new Apprentice!!

So cockney wide-boy Lee McQueen beat off gobby northerner Claire Young to win the Apprentice 2008 - now that's what I'm talking about!! Despite lying on his CV and doing an impression of a prehistoric lizard bird, the cockney geeeezer managed to eek out the win, thanks in part to being not as annoying as his opponent. Despite making a men's fragrance that was firml rooted in the 1970s, and made him 'feel like a man' and smell like one too, it could have all been a lot worse. At least thanks to Claire's presentational skills we were saved from Pig Face Helene and Alex the drip from being in the final two!!

All in all though, this was a fitting finale to waht has been another excellent series of the Apprentice. Whether it was the cheating in Marakesh, the environmental greetings cards or the fantastic interviews with S'Ralan's business buddies, the show has proved once again, why it is a cut above your Celebrity Wife Swap in a Kitchen. The secret of why the Apprentice is such compelling TV is that unlike the other reality TV shows where you either need to be a fame-hungry-wannabe or a fame-starved-has-been, the Apprentice is actually based real people with real creidble skills. It's not about the popularity a certain contestant might have with the great unwashed. After all, if that was the case, then both Lee and Claire would have been booted out weeks ago and posh dimwits Raife or Lucinda would have ended winning (no doubt, much the chagrin of S'Ralan!)


But the question now, is what to watch on a Wednesday evening? It's either the blind transvestite and the arguing albino on Big Brother, or it's European footbal involving countries we've never heard. Looks like I might actually have to start leaving the house in the evenings - then again, there's always the Apprentice repeats and spin-offs on iPlayer!