Week four of The Apprentice, and now things are really starting to hot up and the strong personalities beginning to shine through. Over the past few weeks we have learned the following: that Debra is, er, formidable, Phillip is at times incomprehensible, Ben doesn’t have a good word to say about anyone and Yasmina – well just don’t get me started, but am beginning to think that she may never love anybody as much as she loves herself. But anyway, on to this week’s task….and it was one that ventured into new Apprentice territory.

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The challenge at hand was to create a new range of beauty products and then sell them, with the winning team being the one who made the tidiest profit. Cue comical scenes of worried looking candidates trying to source honey from bees and picking up bits of random seaweed from the coastline around Poole. Noorul’s team – the former proving to be one of the most ineffectual team leaders in Apprentice history – opted for some honey-based toiletries, producing a bar of soap which bore some resemblance to a large slab of concrete with a jar of honey poured over the top. Things could only get better.

And indeed they did – at least from an entertainment point of view. Over on team Empire, led by project manager Paula, the candidates were concocting an potent potion based around essential oils. All was going well until they confused cedarwood with sandalwood – which is considerably more expensive – coming up with a product that not only cost a small fortune but made me quite relieved that scratch and sniff television has yet to be invented. Even without the benefit of smell-o-vision, the odour of their bizarrely green concoction was still practically seeping out of the screen.

A period of frantic selling – one team at Portobello Market, another at Camden Market and Bond Street tube station – followed, and the end result was an odd one. While team Empire, it seemed, had the better product, they had made such a costly mistake with the sandalwood that they ended up making a loss and actually losing the task. All of which appeared to leave Sir Alan baffled, and asking the question doubtless on many viewers’ lips – what was it that project manager Noorul did, exactly?

Much arguing ensued in the boardroom – well, when you bring loudmouths Yasmina and Ben back in with you, what do you expect – before Paula got her marching orders. Apparently she had been the bookies’ favourite to win, so her departure came as something of a shock, and a bit of a shame, if we’re being honest. After all, she had been so quiet in the weeks leading up to her firing, and I can’t help thinking she didn’t really have a chance to show her true potential. Either that or she will just go down as one of the least memorable candidates in Apprentice history.

So, 15 down 11 to go – and in next week’s edition, Britain’s brightest business brains have to create branding for children’s breakfast cereal. A marvellous marketing idea, or just an excuse for the teams to dress one of their unsuspecting number in a comedy penguin costume? Can’t help thinking this one will be well worth the wait….