There’s just two weeks to go now until the final of The Apprentice, and I am already beginning to get withdrawal symptoms – what shall I do without it on a Wednesday evening? (er, watch something else probably, but anyway…..) All of which means that candidates are starting to run a bit thin on the ground – we’ve said goodbye to some of the dullest contenders (Noorul – anybody remember him?), some of the biggest personalities (the show is a poorer place for no longer having Philip and Ben) and others who I still maintain never had the chance to show their true potential (Paula for example could have been a contender if she hadn’t come a cropper so early).

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On Wednesday night’s show just six hopefuls remained – Kate, Yasmina, Debra and Lorraine holding the fort for the ladies and just James and Howard keeping the men’s hopes alive. And this week it was the task we’ve all been waiting for – the shopping channel challenge.

This is one task which is always a complete treat – well of course it is, they wouldn’t do it every single series if it wasn’t – and saw pretty much all the candidates making complete fools of themselves. Let’s just say that James won’t be called upon to host any TV shows any time soon, and Yasmina wasn’t much better – but Debra on the other hand went great guns flogging her team’s hair clips, remote control car and other products – so much so that they scored a resounding victory.

The same of course could not be said of Howard, Kate and Lorraine – the latter, in particular, seemed to lack presence behind the camera (er, why are we not surprised?) and watching her and Howard stumble their way through the presentation of a ‘low fat’ fryer was cringeworthy in the extreme. Quite how they got enthusiastic about the chips this culinary miracle had produced was amazing, given that they looked nothing like beautiful golden chips and far more like slightly anaemic stubs of potato – if that’s the kind of thing that the low fat fryer is given to producing then I’ll keep my money and stick to the high-calorie, grease-laden alternative thank you very much.

And so it was that the hapless trio found themselves in the boardroom after shifting an uncomfortably low amount of stock – and with an air of almost aching predictability, given the competition he was up against, nice but dull Howard got the boot. Which leaves us with four girls and only one man left in the competition – James. Now if someone would like to explain to me just how he ended up being the one surviving male candidate, then I’d really like to know, because there’s something about him which suggests he should have been out on his ear weeks ago. He must be better than we’ve all given him credit for. Wouldn’t put it past him to win, actually…..