The Apprentice, BBC One, review: the interview round remains ...

If you thought one job interview was nerve-jangling, how about four back-to-back? With each grilling conducted by a fearsome inquisitor, hellbent on finding holes in your CV? Oh, and the small matter of TV cameras capturing your every stumble or bead of sweat in unforgiving close-up? 

Welcome to The Apprentice (BBC One) interview round – the part that candidates dread but viewers relish. The penultimate episode of the series saw the final five hopefuls summoned to an east London skyscraper to be hauled over the coals by Lord Sugar’s “trusted advisors”. 

The subsequent interrogations were enjoyably brutal to watch. Sheer televised schadenfreude. Fashion veteran Linda Plant delivered withering assessments of their “fairy tale” business plans. Media mogul Claudine Collins played good cop, asking about proud parents and deceased siblings to elicit emotional reactions. 

Publishing pioneer Mike Soutar was the research fiend, pouncing on unfounded claims and snapping up unsecured web domain names. The pitbull-like Claude Littner crunched the numbers, dismissing financial projections as “ludicrous”, “woefully inadequate” or “the rantings of a lunatic”. Don’t go changing, Claude. 

The business contest might be looking distinctly dog-eared in its 18th series – Sugar’s retirement and a wholesale revamp are surely imminent – but the interview round is one of the increasingly rare moments when it still delivers. After 10 noisy weeks of boardroom boasting, barking orders and backstabbing colleagues, this was a quieter pleasure. Mano a mano with words rather than action and all the more gripping for it. 

In a tense climax, it was pie-maker Phil Turner and fitness studio owner Rachel Woolford who progressed to next week’s final. Pies versus gyms. The cause of excess flab versus the remedy. Woolford looks the stronger candidate and if she prevails, would become the fifth consecutive female winner. Women clearly mean business. It might well be time for one to take over from the boardroom boss. With sincere regret, Lord Sugar, you’re tired.