Has anyone found a way of watching TA Ireland from the UK without using Hotspot or similar? I loved the last series, the decorating task is what I remember most.

http://www.irishtorrents.com/torrents.php?id=8623

My favourite bit of last year has to be Bill asking 'Who put de custard in de jars?'

Thank you


Was that the vases?

I wonder what happened to the contestants, the music teacher especially, these shows should be obliged to do a follow up a year later.

Once again the teams prove themselves largely incompetent.
Tara's team completely ignored the advice of the focus group on the "Wanted poster" idea, simply because they intended to push through the idea. OK, so it won, but really only because the other one was so sh1te: the execs were seen to agree with the FG, saying the poster looked old (not innovative) and tied recycling negatively to crime. They were lucky that they won in the end.
As for Barry's team --- appliances with legs?? And when they didnt want blue for the background on the text, and he chose red (RED!), did no-one think to mention green? It was about recycling after all: green should have been an obvious colour to use, but no.

I was glad Caroline went. She seemed very much a lightweight and even when trying to defend her position (why shouldn't I fire you?) she was indecisive and vague, and she always grinned a little too inanely for me.

I like Panos, think he might be the surprise candidate. They're not the best and brightest though, are they? Not by a long chalk!

And what kind of idiot brings lighting to an already-famous and obviously well-equipped venue? And what about the thing Dave "stole" from the Burlington??

In both British and Irish shows nobody bothered to write down the objective explicitly commissioned by the taskmaster. Or better still to record it using a cassette the size of a credit card. Later in the heat of debate they completely lose sight of the original brief -- like that infuriating scenario of a barber cutting the hair HE likes, not as the paying customer specified.

On the subject of taking notes, however many balls are in the air I have never seen Sugar take notes. He seems to know where all the balls are.

Can Brits watch Irish Apprentice easily?

Dave won't last much longer, Bill will get rid of him once he's brought back into the boardroom!

For those who can't actually watch the Irish Apprentce but want a flavour of it, I'm now writing a blog on it, in which each episode is reported on extensively. Only done episode 1 today, but will have more up soon. Comments welcome at
http://trollheart.blogspot.com/2010/...entice-is.html

(Obvious) SPOILER ALERT! The writeup INCLUDES the entire outcome, who was fired, who won the task etc, so if you don't want to see that, either don't read it or just stop at the heading "The Boardoom: part one" for which team won or "The Boardroom --- the Showdown" for who got fired.

Hope it helps anyone who can't get to see the actual show. Obviously everyone is welcome, even if you can see and have seen the show, and comments/discussion very welcome.

Definitely! Dave is on borrowed time. He's the only one to get constantly picked on even though he's on the winning team.

Second episode up on the blog now...

http://trollheart.blogspot.com/2010/...io-gastro.html

Just to let you know , I was driving around Dublin yesterday and noticed quite a lot of bus shelters had Taras' teams "Wanted Poster " up . So Weee Ireland went ahead and used this poster .. Im surprised !!!

I'm surprised too, but I guess if you get an ad campaign for nowt then you may as well use the "best" of them, and that was theirs.
Funny thing is, they could have made it work by making it a wanted poster for people who DON'T recycle, like, a cartoon of a guy looking out through prison bars with the recycle logo around it, or something.
Ain't it easy to be smart on the back of someone else's idea?

They couldn't not capitalise on the publicity they'd have gotten from TA, I suppose. Same with Lucozade Lite being advertised during the ad breaks in every episode.

Oh it happens all the time here! The episode last series where they had to design something for Spar (or to sell there) was filmed in my local Spar, and for MONTHS later they had a big sign over the shop "The Apprentice was filmed here. Watch the finale on TV3!"

It was ages later someone there must have said, guys the finale was a long time ago: maybe we should take the sign down now?

And they did.
Eventually.

Oh
My
God!

The losing team's calendar was SO bad that they were beaten by a team who HAD NO DECEMBER!! They should righlty feel embarrassed!

While I was watching this I thought once Fusion missed out on the last month, that that was it: no question of who was going to win. You can't seriously go to a presentation with an incomplete product and hope to win, can you? But they did.

Total farce, the whole thing. Terrible task and, it has to be said, kind of pointless. Why didn't they get time in a Ford showroom to do their car pix, then off to the festival to do the rest, and put them together later? Limiting the access to the car as Ford did was a little stupid and hobbled the teams from the beginning.

And wasn't the exec from Ford a snotty bitch? "Elev8, goodbye." Not thank you, good job, well done, or anything. Just goodbye? Glad I don't work for her: she looked like her face would crack if she smiled!

Pretty stupid that NEITHER team used the Ford logo, especially after all the trouble last week about messing with the company logo. Obviously they don't learn.

Pretty poor show, in every sense of the word, all round, I thought...

The tasks are beginning to annoy me. When the UK Apprentices make a calendar, they incorporate pitching it to stores to make it into a proper business task. Unless Bill Cullen is looking for a designer, that task told him nothing. Apart from the fact that some candidates *still* don't realise that you have to promote the company logo on anything you design.

Jamie is starting to impress me. He's a bit of a spoofer, but his missing December cover-up was pretty smooth. If he can sell well, he'll probably last to the final.

Yeah, I agree Jamie's "save" was inspired. I thought yer wan from Ford could have been a little more understanding about it. Yes they missed out on the month but they came up with a very creative way of covering that.

The whole idea was flawed. As I said, they should have taken separate pix of the car, preferably in a showroom/om the road, and then did their festival shots and mixed the two. Trying to do it all at the festival was an idea pretty much doomed to failure (and asking half-drunk festival goers to help was asking for trouble!)

Hopefully the tasks get a bit more interesting and creative. I deffo think Nagaite was lucky: all she did was complain and find fault with everything that was suggested, and then lie about it later in the boardroom. I think lying should be something they're pulled up on. Like the "video evidence" of a footy match, the video footage should be shown to them which clearly shows they're lying and Bill should then invite them to explain themselves. I hate liars.

Anyone catch it last night?? I can't believe just how bad both teams were. Even the winning team got the tone of the viral completely wrong, and as for Tara's pitching!

And the musicians!

Hilarious episode though - it was all anyone could talk about in work today.

It was so embarrassing with the musicians!

Anyone else think Panos was completely ganged up on? It was like that last week as well. Really hope he wins, absolutely looove him,

As for Tara's speech...

Oh it's just beyond embarrassing now! First of all Panos puts himself forward as PM, as well he should: this should be his baby, all the way. But no: Tara stands in the way (having NO experience of this --- she's a property surveyor, ffs!) and the boys back her! Panos tries AGAIN and AGAIN to explain just exactly WHAT a viral video is, and NONE of these business-savvy, happening, clued-in bright young things have a CLUE! No matter how many times it's explained they just don't get it! Will consistently refers to it as a "vinyl",

And then, at the end, that bitch Tara has the gall to blame Panos! Oh, you should have explained it better! What was he supposed to do: crack open her head and insert the information? Hook her up to the computer and download some virals into her brain?? How can they NOT know what a viral is? Even the other team --- getting it --- made a total arse of the thing!

I was really glad when Brian interjected to tell Bill that Panos had tried so many times to explain about the virals: that shut Tara up!

As for the sulky musicians: how could they not have the money to pay them? God, the whole thing was a total mess. And the reception! At least Fusion made an effort --- I mean, champagne breakfast or tea/coffee --- which would you prefer?

And then we come to Tara's speech. Why in the name of all creation did she insist on doing it when she was so totally godawful at it, and KNEW it?? "Worst ever in the history of the Apprentice": well at least she'll be remembered for something!

Probably the worst task yet: the candidates seem to get more stupid, less capable and less likeable with every episode!

Definitely fired the right person. I punched the air when he told her she was gone. Didn't think much of her on YF either...

So, Ciara finally got her chance to lead, and totally blew it bigtime! I mean, how can you forget to ring your camera crew -- without whom you can't accomplish the task! --- the day before? And then hire two models whom you end up not using?

She should definitely have been firmer with Jamie though. I know she was concerned about coming across as negative and combative, but ffs Jamie was almost fighting with her! It was like HE was the PM, not her. Totally arrogant and I would agree with her, very rude and abusive. She shoudl have turned around and said "I'M PM Jamie, and I've made the decision. End of conversation." Instead she kept letting him snipe at her, and seemed afraid to stand up to him.

Michelle faded into the background when she could have done more, and I think this was mostly because she didn't want to get involved in the dogfight, which was ok but she should have made more of a contribution, so that Bill coudl then have said "And while these two were fightin' like cat an' dog, wot were you doing?"

I thought team Elev8's idea, though hardly original, was perfect for the cinema. If you're at the movies and an ad for bread or something comes on, you're not going to be too pushed about looking at it, but if there's a Bond-themed one you might be fooled into thinking it's a trailer. Once your attention is grabbed, job done. I thought the ad was great --- snappy, concise, funny as well as having the "groan factor" --- and worked really well.

Of those left, I reckon Barry has the best chance of making it to the finish line now. Interesting twist with the double firing --- imagine the chaos at the Wright Venue if Michelle had gone too! What? Five minutes interview per candidate? I was glad Jamie went, as he did nothing but carp and criticise and block Ciara at every turn, and although she lost the task on her own merits, he certainly did not help.

Ciara and Jamie are as bad as each other. Both passive aggressive and neither asssertive enough to stand up to the other. They sniped at each other and fed off of each other's negative energy. It wouldn't have mattered if both of them had had the best idea's in the world, the other would have found a problem with it. It was uncomfortable to watch and I felt sorry for Michelle caught between the two. It was one of those cases where "you could cut the tension with a knife".

Their boardroom behaviour was also a joke. All they could say was "he/she was negative". I was glad both were fired. At least Michelle had the backbone to be honest and concise, even though she likes Ciara as a person. She rightly pointed out that from the very beginning, there were managerial issues such as time management, organisation and delegation. Ciara also f**ked up by not phoning the camera/sound guys the night before and if Jamie had acted like a professional and put forward the professional mistakes Ciara had made, rather than whinging about her personality, he might have been able to save himself.

The other teams ad was way better and the James Bond theme fit with a cinema setting. Barry is really good as a director, although his presentation made me hide behind my hands. Panos should have got Niamh to do it. Both Barry and Will were worse than useless at the last presentation.

Without doubt Barry died in the presentation, but I was sort of amazed to see Bill give him an "out", sort of, when he said it was because he had taken on too much! Which he had, in fairness: he virtually managed the task.

I think Bill likes Barry, and may already have him marked out as one of the ones he expects to be in at the end.

You're right about Jamie: had he concentrated on the mistakes Ciara made, there were more than enough of them (and stupid ones too!) to get her fired and still save himself. I think he was smugly thinking he was safe once she was fired --- SURPRISE, Jamie!

A pity, certainly, but on the basis of his performance last night I think Bill had no choice but to fire Barry. Once again he tried to do everything himself (and thus claim credit for the entire task), and was quite dismissive of/rude to Michelle, who let's be honest, didn't exactly cover herself in glory either!

I think the turning point was, again, the presentation. WHY did Barry persist in trying to do this again himself (ok, he was doing it with Michelle but in fairness he more or less took it over), when he has proven time and again how utterly crap he is at it? It's like he refuses to accept that there is maybe ONE thing he can't do, and keeps at it no matter what. Sometimes it just ain't gonna work, Barry, no matter HOW much you want it to! I also thought the way he totally ignored a customer after Michelle had started the Q&A, and he just went on rambling about the website, almost as if he was talking to himself, was highly unprofessional: surprised in fact that it wasn't remarked upon in the Boardroom later.

Team Elev8 AGAIN refused to recognise Panos's vast experience in this field --- again, this task was made for him and he should have been PM --- and they had no valid reason, either of them, for advancing themselves as candidates for PM. Neither Will nor Niamh seem to have any experience in setting up a website/social media network, and yet they each wanted to be PM, ignoring the one person on their team who should have been able to do this in his sleep! They're VERY lucky they won!

Hard to say now with Barry gone, who's the likely winner. Maybe Niamh, I don't know. I sort of don't really fancy any of the remaining lot that much. Maybe Panos will surprise us?

Me too. If I had been doing that presentation with him, if I hadn't died of shame and humiliation, I'd had died of embarrassment. The fact that Michelle opened the floor to questions and then Barry rudely interupted the woman should have told Bill everything he needed to know about Barry - a likeable guy but a liability. I really cannot understand why Bill didn't rip him a new one, unless he did and it wasn't shown. It's a shame because I did like Barry but he deserved to be fired.

I normally can't stand girls who cry to get their own way but I think this time Michelle was just letting go of the stress of it all. Last week Ciara cracked in the boardroom and had a few tears and what with the tension on last weeks team, the shock double firing and all the hassle with Barry, Michelle was just overcome and I thought she wasn't as bad as the crying diva Bill and Jackie said she was. They give us the impression that the tasks are carried out on a weekly basis but they're not. They do two back to back with Sunday off and are kept sleep deprived so that they are on edge all the time. At this stage of the competition, all their nerves are shot to sh!t.