The Sun newspaper has named the 16 'Apprentices'.

Some of what appear to be their possible personal web addresses, but no sites uploaded at the moment:
claireyoung.co.uk registered 7th March 2008
alexwotherspoon.co.uk & alexwotherspoon.com both registered 31st October 2007
leemcqueen.co.uk & leemcqueen.com both registered 7th November 2007
kevinshaw.co.uk registered 13th September 2007 & kevinshaw.net registered 25th February 2008
helenespeight.co.uk registered 5th November 2007

The Whois record for alexwotherspoon.co.uk shows it is registered to an Alex Wotherspoon from Bolton. The only Alex Wotherspoon at friendsreunited.co.uk residing in Bolton has a few pictures up. When you look at the first profile picture, it looks like the same guy pictured standing with Nick in the reported 'Car Challenge' featured at the Scoopt Web Site, so Alex appears to have a good run in the series. We shall see!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a9146...-revealed.html

Hopefully it`ll start within a few weeks!

Two weeks from now, according to the article. Does anyone know if it's on Wednesdays again?

I'm alarmed that some of the candidates already appear to have 'stories'. Do they think this is X Factor or something?

Yep, is on Wednesdays at 9pm as usual.

Here's a brief synopsis of the first episode from the BBC Press Office:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro...ced_apprentice

excellent, cant wait

btw did the apprentice start later last year?

I'm sure it was about the same time - the final week overlapped with the start of Big Brother at the end of May.

okies thanks

i think that was the week Naomi was fired, big brother also started that night and it was the last episode of Desperate housewives, gosh i remember that day it was so hectic and i had to revise for two exams for the following day...lol

I really wanna see their pictures now!

So the contestants are :

Male :

Simon Smith
Nicholas de Lacy Brown
Michael Sophocles
Alex Wotherspoon
Lee McQuee
Ian Stringer
Kevin Shaw
Raef Baggi


Female :

Shazia Wahab
Lindi Mngaza
Helene Speight
Jenny Celerie
Lucinda Ledgerwood
Claire Young
Jennifer McGuire
Sarah Dhada

Err, yes.

Who actually wants to work for Amstrad? Look at the crap they make nowadays. OK "Sir" Alan has done very well for himself, but come on Set Top Boxes and that E-Mailer Phone. It's hardly Google territory, is it?

SAS sold Amstrad in July 2007 to Sky, so whoever wins this year, they'll by rights be working for one of SAS's other business interests, like Amsprop or Amsair, etc.

Amsprop is actually where Simon Ambrose (last year's winner) ended up.

Oh dear - lots of lawyers - SAS will love firing those. Not to mention someone with royal connections.....

I wonder who'll fill in the two main stereotypes every year :

Loud obnoxious male :

Paul Toressi (Series 1)
Syed Ahmed (Series 2)
Tre Azam (Series 3)

Ruthless female who's the strongest contestant but is always the runner up to the "subdued" types :

Saira Khan (Series 1)
Ruth Badger (Series 2)
Kristina Grimes (Series 3)