Lucinda
I'm a writer. Very foolishly I once had an idea that I could offer to ghost your autobiography. This was before I saw 'The Final Five', which left me with the impression that this is the last thing you'd ever want to see. But I regret that I won't be able to step up to the plate and give it 110% until my hands are literally bleeding. I'd be rubbish at it but at least I'd end up being fired by someone lovelier and better dressed than Sir Alan Sugar.
I've seen The Apprentice from the start and I've always enjoyed the series but for me there've only been three candidates who transcended the programme and became a pleasure to watch in their own right: Ruth Badger because of her professionalism (and I hope you saw her praise for you on 'You're Fired!' two weeks ago); Katie Hopkins because she was so deliciously malignant; and now you, because you were lovely and because you were brilliant.
I did think, in the early episodes, that you seemed far too bright and delicate to fit in on The Apprentice. I liked you a great deal but I wasn't sure that you'd be able to last long. From what we saw on TV you seemed to be having a horrendous experience, marginalised or bullied much of the time, but also managing to be very sweet and charming when you had the chance to be yourself. (I began to notice you at the first team meeting in episode, where you christened the group 'Alpha' - the way you spoke and thought was suddenly as vivid to me as your dress sense. )
Even though I didn't feel you'd be in the series long, there was a part of me that hoped that you'd be given a project to manage and that when it happened you'd surprise us all. And you *did*, with the ice cream task, which Alpha so clearly deserved to win. That week you went from a candidate I liked to a candidate I thought could - and should - win the series outright. You brought something new to The Apprentice for me. I liked Ruth Badger; I liked Katie Hopkins, in the same way that you might like a panto villain or Mr. Punch; but I never invested in their fortunes in the way that I did with you. At the risk of sounding like a scary stalker, what I found compelling from you was your *passion*.
I do think that sometimes your passion got you into trouble, and on some tasks it wasn't always sufficient to carry you through, but that willingness to succeed in the face of everything was always there. I thought Sir Alan was short-sighted when he saw your approach as dilettanteish. A candidate who wants to try something new for the pleasure and the challenge of it would be, for me, a far better bet - and a far better person - than those who see his business as a bun-fight or a back-stabbing contest. I fear that he's going to end up with the apprentice he deserves. Maybe you weren't right for the job, but I believe that if you'd made it into the final and beyond you would have surprised Sir Alan, in the same way that you surprised all of us watching at home.
Sir Alan and Nick called you a 'mystery'. I'm not sure you'd agree, but I don't think it's a bad thing to be. Looking at the finalists I see four people who aren't very deep. This isn't meant as an insult to any of them, but I feel they are very much who they appear to be. With you I feel there was so much more still to see. When I think back to how close we came to losing you after the second task, when Jenny put you into Sir Alan's line of fire, I am very grateful that you got so far and that we got to see this much.
Good luck with whatever you plan to do next. Keep surprising us.
Last edited by ForeverBeret : 08-06-2008 at 01:26
and I think you were a breath of fresh air to the Apprentice.
