The Apprentice

Week 7 Task: The teams are whisked off to Africa for a two day business trip. Sir Alan has provided them with a list of ten very specific items which they must barter and bargain for in a French-speaking Marrakesh souk. Incorrect items will incur a hefty fine, but the team which successfully completes the task for the smallest sum will win. "Watch out," warns Sir Alan. "This is the bargaining capital of the world and they will have you for breakfast." Let the shopping begin...

Project managers:
Alpha: Lee McQueen leads Sara, Helene, Raef and Lucinda
Renaissance: Jenny Maguire directs Michael, Alex, Jenny C and Claire

The ten products to find:
A mosque shaped alarm clock in green
A cream Berber bedspread with silver sequins
Grey slippers
Santos orange juicer
A blue cactus (specified height)
Large cowhide with tail attached
Kosher chicken
Dye
3 red Akal branded tagines
2 tennis racquets, medium strung

Two new chiefs must test their management mettle as Lee McQueen and Jenny M lead the teams under the hot Moroccan sun.

Jennifer is raring to go. With Sir Alan's all-important list in hand, she splits her squad into two crack negotiating teams. With just shopping to do, she doesn't see much need for preparation. "Let's get down there; it will be good for us to get the marbles out of our mouths with the [French] language".

Lee, however, is keen to blend in with the locals. He asks his resident Marrakesh expert, Raef, for pointers. "Getting into the local garb and not standing out will help", he offers, but Lucinda isn't sure. "I've got blue eyes. They'll think we are taking the pee".

Before they go into the souk, Lee's team prepares, calling ahead to discover the best places to visit. After previous negative feedback, he keeps Lucinda and Sara close by his side. With tasks duly allocated, and a "reverse pterodactyl" pep-talk delivered, the Alpha team aim to source all items before leaving their leafy hotel.

Dress to impressPreparations for the Moroccan task...
As trading begins, team tactics from Renaissance include asking Claire and Alex to do a married couple role play. It doesn't work well. Alex feels Claire costs him his advantage when she wails, wife-like, "I'd rather buy it here, my feet are killing me," mid-negotiation. Meanwhile, Jenny C and Michael travel north to buy a cowhide. They get it for the equivalent of £50 - that's a quarter of the asking price. But in a rural tannery, Raef and Helene bag a bargain at just £15... But they do have to endure the putrid tannery smell as well.
 
While sourcing some items involves leg work and pleading the price down, other items on the list prove very tricky.

Sir Alan has asked for tennis racquets, which are to be medium strung.  Both teams converge on an upscale sports shop, but as Lucinda, Sara and Lee buy their racquets, Jenny M and Michael try to ruin their day.  "We don't want them to get their racquets today," Michael tells the assistant. "We'd be very happy to pay you to delay the return of their tennis racquets". That's bribery! Luckily the shopkeepers' honesty saves the day.

Highly strungIf, at first, you don't succeed...
Most embarrassing of all this week's gaffes, though, is the saga of the kosher chicken. While the Alpha team head over to the Jewish quarter and grab their chicken lickety-split, Renaissance must trawl the Moslem souk for hours in their quest to find the perfect bird.

Eventually Michael and Jen C find a meat counter with live birds for sale. The Moslem butcher kills one, blesses it as best he can and hands it to Michael. But that is not a kosher chicken, and it is going to ruffle a few feathers later in the day.

There are last minute scrambles on both teams to get the final items. Jennifer M's team must swap their white alarm clock for green one. Renaissance stand in the middle of the street and, with the shops now shut for prayers, put out the word to the locals that they will pay good money for an old juicer. Amazingly, it works. And with two possible sellers they even manage to drop the price a little bit. At 6.30pm, after a long hard day down the market, the task is over. But who has won?

Orange JuiceThe shops are shut. Anyone got a juicer?
Nick and Margaret are on hand with the facts and figures.

Nick reveals that Alpha have spent £413.61 with no penalties.

Margaret reveals Renaissance have managed to add two penalties and two disallowed items to their score, turning their £449.60 spend into a £603.59 total. Alpha, of course, have won, and head back to the UK the next day with a hot air balloon trip over Leeds Castle promised as a celebratory treat.

For Renaissance, their trip back home takes them straight to the boardroom, where a very angry Sir Alan is waiting.

"It's a real bummer to fly to Africa and back, and lose a task in one day," says Alex.

Sir Alan reveals that the team have racked up £155 in fines for their misadventures. The tagines they bought were not the brand that Sir Alan requested, and of course, the chicken wasn't kosher - although they did seem surprised to be pulled up about that little mistake. Sir Alan wasn't in a forgiving mood, challenging birthday girl Jen C with venom.

"At 36 you've never heard of the terminology kosher and you don't know that's associated with Jewish people - I'm flabbergasted!"

He then turned on Michael, quoting his CV description of himself as "a good Jewish boy". Michael seems fairly open to religion however, as he accepted halal meat instead of kosher produce and then crossed himself on the way into the boardroom. Sir Alan told him, "If you're unsure we can pull your trousers down and we can check".

"I don't know why you didn't go the whole hog and take the Muslim butcher to confession. All this talk about chickens... you were running around like headless chickens, the whole day."

It looks like he's had enough of Jenny C. As she fends off his questions, he tells her, "You've tried to lay the blame on your team-mates you were running around with. It's no good. Jenny, You're Fired, Goodbye..."

Learning nothing from her namesake's experience, Jennifer Maguire also chooses to attack the others rather than defend herself. She calls Claire "a Tasmanian devil" and insinuates that Michael is "a liar and cheat".

Sir Alan really doesn't like this. He tells Michael, "I can't have people in my business who lie and cheat but I think you are a bit over-enthusiastic. I have to reflect back at myself at your age, and my own over-enthusiasm".

Jenny, meanwhile, is daring Sir Alan. "If that's the kind of person you have in your company then fire me now". That pretty much sealed her fate, and Sir Alan says, "Most mistakes this team has made have come from someone who I believe is out of control. Jennifer, you're fired!"

And while Claire and Alex head back to the house, knowing they are safe for one more week, the others are having a pow-wow.

The revelations of bribery and dishonesty have shocked all the contestants and seemingly straight-down-the-line Raef huffs, "I hope they all get fired. I think they have shown a lack of integrity". Everyone listening nods in agreement.

But when Claire and Michael rock up at the front door, there are hugs and kisses all round. Everything is forgotten. And the sometimes two-faced game that is The Apprentice continues next week...

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