TV review: Young Apprentice 2012 is a winner

Summary

Young Apprentice sees 12 new teen tycoons-in-waiting once again competing for a £25,000 prize from business magnate, Lord Sugar.

Highlight

The girls' team forgot to use the dryers at a laundrette, meaning they had to sell damp, smelly clothes to shoppers the next day. It was quite funny (unless you were one of the customers).

Lowlight

Lord Sugar trying to be down with the kids was as cringeworthy as it was threatening: "For the next eight weeks you'll be using your 'smart' phones for business, not for playing Angry Birds. If you do, it will make me angry." Calm down, dear...

Full review

"It's an opportunity like no other", says the narrator at the beginning of Young Apprentice, which isn't strictly true. What he should actually say is: "it's exactly the same opportunity as the one the adults get."

However, that's why Young Apprentice is so great. By giving the teenage contestants the same tasks and putting them under the same pressure as their adult counterparts, they really get a chance to shine and show off what they can achieve.

In this first episode, the mini-Sugars were tasked with searching through piles of old clothes for 'vintage' items they could resell for a profit.

The boys decided to call themselves Odyssey; the girls went with Platinum, proving once again that whatever their age, Apprentice candidates are addicted to picking team names that sound like dodgy nightclubs.

Patrick the star

The leader of Odyssey was the fantastic Patrick, a 16-year-old fashion designer with amazing taste in customised, sparkly suit jackets. He looked like a far younger, far more handsome Paul Daniels.

Patrick decided to spend a bit of his team's cash on having some of their clothing selection 'upcycled', which apparently means sewing half a wetsuit to half a kimono to create the world's first outfit you could wear to a speed-boat-based dinner party.

Unfortunately for Patrick, Westfield shopping centre patrons turned out to be a conservative bunch and he struggled to sell his tailored garments.

As he'd also spent quite a lot of money on getting the clothes altered, this handed an easy win to Platinum's team leader, Ashleigh.

In true Apprentice fashion, it all seemed a bit unfair. The girls had washed their clothes at a laundrette the night before, but totally failed to dry them, meaning they spent the day trying to flog damp jumpers that smelled like an elderly dog.

They definitely deserved to lose.

Patrick's confidence in his fashion design skills meant that he made a big mistake, but good on him for trying something new. A shame he couldn't persuade any London hipsters to buy his mashed-up outfits as that might have swung it.

Why the Shoreditch types didn't buy Patrick's designs is a mystery; after all they're perfectly happy to be seen in public wearing giant glasses and hats shaped like a wolf.

Young Apprentice is far more watchable than the adult version, partly because the teens make funnier mistakes, but also because you can forgive them - after all, they're young.

It's much harder to stomach the adult contestants with their painful management speak and insistence on describing themselves as 'business sharks'.

There are currently rumours circulating that this series of Young Apprentice might be the last. Let's hope this isn't true because in the current financial climate, teenagers need every opportunity they can get to showcase their skills. And viewers need a good laugh too.

• Verdict: A solid return for one of TV's most endearing series
  

  

What other reviewers said

The Guardian - "Ghastly, all of it. Yes, of course I'll watch the whole thing. Already looking forward to the next one."

Digital Spy - "Such nonsense business talk and boasting can only mean one thing - the Apprentice is back."

What people on Twitter said

@caitlinmoran - "LOVING the fierceness of Patrick on Young Apprentice. Ice cold.

‏@TheMediaTweets - "Just had a vision of the future and Max from #YoungApprentice was on #Newsnight in the year 2031 defending Tory economic policy."

The views in this article are those of the author alone and not of MSN or Microsoft