The Apprentice UK - Week 6 - Rebecca bites the dust

The Apprentice UK - Week 6 - Rebecca bites the dust The Apprentice UK Week 6 Rebecca bites the dust Image Source: BBCREBECCA  Jeffery became the latest candidate  fired from The Apprentice UK, after a catastrophic ‘wires crossed’ fail on the Week 6 task resulted in her being brought face to face with Lord Sugar again on the final three of the losing team.Image Source: BBC (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Task  Discount BuyingImage Source: BBCThe gruelling all-nighter  Discount Buying task started on the 69th Floor of The Shard, with Lord Sugar dispatching  the teams into the streets  of London with £1,000 and a business directory, with the instruction to buy nine itemsâ€"including an American pool cue, a Bird of Paradise plant, African black soap, a Malayan rambutan fruit, and a North African Arabian  tagine cooking potâ€"for the minimum amount of money.Courtney Wood’s team won the task thanks to shrewd negotiation skills and better  time management. Their eight items, even with the £75 fine for failing to secure  the ninth, cost £330.11. For Trishn a Thakrar’s team, however, there were three fines,  totalling £157.75 for missing two items and being late back to The Shard, bringing their total to £520.Once more on the losing team, and having passed on the opportunity to lead the task, it was clear that Rebeccaâ€"who had led her sub-team on a 30-minute-plus car ride from the East End of London to Stretford  to secure African black soap and a tagine, only to find the stockist had misheard her request and had only Tahina and soupâ€"was going to struggle to escape her fate.Image Source: BBCStandout Characters (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Sofiane KhelfaImage Source: BBCSofiane caused a minor stir of controversy and bemusement this week task by going off on a solo run during the task planning stage, disregarding his colleaguesâ€"even to the extent of switching off the office lightsâ€"to get a perfect evening  photograph of the London skyline from  The Shard.  While Lord Sugar complimented him on his picture , he had a stern word of caution for Sofiane: “This is a very strong warning. Dont be an autocrat in this process.”Frances BishopImage Source: BBCThe 25-year old children’s clothing entrepreneur is officially in Lord Sugar’s sights, having been on the losing team one time too many for the business mogul to allow to pass unremarked. As he  dismissed all but the final three candidates, Lord Sugar took the unusual step of addressing her directly: “Frances… you need to be on a winning team some day.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Trishna ThakrarImage Source: BBCThe 28-year-old IBM recruitment agent started the task well, by confidently stepping forward, and emphatically establishing a strategy that split her team into two,  to cover the east and west; and the  bold negotiating position to walk away from deals that they did not feel were good. However, as the night wore on, Trishna’s  strategy was steadily abandoned, to the point where she approved o f her own sub-team’s decision to source cigars in Belgravia.  Lord Sugar asserted that the loose grip on strategy was what had led to the team’s failure. She was saved this week only by the fact that Lord Sugar fired Rebecca on the basis of past performances as well as the Discount Buying task.Karthik NagesanImage Source: BBCFor sheer entertainment value, there was nothing on this week’s episode to top “the Indian mode” and “Asian persuasion”, to which Karthik Nagesan resorted when negotiating with sellers from India  for a  lehenga. Karthik has  changed dramatically  over the six weeks of the process to date, and it will be extremely interesting to see how far he can go in this series of The Apprentice UK. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Wisdom of Lord SugarLord Sugar  had a succession of quotable nuggets this week, and there was a hint (see our Looking Ahead… section below) that Week 7 of The Apprentice UK could see the business leader in pa rticularly acidic form• “Yes… well, walking around in London in the middle of the night looking for a strong Morroccan pot, you could have gotten into trouble!”  mocking Courtney for misidentifying a tagine as a Turkish dish• ”Ah, you found some dead-heads, wilting at the back. I sometimes find that in this boardroom.” responding to Grainne’s admission that she secured discount Bird of Paradise exotic flowers by going for slightly wilting  plants• ”Belgravia? Bit expensive, isn’t it? You’d have been better off going to Cuba!” on Nebula’s decision to shop for exclusive cigars in one of London’s  most well-heeled neighbourhoods• “Cabbies in London are trained in something called The Knowledge. I think you were trained in The Ignorance!” on Courtney’s failure to realise that SE2 is not next to SE1 but an ‘off the map’ country mile away from the city• “A rambutan is spiky and hard on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside… sound s like someone we know…” a  self-deprecating aside to his associate on The Apprentice UK,  Karren BradyLooking Ahead to  Week  7 on The Apprentice UKWith 11 candidates remaining, next week’s  task on The Apprentice UK is at the annual Boat Show in Poole Harbour. Lord Sugar starts by saying that he wants to see big sales. Possibly a pun. But there’s nothing ambiguous about the business mogul’s verdict on at least one of the candidates, judging by a sneak clip from The Apprentice: You’re Fired…“You’re about as useful as a trapdoor in a canoe!”As ever, AGENT  wishes it was next Thursday already!The Apprentice UK is broadcast Thursdays 9-10pm on BBC One, followed by The Apprentice: You’re Fired, hosted by Rhod Gilbert, on BBC Two, 10-10.30pm.