The Apprentice has returned and it was great to see some familiar faces back on our screens: Sir Alan. Nick Hewer. Margaret Mountford. The lingering shots of Docklands that imply Sir Alan is based there. And also, an old favourite, the Amstrad E-Mailer, which rears its head whenever a phone is needed.

As is usual, the 16 candidates were split into two teams, boys and girls, but with a twist that the team leaders were switched at the last minute. Andy led the girls and Jadine was in charge of the boys. The boys had to quickly think of a new name for their team after it was revealed by Sir Alan that Tre's suggestion - Certus - was actually the name of a company that Tres had worked for. Oh dear. No No, Tre. Just because Sir Alan likes to get plenty of free plugs for his Amstrad E-mailer, doesn't mean you can go advertising your other business interests too.

Their first task was to sell coffee in the borough of Islington. Both teams had a fixed stand and a mobile unit from which to sell coffee. Adam made the suggestion early on that they keep it simple and stick to white coffee and black coffee. Islington's a trendy kind of place and I think the punters demand something a bit more sophisticated than that.

Jadine was clearly intent on letting the boys know who was boss and was standing for no nonsense. Having already told us in a vox pop that "life's not always biscuits and sandwiches", we knew she meant business. It seemed that she was perhaps trying too hard and being needlessly bossy, ordering Tre and Simon away from a good pitch where they were successfully selling so that she could keep an eye on them. She reprimanded Tre and Simon for not shaking the chocolate powder topping through a shaped card, which would have created an eclipse to compliment the company name - Eclipse Coffee - and to help "sell the experience". It seemed like a good idea if you're building brand recognition, but crikey, this task was about selling as much coffee as you could in one day not creating the next Starbucks. Customer's returning the next day for more Eclipse coffee with that fancy topping would have been sorely disappointed.

After barking orders at the boys, Jadine showed her lighter side with a song and dance routine for some office workers - ably assisted by Lohit and a somewhat embarrassed Adam - which generated some sales. Presumably the workers were frightened that if they didn't buy the coffees they'd have to endure an encore. Well, if she doesn't get the job there's always Cirque De Celeb.

In the boardroom, the girls led by Andy came up as losers. Their decisions on location and stock - Sophie wanted to buy 65 litres of milk - cost them dear. Sir Alan pinned the defeat on a poor manager who couldn't manage the team, and Andy was fired.

With 16 contestants, it's difficult this early on to find out much about them all - I didn't see Ghazal utter a word, for instance - but I look forward to finding out more about Britain's hottest business prospects as the weeks progress.

Labels: apprentice, tv