The Apprentice (UK Series Two)
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The second series of British
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
series ''
The Apprentice An apprentice is someone who is in training for a trade, profession. The Apprentice or Apprentice may also refer to: Television * ''The Apprentice'' (American TV series), the original reality television series * ''The Apprentice'' (franchise), ...
'' (UK) was broadcast in the UK on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
, from 22 February to 10 May 2006. Following the success of the previous series, the
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commissioned additional episodes of the programme, along with ordering the creation of a new companion discussion programme titled '' The Apprentice: You're Fired!'', which was aimed at being aired on
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...
alongside the main programme's broadcast schedule. A special titled "Tim in the Firing Line", focusing on Tim Campbell's life after winning the first series, aired on 19 February 2006 and preceded this series' premiere. Alongside the standard twelve episodes of the series, it is the only series to not feature any specials being aired alongside its broadcast. Fourteen candidates took part in the second series, with
Michelle Dewberry Michelle Louise Faye Dewberry (born 9 October 1979) is a British businesswoman, presenter, and media personality. Dewberry won the second series of British television programme ''The Apprentice''. Early life Dewberry was born and raised on ...
becoming the overall winner. Excluding the special, the series averaged around 4.43 million viewers during its broadcast. A year after it had concluded, a candidate later raised a complaint against the BBC for their portrayal in the second series, which was refuted due to contradicting evidence from the broadcaster and production staff.


Series overview

Following favourable ratings and viewing figures for the first series, the BBC commissioned additional episodes of ''The Apprentice'', with
Alan Sugar Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician, and political adviser. Sugar began what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics company A ...
,
Nick Hewer Nicholas Radbourn Hewer (born 17 February 1944) is a retired British television presenter, company director (2010) and former public relations consultant from Swindon, England. From 2005 to 2014, he appeared as Alan Sugar's adviser in the Brit ...
and
Margaret Mountford Margaret Rose Mountford (''née'' Swale, born 24 November 1951) is a British lawyer, businesswoman, academic and television personality from Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland, best known for her role in the BBC reality TV series '' The Ap ...
returning to assume their roles within the programme and aid in production of the second series. One request made of production staff by the broadcaster was that a companion discussion show be created to air alongside it. This led to the creation of ''The Apprentice: You're Fired!'', a sister show that would air on
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...
and operate within a similar format to spin-off sister shows like ''
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'' and '' Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two''. The search for a host for this programme led to chief football presenter
Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for fo ...
being offered the role, with his acceptance revealed prior to the second series' premiere episode. As with the first series, production staff and researchers went through applications made by those who sought to participate in the programme, until around fourteen candidates, consisting of the same balanced mix of genders, were informed in Summer 2005 that they had landed a place in the final line-up for the second series. Filming began later that year in Autumn, with the first task seeing the men name their team ''Invicta'', while the women named their team ''Velocity''. Although candidates faced a similar setup of tasks with only subtle changes to what these involved, one notable difference was that the Interviews stage was overseen by
Paul Kemsley Paul Zeital Kemsley (born 23 August 1967) is an English businessman, property developer and media personality. Since 2016, he has regularly appeared on the American reality television show ''The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills'', alongside his ...
,
Claude Littner Claude Littner (born 4 May 1949) is an American-born British business executive and the former chairman of Viglen, Powerleague, ASCO and Azzuri Communications. He is also the deputy chairman of Blacks Leisure and former chief executive of Tot ...
, and Bordan Tkachuk, who returned to assume their roles, as it was decided that Hewer and Mountford would mainly supply feedback on observations over past tasks during discussions between Sugar and the interviewers. As with the previous series, the candidates faced a charity-based task, which this time featured a reward as done on similar tasks in the American original, before the use of it was discontinued following the conclusion of the series' broadcast. This series is the first in the show's history to feature the iconic sequence involving the winner departing in Sugar's personal Rolls-Royce, giving a brief interview on their success, a sequence that was created to purely emphasise their victory on the programme as the overall winner. Of those who took part,
Michelle Dewberry Michelle Louise Faye Dewberry (born 9 October 1979) is a British businesswoman, presenter, and media personality. Dewberry won the second series of British television programme ''The Apprentice''. Early life Dewberry was born and raised on ...
would become the eventual winner of this series, and go on to briefly take up a post under Sugar following its conclusion, leaving in September 2006 following a series of personal problems. Throughout its filming, prior to it being edited and prepared for broadcast, Sugar voiced issues to the production staff with the programme's format at the time – due to the number of candidates taking part against the number of episodes for the series, he was not allowed to fire more than one candidate in any task prior to the Interviews stage, despite the fact that two of the tasks featured outcomes where he felt more than one candidate deserved to be fired by him. Staff eventually reviewed the format after the production and broadcast of the second series, which led to eventual changes when work began on the third series. This is the only series of the programme in which every candidate had at least one opportunity to Project Manage a task. This occurred again on the first series of '' Junior Apprentice'' in 2010, but has never happened again on the main adult programme.


Candidates


Performance chart

Key: : The candidate won this series of ''The Apprentice''. : The candidate was the runner-up. : The candidate won as project manager on his/her team, for this task. : The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team, for this task. : The candidate was on the winning team for this task / they passed the Interviews stage. : The candidate was on the losing team for this task. : The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task. : The candidate was fired in this task. : The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.


Episodes


Criticism

Mani Sandher portrayal claim In 2007, a year after the second series had been aired, Mani Sandher filed a complaint against the BBC, criticising them for his portrayal on ''The Apprentice'', on grounds that he been unfairly treated by the broadcaster. The BBC Trust investigated the complaint and later rejected the accusations. Their findings pointed out that Sandher was aware that the programme was subject to editing after filming, and that this had been done to an acceptable standard that was not misleading per
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's broadcasting codes. Although Sandher later attempted to appeal against the Trust's decision on his complaint, the Editorial Complaints Unit of the BBC dismissed this.


Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from
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. Specials


References


External links

*
Times Online interview with Alan Sugar

Amstrad Site


{{DEFAULTSORT:Apprentice (British series 2), The 2006 British television seasons 02