'Prentice-Hancock

Not Him

No, not Commander Salamar from classic Tom Baker serial The Planet of Evil. I'm talking about last nights telly, in particular The Apprentice (BBC1) and Hancock and Joan (BBC4)

The Apprentice kicked off in brilliant style with some wonderfully ridiculous hyperbole from the candidates. One of my favourites so far is Raef who claims that "the spoken word is my tool." and that he can "get on with both Prince and Pauper".

There was a serious class divide last night, between cunty barrister Nicholas De-Lacy Brown and Alex. Both of them were total twunts, but that's the appeal of The Apprentice innit? Nicholas was fired after a mix up with some lobsters and Raef lives to fight another day.

The guy I most want to win however, might just be Kevin. This is primarily because he looks a little bit like Matt Lucas dressed as Jamie Oliver. I hope he wins so that once S'r'Al gives him the job, he strips off his suit to reveal a hilarious fat suit complete with comedy tits and a comedy vagina, sits on Sir Al's knee and tells him to "Call me Bubbles..."

Out of the girls, noone is particularly standing out as a potential winner or anyone to root for. There is the best salesperson in Europe...[/hyperbole] Irish Jenny who whilst being quite sexy does have a slightly larger gap between her eyes than is surely healthy. She also claims on The Apprentice wesbsite that she can sell a sheet of paper for £50, dunno about you but at £50 I'd be expecting a little bit more than "paper" if you know what I mean.

Looking for (stationary) business darling?

Lucinda, the beret wearing, soft talking potential nutcase should give us some entertainment in the weeks to come. Sir Alan was on fine form in the Boardroom, and it's shaping up to be another cracking series.

BBC4 continued their Curse of Comedy season with Hancock and Joan starring the brilliant Ken Stott as Tony Hancock. Although he doesn't really look like Hancock, and although at certain points in the film his voice wavered a little and that Edinburgh accent of his slipped through, you could just about believe he was Hancock. Certainly in some of his mannerisms, and in certain bits of dialogue. Sadly, as a fan of Hancock and as a fan of Ken Stott I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the previous weeks Steptoe drama. Perhaps I struggled to believe Stott as Hancock primarily because I'd watched a lot of the two of them recently in DVDs of Rebus and Hancock's Half Hour. Still, it was a good drama, barring the odd ending and Stott was a much more believable Hancock than Alex Jennings was as Dads Army star and friend of Hancock; John LeMesurier, whose wife Hancock had an affair with. First of all, they look nothing like each other, and unlike Stott who adopted the mannerisms and for the most part the accent, Jennings just played LeMesurier as Prince Charles! I think his presence is what really detracted from the drama of the piece, you're really supposed to feel sorry for John, who acts like a complete gentleman whilst knowing his wife is sleeping with his best friend, but Jennings was too flat, and not three dimensional enough to illicit any kind of sympathy.
So there we go, last nights television poked, prodded and analysed by someone waiting for a Megabus. Doctor who returns at the earlier time of 6:20 on the 5th April so imagine this place to be Doctor who and Apprentice central for the next 13 weeks!

Happy times and places!