The Apprentice review: A new batch of candidates stuck in the dust-mottled shop window of Lord Sugar's fading high street giant

The latest batch of contenders, meanwhile, are like the bluebottles trapped in the shop window, as we watch them haplessly buzz about, bashing their heads fruitlessly against the glass.

Meanwhile, we wonder which will fall into the dust gathering on the windowsill of failure and which will finally make their way out of the skylight of business success and into the wide blue yonder with £250,000 of Lord Sugar's money.

That's part of the problem with The Apprentice now, a show which refuses to innovate or change, a show which seems to think the height of communication is Lord Sugar's Amstrad emailer, a show whose insistence on presenting all the candidates as faceless corporate drones means it almost seems cruel watching them fail, fail, and then fail again.

I was sure one – Max, apparently – was actually a ghost, so pale, wan and silent was he. Surely he was the spectre of a previous candidate, condemned to roam the boardroom, jangling the buckles on his loafers as a warning others, intoning over and over again, “Thank you for the opportunity Lord Sugar”.

This week's opening episode followed the tried and tested formula of recent years, with Lord Sugar giving the candidates the benefit of his latest stand-up routine - “I'm looking for a Bezos, no a bozo” - before sending them off to lead a tourist excursion, this year in Austria.

Nadia put herself forward a project manager for one team, only be outvoted by Emma, whose ever-present furry hat – ideal for the Tyrolean Alps - seemed to be the deciding factor.

This meant that Nadia had a face on for the whole episode, determined to make things as difficult as possible and bad-mouthing Emma at every opportunity.

The fact that she described herself like the Arthur Scargill of the boardroom - “strategic and militant” - didn't really make her seem any better.

Of course, this being The Apprentice, there were epic failures with pricing and margins, ticket sales and a basic understanding of profit and loss.

And, this being The Apprentice, is made you wonder what inducements the production team offered the excursion customers to make them follow these clueless idiots around Innsbruck for the day.

I won't say who got fired – although you'll probably guess – it's enough to say that it could any one of about 10 of the candidates, as usual.

Over on BBC2, the companion show You're Fired continues to show literally 110 per cent more wit, verve and energy than its parent.

Tom Allen is a host with the perfect amount of love for the show with a healthy liking for snarky takedowns, while behind-the-scenes footage at least tries to humanise the candidates while the guests attempt to offer some justification for the corporate car crash we've all just witnessed.

It says something about the original show that you can watch You're Fired and come away feeling more entertained and more informed about both business and the candidates.

It's like one of those internet upstarts ready to take its parent down, while Lord Sugar and The Apprentice increasingly look like the Woolworths of linear TV – with the pick and mix gathering a layer of dust and bargain bin full of candidates.