Yesterday’s episode of The Apprentice saw the remaining five contestants each go through “the interview process from hell” (assuming that hell would be a continuous loop of people in glass rooms telling you you’re crap – “You were the first person to walk on the moon? That’s not very ambitious. The moon’s very close to Earth. Why didn’t you try achieve something more, perhaps going to Mars? You strike me as a very unambitious person, I don’t think you’re what Sir Alan is looking for”).

Each contestant also provided personal references along with their CV. Sour-faced Debra Barr (she’s only 23! Maybe she’ll learn to smile when she’s 24) had amongst the most amusing references of any of them – mainly involving her colleagues telling her she’s incompetent and a bitch.

Debra tried to defend herself along the usual lines of people-call-me-a-bitch-because-I’m-a-woman-who’s-successful. Interviewer Karren Brady shot back, saying “I’m a successful woman in business…no one calls me a bitch”. REALLY, Karren? I had always got the impression that people regularly called you a bitch. I must be thinking of that other female CEO of a football club, you know the one…

Maybe she is right. Maybe no one calls her a bitch. Except herself, that is. In an interview with the Telegraph way back in 2000, she says:

Oh, I know people have got this image of me as a hard bitch. It’s unfortunate really. There’s this philosophy you should be seen but not heard.

Still, if you want something doing right, you’ve got to do it yourself, eh?