Apprentice girl blasted for 'Amsterdam' stunt

Jonathan Gray

Apprentice candidate Stella English sat in a window in a tiny dress for a show task -- prompting guru Nick Hewer to compare her to an Amsterdam red-light girl.

The business wannabe became a living model for a fashion challenge at Manchester's Trafford Centre.

But in tonight's BBC1 show viewers will see Alan Sugar's advisor Hewer exasperated by the efforts of the Synergy team as they struggle to get up and running on time.

Under project manager Liz Locke, the group are late in opening their doors to sell their fashion collection, prompting the centre manager to storm: "The store should be open by now. Every other store in the centre is open."

To hurry things along, English agreed to act as a living mannequin, to the derision of Hewer. He grumbled: "Behind me you can see Stella wearing a very short sequinned emerald green dress waving at people from a window. Amsterdam, maybe -- but not in Manchester."

English has already become a model for her team during the series, donning a swimming costume for a photoshoot for a new beach product. But she drew the line at wearing anything too skimpy. The episode is screened on BBC1 at 9pm tonight.

hnews@herald.ie