Dating In The Dark, the award-winning dating show with a difference is back for another season of must-watch TV; this time sprinkled with a peppering of celebrity daters looking for love – Pineapple Dance Studio’s Andrew Stone, Ben Clarke from The Apprentice and Georgina Baillie, granddaughter of Andrew Sachs.

The ground-breaking show puts matchmaking to the ultimate test by offering six singletons per episode the chance to get to know each other in a whole new way – in complete darkness.

Three women share one half of a house, while three bachelors share the other half, with the men and women only ever meeting each other in a specially designed ‘Dark Room’. High-tech infrared cameras allow the viewers to follow all the action in the Dark Room, meaning the viewers see what the daters can’t. There are also cameras in both the men’s and women’s apartments to capture all the action before and after each date.

At the end of the show, each dater picks the one person they feel they’ve connected with and that person is revealed in a spotlight for only a matter of seconds. Days of flirting may come to nothing if the big reveal disappoints. Each dater must finally choose whether to meet their prospective partner in the flesh or leave them heartbroken as they walk away for good. It’s nail-biting anguish for some singletons, but compelling telly for viewers as LIVING discovers if love really is blind.

Single lads and ladies looking for love this series include a Justin Timberlake look-a-like, a Playboy model, identical male twins, a professional footballer, a Britney Spears look-a-like and a naked waiter. Temperatures hot up in the dark room as the daters and celebrities get closer – will they prove that looks don’t always matter?

Dating In The Dark returns to LIVING on 13th July

View the original post Andrew Stone, Ben Clarke and Georgina Baillie go Dating in the Dark! on Unreality TV

The Apprentice kicked off this week with a 6am phone call directing all candidates to the local maternity hospital. Am I the only one who thinks that 6am is a ridiculous hour to phone anyone? Sir Alan obviously doesn’t realise that sleep deprivation impedes performance and affects peoples ability to operate every day baby paraphernalia!

SAS told the hopefuls that they had to sell baby products to susceptible parents at a local baby fair. The teams had to first choose two promising products to sell and SAS put experience at the helm and chose the mum (Lorraine) and dad (James) as team leaders.

The best moment of the show came about when James decided to test out his first product, an inflatable birthing pool. The sight of him leaning over the side, puffing and panting whilst receiving a lower back massage was more than disturbing.

Debra and Ben were bowled over by an expensive rocking horse made by the ‘best rocking horse makers in the world.’ Their price tag started at £1700 so not a cheap option but they were convinced that they could sell at least one.

Lorraine picked an easy fold buggy that can be collapsed with one hand. She loves it, loves it, loves it. She bought it for £135 per unit but she forgot to get instructions on how to use it. Kate and Howard went to look at baby high heels, I have never seen a more chavtastic invention. They wisely said no and instead opted for the foam head guard. Their plan to shift them was to make mums feel guilty and scare them with the “if you don’t your baby may die” routine. Very ethical.

Lorraine is gutted when she got to the baby fair and realised that a neighbouring stall was selling her pushchair at a cheaper price and guess what, they knew how to operate it! I loved Howard’s reaction though, when Kate whispered: “I can’t believe she didn’t ask if anyone else would be selling it!” Howard responded: “Do you know what though? At least if we lose we’ve got a reason.” Dog eat dog or what?

Yasmina and James discounted the birthing pool from £85 to £73 and shifted quite a few, whilst Kate and Howard sold their hard hats by the box load. Debra almost sold her most expensive rocking horse but in the end lost the sale because she could offer no discounts.

The teams met in the boardroom and the totals were revealed. Empire lifted £722, whilst Ignite cleared £1660.

James and Co returned to face SAS’s wrath and his henchman Nick kicked off with the good point that everybody needs a buggy but only 2.1% of parents need a birthing pool. James continued prove his stupidity by disagreeing with SAS and standing by his decision to ditch the buggy and pick the paddling pool.

Sir Alan’s closing comments to the three twits were:

Ben: “You over hype yourself, your abilities and how good you are. But at certain stages of this process I have seen some bright shining light at the end of a long tunnel.”

Debra: “I have some concerns as far as your temperament is concerned, your ruthlessness . You’re not coming across as a likeable person. I’m not one of your greatest fans at the moment.”

James: “You are a very nice guy but I think being just a nice fella in the cruel hard world of business may not be enough of a requirement.”

You would have been forgiven for thinking that James was hailing the taxi tonight but SAS revealed his hand and sent Ben home. That’ll teach him to mention his scholarship to Sandhurst at least twice a minute!

View the original post The Apprentice: Ben Clarke Is Fired! on Unreality TV

The RSPCA is reportedly considering launching an investigation into Apprentice candidate Ben Clarke after he swallowed a live goldfish at a drunken party.

One partygoer told The News Of The World: “Ben was out of control. Yes, it was a drunken party, but how can anyone defend eating a live animal just for a laugh?”

The newspaper sent copies of the party photographs to the RSPCA, urging them to launch an investigation into the matter.

“Ben and his brother were at the top table, but by this point everyone was milling about and mixing. Obviously a lot of booze had gone down and attention suddenly turned to the goldfish bowls,” the source added.

“Someone made a joke about eating one of the fish. If you were going to bet on anyone taking things too far it would be safe to put all your money on Ben.”

View the original post Apprentice: Ben Clarke Faces RSPCA Investigation After Eating Live Goldfish on Unreality TV

Apprentice candidate Ben Clarke is reportedly already planning how to make a name for himself in the media after leaving the show.

Ben is lucky to have survived on the show so far, and knowing that his days are numbered, the stockbroker arranged a dinner date with last year’s contestants Claire Young and Raef Bjayou.

An onlooker told the Daily Star Sunday: “You’d think he would have been more discreet – but he has a loud voice and everyone could hear him. Ben told Claire, who was famous for being tough and no-nonsense: ‘I want to be like you. I want to be the new Rottweiler’.

“And he was asking Raef how he got on other things like The Underdog Show. He pumped them for info about how to make his fame last.”

The difference between Claire, Raef and Ben is that Raef and Claire will be remembered as nice, decent yet memorable characters. Ben is just plain annoying and really quite stupid, his chance at achieving a TV career after the BBC reality TV show ends is hopefully slim to none!

View the original post The Apprentice: Ben Clarke Planning To Be A Media Wh**e on Unreality TV

Sir Alan Sugar has banned the winner of this years Apprentice series from carrying out any tacky or nude photo shoots. Good news if Ben wins, but what if Philip snatches the title?

Sir Alan made the decision after learning that Ben Clarke was hoping to land some lucrative magazine deals and was working on his pectorals, hoping to be offered a topless photo deal.

A source close to the former Amstrad boss told The Sun: “Sir Alan is not happy about Ben’s plans.

“He thinks it puts a black mark against his name. Anyone working for him has to be dedicated to the job not, as he puts it, fannying around in the media. Sir Alan may search for an apprentice on a TV show but that doesn’t mean he endorses tacky celebrity behaviour.”

It looks like I’ll have to dig out the youtube clip of last night’s episode showing Philip in all his topless glory then. It proved to be a real pick-me-up.

View the original post The Apprentice 2009: Sir Alan Sugar Bans Nude Photo Shoots on Unreality TV

BBC’s Apprentice opened tonight with Philip answering the phone in his boxers (yum) and being told that the group had thirty minutes before they had to meet Sir Sugar. Does the BBC really expect us to believe that those folks are only given 30 minutes to get up, get dressed, showered, straightened and primped and make their way across London to meet Sir Alan? No way could Kate even get her makeup done in that short space of time.

The teams met Sir Alan in a London auction house, where they were told that they would be selling ten random items in one day. The warning was issued that they not take everything at face value. Kate was moved to Ignite and Noorul was moved to Empire. The delectable Phiilip was appointed as head of Ignite and Ben was team leader for Empire.

Included in the bundle of goods was an Indian rug worth over £200, pair of vintage shoes and first edition hidden in a box of books.

Lorraine immediately spotted the value in the rug, but cocky Phil disregarded her every word. He decided that the value item was the skeleton but when a dealer turned down the chance to buy it, he sold it to a random guy in a local pub. Questionable methods that luckily worked.

Staying in form, Phillip and team sold their £200 rug for £50 to someone walking past them in the street. Alan Carr lookalike, Lorraine, wanted a proper valuation but Phil kept repeating that it was a piece of shite. There’s leadership for you.

Ben sold his first book for £100, not a bad result but then continued to flog his skeleton to a poor student for a paltry £60. It is lucky Ben was there for the transaction, as Noorul seemed to lose all speech capabilities when it came to the bartering process. Ben went on to sell his wooden commode for a fiver and tried to offer his vintage shoes for one pound. I wish I’d been in the market that day, just think what I could have made on eBay. In the meantime Yasmina sold her £200 rug for £55, was anyone surprised when Ben’s team lost?

As Philip and his lot went to enjoy a night of truffles, Ben decided to bring James and Noorul and back into the boardroom. No Deborah, no James, no Deborah…..yeah Deborah! He’s obviously not known for his decision making skills. I can’t tell you much of what was said in the boardroom, as the three candidates shouted and bickered and bitched over each other so much that it was almost incomprehensible. The common threads were that no one liked Ben Clarke, no one respected Ben Clarke and everyone is fed up with hearing about Ben’s scholarship from Sandhurst.

So how did Noorul end up being fired then? Granted he was incompetent and I would have been tempted to stick pins in him during the task to make sure he was still alive but really, how could Sir Alan let Ben stay for another week? That accent is driving me crazy and if he does land a topless magazine shoot like he is hoping to, I may be forced to throw up. At this point I am tempted to start my very own Get Ben Out petition. Anyone care to sign?

View the original post The Apprentice 29th April – Noorul Choudhury Fired! on Unreality TV

Apprentice candidates Ben Clarke and Noorul Choudhury are said to have gotten embroiled in a heated feud whilst filming the show for BBC One.

The second episode of the series airs this Wednesday and word is we can expect to see lots of fights and rows between the pair over the next few weeks.

One source told The People: “It’s got to be one of the worst feuds the show has seen. Noorul hated the fact that Ben is quite in-your-face and struts around like he owns the place.

“It is basically a clash of egos like never before – they both think they are the best and their desire to win is overwhelming. Viewers will be shocked by the ferocity of their arguments – it’s bordering on venomous.”

One of the pairs fights was over Ben’s suits and braces, which really does seem a little bit feminine!

“Everything about Ben just really got on Noorul’s nerves – especially the way he dresses in those suits with braces,” the insider explained.

“He told everyone he thought Ben’s ‘archaic banker look’ was ridiculous. Noorul fancies himself as a bit of a style guru and he thought Ben looked like an idiot.”

View the original post The Apprentice: Ben Clarke and Noorul Choudhury FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! on Unreality TV

OMG!!! Sir Alan Sugar appeared on The One Show tonight saying that this years bunch of Apprentice candidates are his best yet, but to me they look like a bunch of bumbling idiots.

Their first task consisted of Sir Alan providing them with a van and some cleaning materials (all of which they paid for out of their budget). They then had to clean some stuff and make as much money as they could in just one day.

The girls in particular astounded me by trying to charge £300 to clean three cars! When the customer pointed out that his current cleaner does the job for £60, Mona Lewis told him he was wrong and basically implied that he was a liar. They landed the contract in the end but after dropping their price dramatically they then had to summon their customer to help them work the pressure washer.

The boys, to their credit, landed a contract to clean 30 minicabs, but would only be paid for the ones which passed the customers inspection. There seemed to be way too many of them trying to clean at the same time, they took one and a half hours to clean their first car and even then they were forgetting to clean roofs, backs of seats and other pretty obvious spots.

In the end Ignite (the girls team) took £357, they spent £196.45 and so made a profit of £160.55. Empire (the boys team) took £347, spent £107.39 and so made a profit of just over £239. So the boys won, but really not through any great margin and not because of any great planning or talent. I can only hope that this bunch get better with practice!

View the original post The Apprentice 2009: Boys Win, But They’re All Bloody Idiots on Unreality TV

Ben Clarke
Age: 22
Career: Trainee Stockbroker
Qualifications: BA (Hons) Economics and Business
Lives: Belfast

Belfast born and bred Ben is the rebellious stockbroker who considers himself to be ruthless and money-obsessed. The former Gavin Henson lookalike is inspired by the Playboy brand and cites Hugh Heffner as one of his most admired business figures. Rugby playing Ben admits to being “cocky” but insists that he takes business very seriously. He is a young professional with what he describes as a raw hunger to make as much money as possible.

He says: “To me, making money is better than sex.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2009: Ben Clarke on Unreality TV