Business Diary: November 30

The public relations people behind The Apprentice are almost as strict as Lord Sugar himself when it comes to vetting interview candidates.

Diary requested an interview with Alex Epstein, the Yorkshire contestant who was fired from the BBC TV series a few weeks ago.

Here are the highlights of an email exchange with Taylor Herring, the London PR firm representing the show.

TH: "Can we see a list of the questions you'd be wanting to ask? We can then look to facilitate."

Diary: "We don't tend to share questions in advance, but as you can image they will be about his appearance on The Apprentice and his impressions of Alan Sugar and team-mates and so on."

TH: "Can we ensure that in your questions you are not probing about production processes, as this is a key consideration here."

Diary: "Thanks for the interview opportunity. Can I ask why there is the sensitivity about production processes?"

TH: "Not a problem at all, Alex is keen to do this, however candidates simply do not discuss production processes – if this is an issue, I'm afraid we'll have to leave it."

Diary: "I am just curious as to why there is the sensitivity around production processes. I'd assume, because it's the BBC, that the broadcast programme would be a fair and accurate representation of reality."

TH: "I have at no point indicated that there is sensitivity around production nor that there is any issue with the accuracy of representation. I have simply advised that candidates do not discuss production, it is not what interviews are set up for.

"I don't think this needs to be discussed further but if it is of continued concern, as I said, we'll leave it."

Diary left it there.

Fun and games

THE old jokes are the best. With this adage in mind, Diary will share with readers some corking one-liners from stand-up Milton Jones' appearance at Bradford Chamber's annual dinner, held more than 10 days ago.

"My parents came up last weekend – I keep them in the cellar."

"If you are addicted to meths you are either an alcoholic or a South African with a real love of numbers."

"Somewhere between murder and suicide is a place called Merseyside."

"My grandfather fell ill. My grandmother rubbed some lard on his back. He went downhill really quickly after that."

You had to be there. The audience loved it. Mr Jones, a Londoner with a slightly dumbstruck expression, won a coveted Perrier award in 1996.

Meat in place

LEEDS lawyer Jeremy Shulman visited a town with a very familiar name in a far-flung corner of the world while on a business trip to South America through his international legal connections.

It was Fray Bentos, in Uruguay, a name that conjures an image of tinned pies and corned beef to millions of households.

During an interview with Diary, Mr Shulman wondered in a light-hearted way whether it was "a place named after the brand or a brand named after the place".

An email arrived later from Mr Shulman saying: "It's a close-run thing but it looks as if the town (chicken) came just before the meat packing (egg)."

It included a link to an online encyclopaedia revealing the meat-packing heritage of Fray Bentos, which is located in the heart of Uruguay's cattle country.

Party line

AS the festive season approaches, Diary always expects to receive at least one missive from a public relations company about "the perils of the Christmas party".

These press releases follow a standard pattern. It involves an employment lawyer issuing a warning about the dangers of encouraging staff to become too merry at the Christmas knees-up because it could lead to a rather sober disciplinary hearing later.

Sure enough, the first of this year's batch arrived this week.

One, sent on behalf of a Yorkshire law firm, deserves credit for having a dash of originality.

Apart from the usual wise words about limiting the number of free drinks available at the Christmas party, it also contains the following sentence: "Don't be tempted to put up decorations whilst standing on a swivel chair, don't hang the tinsel on computers or other sources of heat, don't decorate emergency exit signs, think carefully about having plastic cups instead of glasses; and don't let anyone dance on the

photocopier!"