CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: The best bit of The Apprentice is watching the candidates get ripped apart

Charm, the magical quality of being likeable, is a superpower. When it fails, the result is as catastrophic as Superman losing his ability to fly – at 80,000ft.

Tre Lowe, perhaps the most charismatic candidate ever to pitch for Lord Sugar’s money on The Apprentice (BBC1), crashed out of the sky in a long, screaming nosedive, during the interview round – the one genuinely entertaining segment of this aged format.

Tre wasn’t Superman, just Wile E Coyote discovering there was nothing beneath him but a bottomless abyss. As his luck ran out, he almost turned to the camera with a pitiful gaze and a sign that said, ‘Goodbyeeeaaarrrgghhh!’

Tre never stopped reminding us that he had a Top Three hit with Body Groove, back in 2000. His smiling confidence has carried him aloft during ten weeks of blunders and in-fighting.

But when he presented his business idea to Sugar’s team of interrogators, it proved worthless. He dreamed of marketing ‘testosterone shots’, fruit smoothies crammed with vitamins and herbs to maximise a chap’s macho potential. 

He had no idea how to manufacture the product, and hadn’t even tried the recipe. Also, as it turns out, selling drinks enhanced with actual testosterone is illegal.

Alan Sugar’s fire-breathing adviser Claude Littner took one look at Tre’s business plan and snapped, ‘It’s woefully inadequate. I think we’ve come to a full stop.’ 

Mike Souter prolonged the torture by producing a mock-up of Tre’s recipe and forcing him to drink a whole one. ‘I love that feeling of it burning the back of the throat,’ Tre choked.

Since the series started in February, the Apprentice most likely to succeed appeared to be Flo Edwards, a recruitment consultant who seemed unflappable.

But Claude’s dismissal of her plans was even more scathing. ‘This whole thing is ludicrous, the rantings of a lunatic,’ he said. ‘You’ll be bust in four months.’

Flo, it turned out, couldn’t tell the difference between ambition and delusion. Neither could cosmetic dentist Paul Midha, who wanted to launch a sideline in fashionable ‘scrubs’ or tunics for healthcare workers.

‘My dentists, they seem to wear this kind of big shirt,’ mused Lord S, ‘which comes down three-quarters length.’ Karren Brady, who’d been looking ineffably bored till then, perked up. ‘I hope they’re wearing something else as well,’ she suggested.

Revealing his wolfish side, Sugar did try telling Paul he’d be willing to accept 50 per cent of his £2 million dentistry business, in exchange for a £250,000 investment. I’ll bet he would.

This left Phil Turner and his family pie firm, and Rachel Woolford with her boutique fitness gyms.

From halfway through the episode, it was plain to viewers that these two were the only possible contenders for next week’s final. By then, Tre, Flo and Paul were toast, and they were the only people who couldn’t see it. Denial is a kind of superpower too.