ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that one part of The Apprentice's popular appeal lies here in the opening up of a casual reflective space through which anxieties and desires connected to the imagination of London-as-working-capital can emerge, alongside impromptu notions of value and judgements in these regards. The Apprentice makes it easier to imagine continuities and connections between the algorithmic finance-industries inhabiting London's sky line offices, and the 'real' concrete commercialism of everyday trading, creativity and 'graft'. A psychoanalyst might conjecture that the errant children in the chocolate factory are all also seeking more adequate father figures. It would be wrong to wildly extend that point to The Apprentice candidates. Business culture is increasingly drawing on tabloid discourse to construct an image of itself as 'democratic', contemporary and cool and the theatrics of the Apprentice are part of that shift.
