Boys will be boys

For two nights running last week, BBC 1 has offered me primetime entertainment, courtesy of two old-school alpha males with dubious dress sense and even more dubious people management skills - both of whom I've found strangely compelling whilst being the most awful adverts for mankind.

The return of The Apprentice has reconfirmed that:

a) I really like running my co-owned company and am not ready to dance to someone else's tune,
b) just about anyone I've ever met in the creative sector could wipe the floor with the Sugar wannabees and
c) the show is less about finding a suitable heir for Sir Alan than providing Auntie with a slightly-more reputable middle-management, middle-class, mid-week version of Big Brother.

Hapless Nick, the floppy-haired, goatee-sporting barrister, seemed to lose the power of speech in front of the great man who said he was "no Mary Poppins". Yep, dead right Sir Alan - Mary Poppins was really scary. I loved this programme in its first series on BBC 2 when it still had teeth, but now it's been tumble-dried into something suitable for the masses. Then again, a spoonful of Sugar on a Wednesday night does make the week go down somewhat more easily.

And so on to my second hero, from Ashes to Ashes: Gene Hunt: a misogynistic, racist, homophobic copper in the Met whose core values could not be further from my own. But oh my, what most of womankind would give to be banged up by him.

Both great entertainers, albeit in different ways, but good role models for young men? I think not.