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The Final: Tom’s on the edge of his seat…

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Despite only ever winning three tasks overall, Tom said he was ‘saving it all to the last’ and, as it turns out, he couldn’t have been more right.

Tom’s business plan was to tackle the problem of back pain in the workplace by providing offices with a range of special chairs. However, when asked in the pitch why the word ‘chair’ hadn’t actually been mentioned at all in his business plan, Tom fell silent and willed his own chair to swallow him whole. In the interviews Tom’s ‘nice guy’ image and his current business standing were all brought into question. ÌýHowever, Tom managed to divert any awkward questions with lofty tales of his ‘curved nail file’ and its journey around the world. Everyone was suitably impressed.

In the boardroom, the lack of the word ‘chair’ in Tom’s business plan and the fact that his figures were ‘wrong’ caused concern. Karren Brady threw him a lifeline by telling Lord Sugar, ‘He’s the one that would most benefit from your involvement’. As it turned out, Lord Sugar agreed and hired him as his new business partner with an investment of £250,000. It was safe to say that Tom nearly fell off his… chair.

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Episode Eleven: Will Tom be left pie and dry?

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Helen reluctantly allowed Tom to be in charge of the branding of their pie shop, but warned him, ‘I’m trusting you here Tom, big time’.

With so much responsibility heaped upon his shoulders, Tom headed straight off to a baby shop, where he persisted to take lots of pictures of babygros while muttering something about ‘flying pies’. The misreading of a sign led to the birth of ‘MyPy’ – ‘Say hello to British Pies’ and Tom set about looking for famous Britain’s to represent his brand. Benny Hill and Ross Kemp were thrown out in favour of Christopher Columbus and Lord Byron and ‘MyPy’ started trading, ignoring the fact that they had a stray European in their midst.

The industry executives loved Tom and Helen’s British theme and Lord Sugar described it as an idea that ‘has got legs’. It was announced that Team Logic had won the task and Tom chartered his course straight through to the final.

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Episode Ten: Nodding fever hits The Apprentice

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When Lord Sugar explained the task and told Tom that he’d be watching out for him, Tom nodded his head furiously. Lord Sugar warned him, ‘If you nod your head any more, I’m going to put you on the back seat of my bloody car’. It was to be a condition that would quickly spread throughout many of the candidates.Ìý

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Episode Nine: It’s not crackers…

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When Lord Sugar arrived at the house, Tom opened the door and nearly fell off the step with surprise. Biscuits were the task and Tom was packed off to Swansea to the biscuit development factory to come up with a product. Thinking about ideas for different types of biscuits, Tom surpassed all expectations and settled on a concept for ‘an emergency biscuit’.

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Episode Eight: Scissors, Paper, groan…

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Tom giggled nervously when Lord Sugar announced that he was to be the Project Manager, but determined to make a good impression; he sent half of his team to Paris and went off to pick products that he could sell to the French outlets. Tom showed a liking for the pop-up postcard, the flying teapot lamp and the car seat booster for children.Ìý

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Episode Six: Tom gets his treat

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It’s been a fair old struggle for Tom, finding himself on the losing team five times he was keen to show his worth. ÌýNot so keen that he’d stand for Project Manger, but keen, none the less.Ìý

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Episode Five: Five times Tom…

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Once again, Tom found himself on the receiving end of another dose of, ‘oh, we should have listened to Tom’, a condition that has been fast spreading around the candidates over the last couple of weeks. When the idea of ‘Every Dog’ was first raised, Tom spoke out saying that he thought the idea was too general and retailers would say, ‘Why do we need this’?

Tom’s protests fell on deaf ears and before he knew it he was helping mix the ingredients for the grand launch of ‘Every Dog’ and recording his own healthy heartbeat as the sound track accompanying the TV advertising campaign.Ìý

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Episode Four: Cut and no buy

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Tom started off the task by querying Felicity’s choice of location for the beauty stand, worrying that the treatment room was ‘too far away’. However, when the product pitches took place he quickly forgot his concerns and basked in the enjoyment of a chocolate facemask.

When customers in the treatment room were sparse, Felicity brought Tom onto the sales floor and told him to pitch their massages from there. Looked upon by Melody and Ellie as the person who would save the day, Tom did what any man would do in that situation - get really excited about a table’s worth of fake hair and completely forget what he was supposed to be doing.

When it was announced that the team had lost the task, Lord Sugar called Tom a stalker on account of his endless boardroom appearances. Tom then took to the café and sighed, ’I’m getting pretty sick of this place’. Tom’s lack of treatment selling was brought up in the boardroom, but despite Nick’s comments rendering him speechless, he wasn’t asked back to argue his case any further.

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Episode Three: Wane world

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Episode Two: A dangerous game…

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An inventor by trade, Thomas quickly set to work offering a whole host of ideas for the boys’ mobile phone App. Unfortunately for him none of them were accepted but that didn’t stop him getting right behind Glenn’s idea for Slangatang.

He took to the streets to find suitable candidates for the graphics for Slangatang’, directing his pundits and designing hats for the final graphic. Dressing up as an old school pilot, complete with moustache and flowing scarf, he helped the boys pitch their App at the games fair, and seemed to quite enjoy himself.

When it came to hearing the news that the boys had failed the task, Thomas refused to believe that this wasn’t because of their failure to secure the online magazine deal. He even disagreed directly with Lord Sugar, which, by his own admission, ‘was a very dangerous game’.

After putting Thomas firmly in his place, Lord Sugar went on to analyse the real reason the boys had failed the task. Although his name did come up, Thomas escaped being brought back into the boardroom.

Thomas was on losing team Logic.
App Downloads after 6 hours: just under 3000
Total downloads after 24 hrs: 3951

Episode One: Nailing it…

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An ‘inventor’ by his own admission, Thomas created the world’s first curved nail file. He claims ‘he finds gaps in the market and finds products for those gaps’.

The products he was tasked with finding were the ingredients for the soup that the boys had included as part of their ‘liquid lunch’. Setting himself up in the static unit at Liverpool Street he showed a flair for selling, as well as juggling the oranges.

In the boardroom he impressed Lord Sugar by giving a poignant analysis of where Edward’s plan had gone wrong. He wasn’t brought back into the boardroom and lives to file another day.

Thomas was on losing team Logic. Their total profit was £432.13.

About Tom

London born Tom’s first job was working on a farm sorting agricultural bulbs from mud. A keen inventor and sports enthusiast, Tom succeeded in taking a prototype made in his kitchen to the shelves of two leading pharmacy outlets in the UK.

He describes himself as ‘creative, adventurous, loyal and enthusiastic’.

Check back for weekly updates on Tom during the series ...