Lord Sugar fires limp biscuit Zoe

Lord Sugar fires limp biscuit Zoe
Lord Sugar fires limp biscuit Zoe (Image credit: Talkback Thames)

Zoe Beresford saw her dreams of glory on The Apprentice crumble - after biting off more than she could chew in a biscuit-making task. She was fired after her team failed to notch up any orders for their new brand of baked treats. But despite clashing with colleagues and admitting to poor decisions on the manufacturing and branding challenge, the 26-year-old insisted she was still a smart cookie. Team Logic leader Zoe sent two colleagues to a biscuit factory while she and skincare entrepreneur Susan Ma worked on packaging. After coming up with Bix Mix, a product to be snapped in half and shared with friends, a gap began to emerge between the quality of the ingredients used and the premium price chosen. Zoe hid her disappointment when she first tasted the bog-standard biscuits. She said afterwards: "I should have said something, but at the end of the day I don't think it was the best idea to go and say actually it's a rubbish biscuit, don't sell it, because [the team] have to be passionate and behind it." Cheshire-based Zoe, who initially wanted to be involved in the manufacturing process, admitted she should have gone to the factory after all. She added: "I should have stuck to my guns. It was the letdown of this task, it was a bad decision. Game over." The straight-talking candidate, who is rumoured to have struck up a romance with fellow fired contestant Glenn Ward, rowed with others on several occasions. Zoe said of the spats: "That's the passion, that's where it came out. Maybe I should have used my passion for rallying instead." Speaking on BBC2 spin-off show You're Fired on Wednesday, she added: "I'm normally a bit happier than I have been in this series." By contrast, Helen Milligan's team won a record-breaking 800,000-unit order from Asda for their biscuit, Special Stars.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.