TV show pits kids V experts to build the perfect kids's bike

Those of you without children, or who don’t have working schedules that let you sit on the sofa all day watching TV, may be unaware of the BBC Children’s show, Beat The Boss. If you’re into bikes, however – and what kids want out of them –  this week's episode is worth watching.

Each week, Beat The Boss pits a team of three children – bright, curious, but at the end of the day, kids – against a team of three experts, typically including marketing, sales and product design specialists, to design and have built the chosen week’s product, with a jury of 25 children voting on which team wins.

The pitch for the show presumably went along the lines of “How about a cross between Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice? Um, for small people?”, so it’s probably no coincidence that Saira Khan, runner-up in the first series of the The Apprentice, hosts it, her former abrasive personality softened largely through swapping her rectangular spectacles for a pair of contacts.

And to think that instead of a successful media career, for which she seems a natural, she could still be trying to flog a stockpile of Amstrad eMailers out of a warehouse in Brentwood. Saira must be devastated.

I won’t spoil this week’s episode for you by saying which team won, but if Ernesto Colnago could see his way clear to incorporating at least one of the losing team’s suggestions into 2011’s design, I’d be very happy.

And no, I’m not saying which one.