The Apprentices brought the same energy with which Peter Terson handled football crowds in Zigger Zagger to the factory yard and the situation of working-class youth. The New Statesman critic wrote: Terson looks behind the pimples and the callow growling, and where the middle class would only see a "yob", Terson finds spirit, energy and an emotional honesty which, were it recognized and encouraged, might bring colour to the cheeks of a grey, sickly world.'