SILENT WITNESS

CLAUDE LITTNER IS BACK TO SCRUTINISE THE CANDIDATES HOPING FOR A £250,000 DEAL…

There’s much we love about autumn: orange leaves on the trees; warm mugs of hot chocolate; histrionic outbursts from a 16-strong bunch of dapper dressers who all think their opinion is the right one… Yes, The Apprentice is back and, once again, Claude Littner and Karren Brady will be Lord Sugar’s eyes and ears. Inside TV got on the blower to ask Claude what we can expect…

Hi, Claude! What can you tell us about task one?

The candidates went to Cape Town in South Africa – one group went on safari and the other led a tour of the wineland district. And it was spectacular – both visually and for the incompetence of some of the candidates. They hadn’t worked together before, so no one knew what anyone was good at. People would say, “Oh, I can do that,” and you found that they couldn’t.

What is this year’s crop of candidates like?

As always, there’s a real mix. In addition to great characters, there are some standout, irritating people, I mean, really annoying. But I’ve never been able to detect in week one, or even further down the track, who the winner is going to be. People who appear to be very good at the beginning sometimes start to fail when it comes to other tasks.

What’s the worst thing they can do in an interview?

Do you mean apart from trying to shake my hand?! Seriously, the worst thing is when they have a business plan which I challenge, and they then try to defend it. You can see in their eyes that they suddenly realise

how implausible their idea is, yet they still want to justify it. And when they cry.

Can we expect to see you crack a smile this series?

That’s impossible. It never, ever happens. And if you do get the sense that maybe there was a smile… it was the camera angle, the lighting, or any other excuse you can think of!