‘I started with a mini van and I’ve seen everything, done everything’
Lord Sugar’s passion for The Apprentice is still undimmed after 15 years, he tells Laura Harding
It seems hard to believe that The Apprentice has been on our screens for 15 years.
Indeed nobody is more surprised than Lord Alan Sugar, who was merely Sir Alan back when it launched in 2005.
“Time has flown very, very quickly,” he muses. “It doesn’t feel like it at all.”
But the series, which pits a bunch of wildly over-confident would-be entrepreneurs against each other in the hopes of dodging the immortal line, “You’re fired,” still rumbles on.
In 2010, the prize changed from a £100,000-a-year job in Lord Sugar’s company to a £250,000 investment in the winning candidate’s business idea and, according to Lord Sugar, that is why it has lasted so long.
The new series will see the hopeful entrepreneurs create a new electric bicycle to pitch to the market, harness new tech to design a rollercoaster for a theme park and venture into the world of music management by marketing an unsigned artist.
Last year’s winner was Sian Gabbidon, who triumphed with her idea for a swimwear brand, and is one of a string of female candidates who have done well on the show at a time of increased scrutiny on the number of women in positions of leadership in business.
“I have no preference for women or men,” Lord Sugar says. “I just want the best person, sometimes the best is the best bloke and sometimes the best is the best woman, end of story.”
While the bluster and braggadocio of this year’s contestants is as reliably consistent as ever (one claims “I love business more than sharks love blood”), there is diversity in their background.
One is a para athlete, another a beauty brand owner.
There is also an artisan baker, a librarian and a luxury womenswear consultant, as well as a sports management agent, the owner of an ice cream company and the owner of a pillow company.
That kind of mix should be enough to keep things interesting for Lord Sugar and his trusty advisers Baroness Karren Brady and Claude Littner, who keep an eagle eye on the candidates while they are embarking on their various challenges.
But one fact that is inescapable for the 72-yearold tycoon is he is 15 years older now than when the show started.
“I’ve often had thoughts of when am I going to give it up,” he admits.
He stresses that the decision to carry on with the show always lies with the BBC, but adds: “I think I would max out at 20 years, a 20-year ceremony.
“I think enough is enough then, I would be 77 and I might not be compos mentis by then, you never know.”
He says the show could carry on without him, but hints it might never be the same.
“One, I’ve got an exceptionally good memory, and two, I’ve done all this.
“I started with a little mini van and I’ve seen everything, done everything, had disappointments.
“I know what selling is all about, know what not to do. I’ve sat in boardrooms in banks and negotiated big deals with banks at hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds but (when) I started off, my first sale was most probably five pounds with five car aerials.
“I’ve loaded lorries, sat on the production line, produced more goods on the production line than any of these people have ever done, done my own marketing, my own advertising, buying components, getting the prices right, designing products.
“I’ve done it all, so I think they would find it very hard. If you look at some of the other business programmes that are on TV, I’m not sure there is such an all rounder there.” Littner is even more explicit. “The fact of the matter is Karren and I work very, very hard on the ground but, in all honesty, Alan holds the whole thing together and if you listen hard to the business messages, that is what it’s all about.
“So it’s very great entertainment but I can’t see a situation where if Alan is not involved, that this has got any promise at all.”
Baroness Brady nods in agreement.
“If you look at great shows that have changed the lead, they failed and I think this one would go the same way.”
With high praise like that was there ever any comparison between him and Donald Trump, who hosted the US version of the show before moving into the White House?
“He was useless, completely useless,” Lord Sugar says dismissively. “Totally useless, you cannot even talk in the same breath. There is no comparison.”
“I have no preference for women or men. I just want the best person”
● The Apprentice continues on BBC1 on Wednesdays at 9pm.