The Apprentice series 8 press launch
We’ll admit it – The Royal Institute of British Architects in central London isn’t somewhere we normally hang out. But this morning, at 10am, we were in its cavernous screening room for the launch of the eighth series of The Apprentice.
Attended by Lord Sugar, plus aides Karren Brady and Nick Hewer, and also the ladies and gentlemen of the press, we were treated to episode one (favourite quote, spoken by one of the hopefuls: ‘I’m like an animal. I will literally roar my way to the top.’).
After the screening, Karren revealed which challenges this year she’s particularly enjoyed. ‘One of the tasks,’ she said, ‘is to promote English sparkling wine in competition with champagne. As a marketing task and an advertising task, I think people will really learn something from that.
‘There’s also an “upsizing” one. The candidates have to buy old pieces of furniture, add value to them in terms of materials and stencilling, and then sell them. I think, again, viewers will learn there’s a great market in this. And then, one of the funniest for me was the selling of a fitness class. The candidates have to devise a fitness regime – a bit like Zumba has done – and franchise it. Boy, did we have some laughs on that!’
With the assembled journos invited to fire questions at the trio, Lord Sugar – as you might expect – held court. Here are the highlights of those exchanges…
Lord Sugar is asked if he’s getting softer…
[Sarcastically] Oh, yeah, yeah. When they drop George Clooney from those espresso ads, I’m hoping they’ll call me. That’s what I’m building towards. But, you know, as you get older you’ve seen a lot of things and you learn not to get too excited. [Also] the BBC has got this watershed problem – even after nine o’clock I have to be careful [about swearing]… Erm, that was a joke. Clearly wasted on you.
And what he makes of contestants’ sob stories…
Bloody hell, I wish I had Sky Plus so I could fast-forward through them. Get on with it! I’m not interested.
Lord Sugar on the problem with youngsters today…
Too many of them look up to Mr Zuckerberg [creator of Facebook], Mr Gates [Microsoft founder] and the late great Steve Jobs [from Apple] as some kind of phenomena – which they are. But too many youngsters are sitting around waiting for this opportunity to become one of them – they don’t realise it’s a trillion-to-one chance.
How does he feel about ‘bank bashing’?...
Politicians should stop all that nonsense. No bank is going to give a bunch of wannabes a loan to go out and start a business. You take your own money and go out there and do it. Simple as that.
Lord Sugar on last year’s Apprentice winner, Tom Pellereau…
This week he’ll be announcing what his business is. And he’s had a tough time in the last year, working day and night. He got a quarter of a million shoved into his company, and that’s it mate! You’re on your own! Get out there and do it!
Lord Sugar’s new business idea…
Obviously we’re going to have a winner this series, which will be someone I’ll be delighted to invest in. But I’m also thinking of investing in other people, not necessarily to do with The Apprentice, but in a similar kind of way… Someone will come to me with a proposition, and I’ll appraise it. If it’s got legs, I might invest. Banks can’t do that. They only lend to people where there’s the collateral. So if someone comes along with a good deal, it needs a businessman to appraise it and put their own money in. [At this point, Karren gives him an angry stare] Or businesswoman.
Apprentice romances.
We’re the last to hear about them. One of your newspapers will tell us shortly, no doubt. But there is something going on between Nick and the lady who does the cooking on the show. She serves him much more quickly than Karren and I!
BBC1, Wednesday
Graham Kibble-White
