Sir Alan Sugar

Sir Alan Sugar presents The Apprentice

The Apprentice was screened on BBC Two in 2005.

The series saw 14 candidates face the longest and most gruelling job interview of their lives. Sir Alan Sugar directs the series from the boardroom and warns the candidates: "You can forget about flashing your eyes or having a handsome attack. It ain't gonna impress me."

"Never underestimate me because you will be making a fatal error. I don't like liars. I don't like cheats. I don't like bullshitters. I don't like schmoozers and I don't like arse-lickers."

The 14 candidates were selected from thousands of applicants to take part in the first episode. Throughout the series the contestants live in an eight-bedroom house on the banks of the River Thames. Sir Alan Sugar fires one of them each week until he says to the last one standing: "You're hired!" and awards the series winner a £100,000 job.

Sir Alan Sugar, 57, was born into a poor family in London's East End. He did not go to university and went straight to work when he left school. At age 21, having wandered through jobs as varied as an ironworks statistician and a car radio salesman, he started his own company, Alan Michael Sugar Trading, known as Amstrad, from scratch.

"I had very little money and had to buy and sell for cash," Sir Alan recalled. "I could not get credit." Thirty years later, Amstrad has grown from a supplier of retractable car antennas into a large public company that sells inexpensive satellite receivers, and internet-ready telephones. As chairman and chief executive officer, Sir Alan remains at the helm.

"I saw him on many occasions cause someone to shut up and turn white," said Lord (Stanley) Kalms, the former chairman of Dixons. He added that he has battled with Sir Alan over 20 years in several "torturous and ugly negotiations" but nonetheless calls him a respectable adversary and loyal friend.

"If you are weak, you will burst into tears," he said. "If you are strong, you will see his humour."

The PR

Sir Alan admitted in a recent interview that he hates reality television, considering it "bollocks", said that he hated the NBC show, that some of the contestants were unemployable, and referring to the producers as "bloody arty-farty, creative arseholes".

Later on Sir Alan retracted the comments, saying: "I'm afraid you can't believe everything you read in the papers," he said. "I did see the programme in the US and thought the concept excellent."

Asked whether he would appear in a second series, he remarked: "I'll see what the Daily Mail says."