Paul glynn
Culture journalist
Bbc
Lord Sugar tells Amol Rajan that he thinks that some apprentice candidates apply “for the reputation of social media”
Lord Sugar has signed a new three -year agreement with the BBC to stay on the apprentice.
The billionaire has already been contracted to make the 20th series of the show next year, but says he signed to make three other series, taking him in the 80s.
Lord Sugar, 77, revealed the agreement in a new interview with Amol Rajan de la BBC.
Now in his 19th series, criticism of the apprentice falls “like the back of a duck” these days, he said.
He puts money in the winning activities, investing £ 250,000 in exchange for half of their business.
And he says he is “absolutely” proud of the legacy of the program.
“Listen, when I took the post on the apprentice, I was already a multimillionaire.
“I didn’t do it for money.”
In the vast interview with the BBC, Lord Sugar reflects on his life and his career, and also discusses the president – and the original star of American apprentices – Donald Trump, the former competitor Katie Hopkins, and the “catastrophe” of Brexit.
Lord Sugar with competitors on series 19 of the apprentice, who is currently on the BBC
Known for his trade and unadorned commercial transactions and his slogan “You are dismissed / hired”, Lord Sugar insists that his personality on the screen is the way he is in real life.
“It’s me, guy, I promise you,” he said to Rajan in the interview with the BBC Two.
“I sat on the production line, I did things, I wrapped boxes, I loaded trucks, I delivered, I collected money. Each business facet, I did everything.
“So when I got this apprentice concert, sitting there listening to these budding entrepreneurs, I was able to question them correctly.”
Lord Sugar is undoubtedly one of the most famous rag stories in the United Kingdom.
After failing an ability test with the technological company IBM as a young man in Hackney, in eastern London, he started to sell car antennas from a van, then to transistor radios.
He launched his own AMSTRAD electronics and technology company in 1968, making domestic computers and jargots for Sky, then through real estate investments and other companies that become one of the richest men in the country.
‘I have nothing to Trump’
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Donald Trump organized the original American version of The Apprentice before becoming American president twice
Alan Sugar was approached by the BBC to make a British version of an entertainment show based on popular companies in the mid -90s, towards the end of its difficult mandate as president and owner of the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
But why did he say yes?
“Because Donald Trump in America first made the apprentice-and I have a house in America, Florida, and everyone said to my wife:” It is the biggest television program of all time “”, he explains.
“So I knew it.”
He is reluctant to speak of the President now American, saying “there is no comparison” between him and the other former face of the apprentice.
“He doesn’t look like anything and I’m nothing to him,” he said. “But the fact is that what he does is very, very unusual.”
Last month, Trump clashed with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a furious exchange in the White House. “Incredible,” said Lord Sugar.
“There are certain things in the life that I did not think I have ever experienced. One was Brexit, which is the biggest tragedy. (Then) you have a leader in a country, in America, having publicly a slang match with someone else. It’s just not fair.
“By all means, have a closed -closed slang match, but not publicly.”
He describes the very public incident as “humiliating for Zelensky” while showing Trump’s “temperament”.
“He’s not a statesman, isn’t it?”
He continues: “He may have been a service among some of the Americans who supported him, but I don’t think he was himself a favor (in front of the rest of the world), very honestly.”
When he was asked how he would take the best party of Trump in negotiations, he replied: “The only way you can deal with him is not to disagree with him.
“End of.”
‘I would go back to the EU’
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Boris Johnson about to get on the voting fowser, Brexit Battle Bus in 2016
Always directly with his opinions, Lord Sugar made the front page of the recent newspapers by broadcasting his opinions on subjects, in particular work at home, telling workers to “bring their tramps back to the office”.
He also shared his reflections on women’s football commentators, Brexit and Boris Johnson, to name some subjects.
Speaking in the House of Lords in 2018, Lord Sugar said that Brexit activists, such as conservative politicians Johnson and Michael Gove, should be prosecuted for “the lie of 350 million pounds sterling they put on the red bus”.
“Brexit was a total and absolute disaster,” he told Rajan. “And whoever says it is not deceived.
“It has changed so much.”
Although he asked that he was imprisoned, a year later, Lord Sugar supported Johnson as the next Prime Minister in order to “stop (Jeremy) Corbyn begins in power”.
He thinks that joining the EU is the response to the growth of the United Kingdom.
“I have never met (Prime Minister Sir Keir) Starmer, but if I ever did it, I asked him, is it possible?” What mechanism should it be to effectively descend the folded knees and implore to return again?
“That’s what I would do. If I was in charge, I would go back.”
Katie Hopkins would have won ‘
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Katie Hopkins appeared in series three of the British edition of the program in 2007
Over the years, several candidates have left the award-winning BAFTA TV program, presented as “the most difficult job interview in Great Britain”, before being dismissed or hired, including in the last series.
“I realized that they will jump before they are pushed, in some cases,” explains Lord Sugar.
He chooses a former famous competitor, Katie Hopkins, like someone who could have obtained the post if she had not worked first.
“Do you remember her?” Ask Lord Sugar. “Ratchet Jaws, Rent-A-Wouth.”
Hopkins, nowadays a media personality and a right -wing political / provocative commentator, appeared in the three series in 2007, but left the show despite its place in the final because it could not engage in a potential move in London.
“I was about to say:” Well, I’m going to hire you “. And she said:” No, in fact, I don’t want to do it “. So she’s gone,” he recalls.
“She was good. She was the best of this crew. No question.”
By reflecting on the show, he thinks that some candidates now apply to make the apprentice to achieve renown of social media, rather than for the possibility of working with him.
“I spot them immediately, which is why they never become the winners,” he said.
“So they came out, but they are an integral part of the program’s entertainment package.”
Amol Rajan’s interviews: Alan Sugar is available on Iplayer and broadcast on BBC Two at 7:00 p.m. GMT on Thursday, March 20.
