I’ve made mistakes over apprentices, says Lord Sugar

“Too far down the entertainment route? You wouldn’t ask if you turned up to some of the auditions and saw the people with Mohican hair, painted gold and pink, with bones through the nose and all that stuff,” he said. He hoped the programme helped to “open the eyes of young people to enterprise and business”.

As with the last two series, candidates are competing not for a job but for Lord Sugar to become their partner and invest £250,000 into their business plan. He said that both recent winners were now running profitable businesses.

Although “the BBC like to have me screaming and shouting at people most of the time”, he hoped that the show offered entrepreneurs proof that success could be achieved, even for those starting with very little funding.

“I would go into business with [one of the fired] but what I’d have to do is wait a couple of years until the programme is over,” he added. “I keep in contact with a lot of them. We keep good relationships and there are occasions they come to me for advice.”

The line-up in this series does not replicate that of 2010, when there were four Jewish candidates. But Mrs Zissman, who owns Dixie’s Cupcakery in
St Albans, is married to Oliver Zissman, once part of Jewish Care’s Next Generation committee. He founded a gym equipment company with his brother, Elliot, and appeared on BBC Three’s The Last Millionaire in 2008.

‘The Apprentice’ BBC1 May 7, 9pm