The Apprentice show is sold on the claim it's the toughest job interview you can have and while I'm sure it's difficult and stressful we're not told how many tasks they do in a week. The show runs for about 12 weeks or so, so if they do one task a week it's hardly that difficult, is it?

And if they do five tasks per week (Monday to Friday) that would mean the series takes just over two weeks to film and that seems unlikely. I'm sure the series goes on for a longer period of time. One task per week? That would also mean the candidates could go back to work for the rest of the week - this is never mentioned on the show!

When you think about the time factor, The Apprentice isn't as challenging as one might be led to believe.

I suspect it's hard because of the way the whole thing is designed to be as stressful as possible.

Plus the way Siralun will pick on things in a quite arbitrary manner when he's dealing with the losing team so you are expected to make a decision the outcome of which you cannot possibly predict and Siralan can then demolish you with perfect hindsight.

Take the first task, for example.

He took the losers to the cleaners over the amount of money they'd spent (and even sacked someone who had only been charged with keeping a tally).

Now, if you have one iota of intelligence, you just know that if they'd spent less and lost because they failed to finish a task due to equipment shortage he would have been sitting there lambasting them for completely the opposite.

I can just hear him asking in an incredulous voice: "Didn't it occur to any of you that you need to spend money to make money?

They generally do 2 or 3 tasks a week, without much of a break between them. They have very early starts and late finishes - sometimes only 4 hours sleep at night. There is a lot more work done that makes the edit. Eg we just had a 2-day task edited into about 30 minutes. It takes 4 or 5 weeks to film the 12 tasks.

They are only allowed one phone call home per week, so they are lacking their usual moral support. Even a businessman abroad would be able to phone home and remind himself that he is loved. Instead they have to live with competitors who would stab them in the back for the job. That adds to the stress.