I mention this as I noticed that when there has been anyone at the front door, whoever greets them in the hall appears to travel downstairs from at least the 2nd floor. I attended training courses held in a similar style of house in Central London. The house was set out that the ground and 1st floors being used as training rooms appeared to be the original reception rooms and bedrooms. However the 2nd floor and above were used as offices and it was noticeable that the grand stair case stopped being grand beyond the 1st floor. This suggests that in these types of houses the upper floors were and are still considered lesser accomodation.

In previous series I have noticed that for a property with plenty of bedrooms, the sleeping arrangements are dormitories with bunk beds.When the house in Notting Hill was used, the shape of the windows in a internal shot compared to the external view, showed the candidates on the 5th floor, in other words the attic. In one of the early series when Alan Sugar called at the house being used. He used the side entrance, which would point towards the servants quarters.

When the house is provided, is on the understanding from the owners that the candidates keep away from the best areas?

In all honestly, theres probably a section of the house shut off from the candidates for production purposes, either for editing/storage of film or for some of the production team to stay over. Thats my guess anyway after seeing other shows which have done similar.

They have areas used as bases for each team when they are working 'at home' and there are the communial areas. But I'd agree that its odd that they end up sleeping in 'dorms' in what is supposed to be the height of luxury accommodation.

These older houses would have been less grand the higher you went - the ground floor was where the family showed off to their friends, first floor was the family bedrooms then the floors above were for the servants - the lowlier the servant the higher they had to climb to get to bed!

Yeah thats what I thought. Some conditions aren't great. In Series 3, Gerri Blackwood claimed the female candidates only had access to one shower and, consequently had to shower together. I don't know how accurate that is though.


I don't think even Lord Sugar can provide a house with sixteen different bedrooms.

http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/B...london-beckton

Job done

I thought it was a set and they 'act' the getting up, answering the 'phone, walking around in undies bit.

what about when they did the kids one? if i was in a big house like that when i was 16 it would be wrecked.

They must have had adult supervision (for legal, moral and common sense reasons) and probably catering staff too.

That's a thought: are the adults expected to cook for themselves? Even that seems unlikely, if you think about task timescales.

I've always assumed that it's a deliberate psychological trick - treat them like children, and they behave like children, so better TV.

They must know they are about to be called as there is a camera crew in the house. I don't imagine they hang around all the time!

Every week someone runs all the way downstairs to answer a cordless phone. Surely by now they'd have worked out that it would be quicker to keep the phone upstairs?

Everything is carefully set up in order to make good TV. It's definitely a real house - I thought they were properties that Sugar owns as part of his property business, but I may be wrong on that one.

Yes, but then we wouldn't see the girls running around in their skimpies !

TBH, I have a cordless phone but I still leave it downstairs when I sleep.

I wouldn't really trust anything that Gerri wound up saying to be honest, she claims things were 'sexed up' but no such shower shots happened. She just seemed bitter about the fact she was booted early and wanted to kick out at the whole thing anyway she could.

Not always, the one last year was owned by Welsh Warbler Katherine Jenkins

Ah yes, you're quite right.