And it's on the making of the apprentice! Very excited. Should be a compelling read for a huge fan like myself.

I've started reading! Here are some interesting things about Series 1:

* Lindsay complained when the series was airing about how she thought she was unfairly edited.
* Saira tore up the poster in Week 6 to conceal it from the board - that is why it's covered in sellotape.
* In the wild jacket incident Sir Alan and the producers thought James was totally theatrical and were convinced that he was only there for a TV career.

I knew the first two facts, didn't know the third one.

I heard that in the flower episode, Sir Alan genuinely didn't know what had happened on the task, so his reactions in the boardroom were completely genuine. It's also been said that if he had known more in advance, he would have fired Miranda instead of Adenike. Beyond the first task, he insisted that he was told everything before the boardroom so he'd be able to make better decisions.

I've heard that one too. Interestingly, he doesn't mention that in the book, and seems to stand by his decision to fire Adenike. I was quite surprised when I read that.

He also doesn't seem to have us much remorse for his firing of Miriam as he thought he had - he said he decided she wasn't for her. Perhaps he just doesn't want it to come across like he's made mistakes over the years!

Well, I think in the past he has regretted firing her at that particular point, rather than not actively choosing her for the job. I think when he said he regretted it, he did also say that Saira and Tim would probably still have been the final two, unless Miriam had put in an exceptionally good interview. (Although, I personally think she would have done. She was very professional, I think she'd have handled Claude and the others with good grace).

As for the Miranda/Adenike thing... well, he's getting on a bit, his memory's probably going!

True! Another interesting thing is that he actually came up with the 2 endings thing!

Do you believe that yet? I seem to recall a while back you were saying that you were sure they didn't actually do that.

I like how you say 'yet'

I think so. I'm not sure how much truth there is in what LS says about the whole thing in the book, but he says he also suggested originally that he would say you're hired to one person and then reveal that they weren't actually and they'd be filming another ending. He doesn't make it clear whether that actually happened, or they made it clear from the offset to the candidates 2 endings would be filmed.

But it would explain why Tim and Sairas reactions looked so genuine!

Alexa from Series 2 is Matt Lucas' cousin!

I knew that, it was mentioned on the You're Fired! episode (which used to be available on SeeSaw, but that website shut down and I can't find it anywhere else). They had a brief telephone conversation with him.

If I'm not very big on a celebrity, I sometimes refer to them by their less famous relation (like our Prime Minister might be 'Samantha Cameron's husband'). I'm not really a fan of Matt Lucas, so sometimes in conversation I refer to him as 'Alexa Tilley's cousin'.

Aw how can you not like Matt Lucas?

To be honest, the only time I've ever seen him is on Little Britain, which I find thoroughly unfunny. I'm not the biggest fan of Walliams either, though I have seen his name in more places that Lucas'.

I don't like how he (rather hypocritcally) attacks Simon Cowell for being full of himself.
But I'll probably pick it up just for some Apprentice behind the scenes secrets.

Little Britain is awful but somewhat hilarious I think


I think you should - it's rather good. I was lucky to get it half price as I preordered.

Lord Sugar states that the most important reason the number of candidates increased for Series 3 was incase someone dropped out for a medical reason or otherwise - although he was pleased that he had the flexibility to get rid of more than one person. And he also doesn't suggest it was his idea - he makes it seem like it was the Executive Producer's idea.

Really? That's interesting. I thought that it was because of the situation with Alexa and Syed, and him not being able to fire both of them, that led him to demand it.

For some reason when speaking about the Series interviews, he totally omits Lohit, which I find strange. Doesn't mention him, and doesn't allude to a fifth candidate in that episode.

Also, there was a contract from the fourth series onward which meant he had more control over how he's portrayed in the edit. To quote, he believes that the contract was 'in order to portray a slightly different side of me from the shouting, fist-banging tyrant they'd previously shown. And that's what I believe we acheived from the fourth series onwards.'

Not sure I can agree with that.

Maybe he's simply forgotten about Lohit? He didn't make the biggest impression - personally I think he should have won that series because he was professional and a hard worker, but he wasn't Lord Sugar's sort of guy. Presumably Lord Sugar doesn't remember every candidate - we do, but we've seen all the episodes lots of times.

I disagree with him on that as well. I think that in the early series, we saw more of how Lord Sugar really is, and then towards Series 3 and 4 he turned more into that shouting, fist-banging caricature. Then I think towards Series 7 we started again seeing a more down-to-earth side to him (and on Young Apprentice as well) before slipping a bit further back into caricature in the most recent couple of years.

However, I think these days the edit is more tailored to make it look as though what Lord Sugar says is correct. If you think about the way Miriam was shown in the TV episode, her edit portrayed her in the best light and Lord Sugar looked like he made the wrong decision by firing her. I don't think that would happen now.

But he's clearly done his research so as to recall most of the tasks, and to quote some candidates word for word in the book! This leads me to believe it was a conscious decision.

Tbf, my opinion is that the series in which he seems most unpleasant is Series 2. I'm sure we don't see him being light-hearted at all. I think since Series 4 he has made jokes in the boardroom which perhaps didn't feature in the first 3 series so perhaps if I think about it, I do know what he means.

I don't think he seemed unpleasant in Series 2. I get that in that series, he made it clear that he wants people to be frank about where people have gone wrong and didn't want anyone too nice (that's the only series he has done that, so maybe that was something to do with the specific role he had in mind for the winner that year), but he still seemed approachable and willing to listen to people. In some of the Series 3 and 4 episodes, he stormed into the boardroom looking like he was in a temper before they'd even started.

I also disagree that we didn't see him joke in the early years. He and Ruth Badger in particular had a really humorous dynamic. I will always remember when he said, 'Nick gave me the video for your advert, and for a moment I thought he'd mixed it up with one of his other videos, Debbie Does Dallas'; the expression on Ruth's face was priceless!

True, that moment was very funny actually! I don't remember much other humour in the Series 2 boardrooms though, or Series 1, 2 and 4 I think. He does seem to have very much mellowed in the last few years or rather, the edit has allowed that. Particularly in Series 10, there seemed to be laughter in the boardroom almost every single week.