Margaret Mountford will make her return on The Apprentice final tonight and one person glad to have her back was her former co-worker Nick Hewer.

The pair acted as joint advisors to Lord Alan Sugar in previous series’ of the BBC One reality TV show, until she decided to step down and concentrate on her phD and was replaced by younger businesswoman Karren Brady.

Speaking to The Daily Mail, PR expert Nick admitted that he misses Margaret and hasn’t managed to build such a close relationship with her replacement.

“Ah, the blessed Margaret. I think she’s very special,” Hewer said. “It may have something to do with the length of time I’ve known her… It may be because we’re nearer in age. It may be because we’ve shared experiences when working for Sugar.

“But Karren’s no slouch. We have a cordial relationship… We’re different ages and from different backgrounds. Karren’s got her children, her husband, her own set.

“Margaret and I used to go out to dinner because both of us were kicking around London on our own. We were two lonely old people with white hair and we bounce off each other quite well mentally.”

Mountford announced her decision to step away from TV work after the fifth Apprentice series in 2009, because she wanted to pursue her PhD in papyrology.

Commenting on her decision, Hewer added:

“I think Margaret genuinely had to get on with her PhD. I don’t think she was as attracted to the money as much as me. She made a lot more as a lawyer than I did.”

Margaret is set to make a bit of a fool of Northern Irish candidate Jim Eastwood tonight, as she blasts him for his constant use of clichés.

View the original post The Apprentice 2011 Final: Nick Hewer doesn’t connect with Karren Brady as he did with Margaret Mountford! on Unreality TV

Nick Hewer has admitted that his famous boss Lord Alan Sugar likes to beat him on a regular basis.

The PR guru has worked with the Apprentice star for decades but admitted that despite their long running business relationship, the Amstrad boss takes “absolutely no notice” of what he and Karren Brady tell him about the contestants hoping to land a chance to go into business with Sugar.

Nick explained: “He wants to know every single b****y thing. When we brief him, he won’t have seen anything and we’ll have to know all the answers otherwise he gets out his rolled up newspaper and beats us up. And then he takes absolutely no notice anyway.

“I might say, ‘The blonde chap is a complete space cadet and must be ejected at your soonest convenience’ and he’ll just grunt.”

Nick also admitted that he also came close to fighting outside the boardroom once, when former co-advisor Margaret Mountford confronted some ‘Apprentice’ fans who tried to take a photograph of her.

Nick added to heat magazine: “We were in Canary Wharf in London after a long day and two guys, who were obviously p****d, were trying to take our photograph.

“She lunged at them and shouted, ‘Give me your camera’. I said, ‘Let them take your picture otherwise it’ll turn into a brawl’ and she said, ‘You’ll protect me won’t you?’ I said, ‘No Margaret, ‘I shall jump into your rather large handbag and hide’.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Alan Sugar likes to beat Nick Hewer with a rolled up newspaper! on Unreality TV

With The Apprentice final just days away, heat magazine caught up with Lord Sugar’s right-hand man Nick Hewer.

Speaking about the amount of hard work that goes into producing the show, Nick said : “The production team know what they’re doing. You ask why contestants make such t*ts of themselves? Well, exhaustion leads to mistakes. For last year’s sausage task we started at 7pm, went through the night, through the next day and finished at 11pm. It’s relentless. Also, they’re locked up in that house, that sweaty cauldron, with no contact with their families and are constantly worrying who’s creeping up behind them with a bread knife.”

Asked if he still enjoys the job, he replied: “I hate every minute of it because it’s very hard. We put our businesses and our social lives on hold for weeks and weeks and then spend our days eating sandwiches somewhere in a gutter in Hackney. And then we go into the Boardroom after a 20-hour day with no script and Lord Sugar, who clearly missed his vocation as a criminal barrister, is in charge.”

Despite this, Nick says he’ll never quit. He said: “I won’t quit, for as long as the show’s still going and I’m still physically able. I love it really. We’re genuinely helping people achieve the most extraordinary things.”

Nick has known Lord Sugar for over 20 years and admits even he has been on the receiving end of a Boardroom-style tongue-lashing. He laughed: “You’ll be out for dinner with him and then he’ll ring you at 8am the next morning and give you a b****cking. Even when you don’t work for him, you get a b****cking. It’s immediately forgotten, though, and the great thing about Alan is he’s exceptionally loyal and inspires great loyalty in everyone he works with. He’s by far the greatest leader I’ve ever come across.”

Nick added: “Alan introduced me to Twitter over Christmas. I was bored and he said it was fun. I discovered there were lots of fake Nick Hewers on there and one of the pages was very pornographic. It was disgusting – listing all the things I allegedly wanted to do to Karren. So I set up my own just to make sure everyone knows that one’s fake.”

The full interview appears in this week’s heat, on sale now (Tuesday).

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer reveals fake porn Twitter account! on Unreality TV

Nick Hewer has given his honest (and they are brutally honest!) views on the remaining ‘Apprentice’ hopefuls.

Lord Alan Sugar’s right hand man has confessed that he doesn’t like ‘creepy’ Jim Eastwood, has a problem with Natasha Scribbins’ thighs and thinks Ma is a liar.

On County Tyrone man Jim, Nick confessed that he doesn’t know why the public are warming to him. He said:

“I wish he would stop talking about his Irish charm because I’m finding it a bit spooky.

“The incident with Leon in the boardroom showed he is a pretty manipulative character. I personally find him a bit creepy.”

The 67-year-old PR guru also urged Leon Doyle to show more of his “imagination, drive, persistence and salesmanship”, and pleaded with recruitment manager Natasha Scribbins to stop tensing her thighs in the boardroom.

Nick told Radio Times magazine: “She always stands with her legs apart like she is about to pounce, which I find extremely disconcerting.”

However, Nick does actually like one contestant…….inventor Tom Pellereau, has impressed him with his ‘good decisions’ in all tasks to date.

He said: “From the start he has been thoughtful and made good decisions, but because he’s not a scrapper he’s been ignored.

“They are starting to listen to him now though as he has, on the whole, been proved right and earned their respect.”

Nick is also a fan of Melody Hussainy – though admits not many others share his view.

He said: “If you consider her youth, she is a remarkable product – very articulate, extremely confident and has no self doubt that I have been able to ascertain.

“The others find her hugely irritating though – which I admit is easy, though I can’t say I do myself – and if she is vulnerable it could be because of her popularity or lack of it, in the house.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer wants Natasha Scribbins to stop tensing her thighs but likes Tom Pellereau on Unreality TV

Jim Eastwood

Nick Hewer has admitted that he doesn’t know why viewers find Apprentice hopeful Jim Eastwood so charming.

Lord Alan Sugar’s right hand man has insisted that he finds the Northern Irish entrepreneur ‘creepy’ and ‘spooky’ and a bit of a handful on recent tasks.

The PR expert told The Radio Times:

“What a handful! I do not find him as charming as he thinks he is and I wish he would stop talking about his Irish charm because I’m finding it a bit spooky,” he said.

“The incident with Leon in the boardroom showed me that he is a pretty manipulative character. I personally find him a bit creepy, but he has some tremendous qualities and is definitely a contender. He is bright, articulate, quick on his feet and very self-confident.”

Nick also admitted that he thinks Zoe Beresford has some tremendous business qualities, adding:

“She is a very firm young woman, speaks her mind and takes no prisoners, as well as not really caring how what she says or does reflects on her. Is there some deviousness there? I have been impressed with her, but she needs to keep her sulkiness in check.”

Hewer described Helen Milligan as “driven and cool under pressure” adding that she is “certainly one of the stronger women at the moment, but she could easily get swept aside”.

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer thinks Big Jim Eastwood is ‘creepy’ on Unreality TV

It’s a later life love story!

Nick Hewer has admitted that although he is happily married, he would quite like to get hitched to his former Apprentice co-star Margaret Mountford in the future.

The former PR guru has shot to fame while assisting his boss Lord Alan Sugar on the BBC One reality TV show and confessed that he will always have a soft spot for Margaret, who worked alongside him on the show until 2009.

He said: “I’m very fond of her. I like to think she’s fond of me. She has got Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes and great teeth. Margaret is not currently married. I always remain hopeful.”

Nick – who has worked alongside Lord Sugar since 1983 – also revealed the multi-millionaire businessman “tortured” him into agreeing to appear on BBC One series ‘The Apprentice.

He added to G2: “Lord Sugar rang me and said he wanted to be on this new TV show called ‘The Apprentice’. He tortured me for days at his house in Marbella. I said, ‘I don’t want to be on TV’. He said, ‘You’re a wimp’. He said he would fix a fee for me, which I thought was a bit rich.”

“In the end, I went for it. I had nothing else to do.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer wants to marry Margaret Mountford! on Unreality TV

Nick Hewer has showed that behind that austere exterior, he does have a keen sense of humour.

The PR mogul, who appears on The Apprentice as Lord Alan Sugar’s right hand man, has described the multi millionaire as a “super-absorbent little Buddha”. We can’t imagine he’ll be too flattered by the description!

Nick said: “Lord Sugar and I have been friends for 25 years and the man is extraordinary.

“He’s like some sort of super-absorbent little Buddha who takes everything in and then makes decisions accordingly.”

However, Nick confessed he is still “dumfounded” when people recognise him in the street because he was just in the right place at the right time when it came to landing a job on ‘The Apprentice’.

He added to Glamour magazine: “I’m still dumfounded by the whole thing. I don’t feel I’ve done anything to deserve this recognition – I’ve got no talent.

“I think I was just in the right place at the right time – the only old grey-haired bloke Alan knew who didn’t have a job.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer brands Lord Alan Sugar a “super-absorbent little Buddha” on Unreality TV

Nick Hewer hit back at critics who say ‘The Apprentice’ is unrealistic and admitted that while the show has to be credible, ‘the whole point is to make it entertaining.’

The PR executive is Lord Sugar’s right hand man and sits alongside fellow advisor Karren Brady on the BBC One show and although people have criticised the reality series claiming it doesn’t reflect the real world, Nick believes contestants can learn more on the programme than they would in business school.

He said: “Stuffed suits may say, ‘It’s not really business’, but if you went to business schools in Yale or Oxford and got the most brilliant people to star in the show, no one would have a clue what they were talking about.

“They’d made references to Hungarian economic theory and nobody would watch the thing. It’d be stuck out on BBC 17 at 4am and the bloke who commissioned it would get fired.”

While Nick believes the show – which will launch its seventh series on May 10 – helps to foster new business talent, he stressed it has to be entertaining and must appeal to the average viewer.

He added to Shortlist magazine: “The whole point is to make it entertaining so that the jobless man on the squashy sofa can scream at the TV, ‘No, don’t do that! I’d be better than this lot!’ If it was pure business and not wrapped up in an entertainment format, it wouldn’t work.”

View the original post The Apprentice 2011: Nick Hewer claims ‘the whole point is to make it entertaining’ on Unreality TV

Sir Alan Sugar’s right hand man, Nick Hewer has been sharing his thoughts on the shows latest reject, Debra Barr.

Hewer agreed with Sugar’s decision to fire Debra despite her obvious business skills, saying that she would be hard to ‘contain.’

“Debra comforted Lorraine as she was telling everyone how nervous she was,” he told The Mirror. “Would Debra’s arm around you comfort or terrify you?”

“The beautiful, lofty Debra,” he added. “And so it was with lips glossed she headed for the exit. Hats off to whoever can contain her.”

View the original post The Apprentice: Nick Hewer Thinks Debra Barr Will Be Hard To Contain on Unreality TV

Sir Alan Sugar’s helper Nick Hewer has blasted Apprentice reject Howard Ebison for lacking in “courage and flair”.

“When I asked if he thought he was a ‘brave warrior’ his face betrayed, I thought, the realisation that he is, in fact, lacking in ambition and courage – something Sir Alan has in spades,” the former PR boss told The Mirror.

“He’s a decent young man but is destined for now to remain in middle management because he lacks that vital entrepreneurial flair.”

View the original post The Apprentice: Nick Hewer says Howard Ebison is “lacking in ambition and courage” on Unreality TV