Sir Alan Sugar’s sidekick Nick Hewer has said that The Apprentice boardroom is a terrifying place and that he never knows what Sugar will say or do when he gets there.

“I don’t think Sir Alan ever laughs in the boardroom – that is a deadly serious place actually – it really is, it’s awful,” Hewer told Metro.

“And he doesn’t tell Margaret or I who he’s going to fire so we’re in as much terror as the candidates.

“We might say to him ‘You’ve got to get rid of that blonde girl, or such and such a chap’, and he says, ‘Thank you for your help on that but I’ll do what I want to do’.”

Hewer went on to speculate on who might win the show saying:

“Who are my favourites? Woah – I’ve got to be very careful. There are some strong personalities.

“They develop over time. So for instance we may have seen Noorul have a bit of a beating up, but he may do very well. They come and they gain strength and some of them then disappear from view, so who knows?”