The original Apprentice tells James Hurley about growing up in East London, life after Sir Alan and his mission to inspire a generation of entrepreneurs.
By James Hurley
The British have taken to reality TV - initially a tawdry import from mainland Europe - with an enthusiasm that has seen commissioners serving up an increasingly ludicrous range of programmes. If the majority of these have done little more than provide further evidence of the principle of diminishing returns, a few have lodged themselves firmly in our consciousness.
While the public’s appetite for the tired and vacuous Big Brother franchise finally appears sated, a second wave of business related reality programming is still in strong voice.
Dragons’ Den, which beckons the brave, foolhardy and eccentric to have their business ideas, and often parlous preparation, expertly ridiculed by some very successful entrepreneurs is now well into its fifth season, and apart from making wonderfully entertaining television, does have some genuine success stories to its name.
Of course, it was The Apprentice that’s the real daddy of this phenomenon. Back in 2005, Amstrad boss Sir Alan Sugar was invited by the BBC to put a stable of bright young things through their paces with the carrot of a £100,000 job at his company on offer for the winner. Famously, the stick of a barbed ‘you’re fired’ was the reward for each young upstart that failed to measure up.
Tim Campbell, winner of the first series of the show, was sold as a former London Underground employee made good, a young naïve plucked from the streets of East London by Sugar, completing a satisfying boy done good tale. “The media likes to perpetuate the rags-to-riches story,” Campbell tells me, clearly fully aware that his background has been re-packaged by the media.
In fact, Campbell, who grew up in Stratford, East London, had left London Underground as one of its youngest and highest paid middle managers, and the turnaround from his troubled teenage years had come a lot earlier.
He saw the show as a means to an end, a chance to test his increasing confidence, and a way out of the bureaucracy of the public sector. “I saw a six figure salary on offer and the chance of a better job. But the opportunity to go and cut my mustard in the private sector was more important than the money. The idea of a level playing field appealed to me; it doesn’t matter where you’re from, black, white, rich or poor - it was about how determined you were to succeed. That’s why a lot of people really bought into the idea of The Apprentice.”
An unfair light
Campbell proved a popular winner of the show, showing drive, focus, and integrity, and was rewarded with a Project Director role at Amstrad’s health and beauty division. While the programme won a Bafta and was praised for raising the profile of business on television, it also came in for its fair share of criticism, most notably from then CBI director general Sir Digby Jones, who said the show had “nothing to do with modern business and put good businessmen and women in a very unfair light”...
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