‘The Apprentice’: 13 Things We Learnt From Speaking To This Week’s Boardroom Casualties

Every week, HuffPost UK speak to the ‘Apprentice’ candidate whose time on the show has come to an end, finding out everything from whether they think Lord Sugar was fair to why they messed up in the first place.

This week though, Lord Sugar indulged himself with a rarely-seen triple firing, dispatching Andrew Brady, Anisa Topan and Charles Burn from the series in one go, meaning there were three people ready to tell us where it all went wrong.

Unsurprisingly, they did not hold back, making plenty of eyebrow statements, bold claims and (occasional) swipes at each other.

Here are 13 things we learnt from speaking to the trio...

1. They all have different feelings about the triple-firing

While Anisa was delighted to have left the boardroom alongside two other candidates, telling us, ‘If it was me on my own, I’d have died’, Andrew didn’t share her sentiments.  

“From a personal point of view, I think I deserved to go further than Charles and Anisa so it’s bittersweet,” he said. “Both of them should have gone beforehand, then I would have got my own show on ‘You’re Fired!’. But it is what it is.”

“I thought I might be ok, but obviously, wasn’t,” Charles said of being fired last.

2. Andrew also wishes he’d quit before he was fired

“I probably should have gone out in a blaze of glory and maybe quit before he fired me, maybe that would have been more interesting,” he joked.

3. After becoming the first one out, Andrew was in earshot as Charles and Anisa were dispatched

“I was being babysat by someone on the production team to make sure I didn’t make any noise but I was sat just outside,” he told us.

4. Charles didn’t think the other team’s win was very impressive

Claiming they “won by accident”, rather than with strong business tactics, he said: “It was a dubious win. It wasn’t very emphatic. No-one stood out as being exceptional.”

5. One of them thought it was their time to go

“I’d have loved to have gone further but I think it was my time,” she admitted. “What an amazing achievement to get to week eight.”

6. But Charles admits he should have saved Anisa

“I think Sarah should have been brought in, instead of Anisa, based on the task,” he conceded. |” didn’t think Anisa did a huge amount wrong if I’m honest with you... but she flaps an awful lot and she can’t deal with the pressure.

“If Andrew had been more to the point and said ‘Sarah was responsible for xyz’ rather than try to blame me, maybe I’d have made a different decision.”

7. Andrew isn’t planning to stop his ‘laddish’ behaviour

“I don’t see it as a criticism,” he said of Lord Sugar’s comments. “I think it’s based on the industries that he’s in and how he expects people to behave in them, and they’re not my industries. They’re boardroom, lawyer-esque, professional ones.

“I’m more fun, day-to-day. Maybe I need to apply myself in a professional way in some areas. Who would you rather work for, me or Lord Sugar? If you had to work with one and go to the pub, who would you rather go with?”

We declined to answer his question.

8. Charles claims he did more work than it seemed

“They didn’t show me getting involved with the dogs because it didn’t fit with the story,” he said. “I was helping out as and when, and doing different things. They made me look like I wasn’t doing a lot, which isn’t necessarily the case. “

9. The girls’ bickering was as bad as it looked

“It was not easy,” Anisa said of the early weeks. “I’m a peacemaker, I’m not the arguer so I would be there in the house trying to make everyone get on with each other again. It was very difficult.

“It was hard enough, being there in the process without all of that. That pressure magnifies all of our worst or most irritating characteristics.”

10. There’s no love lost between Charles and Andrew

After suggesting team leader Charles put him in charge of the sub-team so he’d someone to blame, Andrew said of his former fellow candidate: “He should have gone in the first week. I didn’t make any secret of the fact we didn’t get on.

“I’ve got respect for him in some ways but yeah, we’re chalk and cheese.”

“He’s quick to point out what everyone didn’t do, but not what he did do,” Charles hit back. “That, to me, shows weakness. I thought he would be a good man for the [sub-team leader] job.”

11. One of them compared leaving the show to euthanising a pet

Yes, it was Andrew. “Maybe you’ve got a sick dog and it’s dying, but you don’t know when it’s going to happen,” he mused. “But when it happens or it gets put down, there’s relief in a bittersweet kind of way. It’s like that, I’d say.”

12. The boys didn’t expect James and Harrison to make it this far

“I think I was better than most of them, I’m not going to lie. Not in an arrogant way either, I think I just brought more to the table,” Andrew said. “Harrison is two pears short of a fruit bowl. Some of the stuff he comes out with… But he’s a nice guy.”

“I definitely thought I’d be in there. I applied to win, I wasn’t there to make up the numbers,” Charles added.

13. Anisa post-’Apprentice’ plan wins 

“Oh my god, babe. I’m taking a holiday,” she said. “I’ll have a lovely Christmas and recalibrate to get my thoughts together.”

Amen to that.