I like Sir Alan Sugar’s tough no-nonsense approach. I like the fact that he is not obsessed by youth, that his anchorman and woman are respected for their skills and experience, it doesn’t matter that they have grey hair.

Still, he can make mistakes like anyone else, as his choice on last year’s The Apprentice proved with Michelle Dewberry walking out on her £100,000 year job after only four months.

I dipped into the new series last night and silly Andy should have known better than to plead with Sir Alan for a second chance after being told “your fired”. Poor judgement again.

Did you ever have a boss that put the fear of God in you? As a cub reporter, my Glaswegian news editor would fiercely order me to go out “off diary” and not return unless I had half a dozen good stories in my notebook. I was too terrified not to, but it did the trick. He wasn’t so hard on the lads in the office, it seemed to give him pleasure to order me about that way. I wonder what’s happened to him now.

This programme does seem to bring out the worst of people’s characters, though that could be due to heavy editing. Every other sentence on last year’s show seemed to have the f-word last year. I just hope this year’s contestants realise there is no need to swear constantly, that it is a huge turn off for employers, as well as viewers.