On Wednesday, Sir Alan Sugar, multimillionaire, mentor and self-proclaimed enemy of “schmoozers, bullshitters [and] liars”, will put 16 new recruits through 12 weeks of “the job interview from hell” for the fourth series of the business reality television show The Apprentice . The show’s appeal to viewers may be obvious (Schadenfreude is the least of it) but the exact nature of its appeal to would-be apprentices – this year, more than 20,000 applied – is more mysterious.

Last year’s victor, Simon Ambrose, was winningly candid about his motivation. The 28-year-old Cambridge economics graduate confessed on camera that the Amstrad boss was his childhood hero – a rather unlikely choice of idol for a nicely spoken boy from Westminster School.