Lord Sugar: I’ll only leave The Apprentice in a coffin

Lord Sugar insists the only way he’ll leave ‘The Apprentice’ is "in a coffin".

The business mogul, 75, is currently fronting the 17th series of the reality show, but he has no plans to retire anytime soon, despite previously hinting a potential 20th series could be his last.

Speaking to Radio Times magazine, he said: “If I was to finish, 20 years would be much nicer. Of course, that decision is not mine. The BBC would have to make it.

“But I’d certainly be prepared to do it at least to the 20th and if I feel fit and happy, there’s no reason why I can’t just carry on until they take me out of the boardroom in a coffin.”

The Amstrad founder, who established the electronics company in 1968 aged 21, claims his products were better than the “Apple Rubbish” on the market today.

He added: “I understand all this s*** - it hasn’t left me behind. Trust me, I’m on top of it. We made quality products. Not like this Apple rubbish where you have to change it every time they bring out a new number. My stuff lasted forever.

“We made the first videophone at Amstrad, called the E-mailer, and everyone took the ps out of it. I sold more than half a million pieces. It ran on an old BT copper line — if you’d have stuck that on a wired broadband, you’d have video conferencing right there. So we were ahead of the game.”

Lord Sugar also took a swipe at the working-from-home culture.

He said: “The annoying thing, as far as I’m concerned, is the exploitation of the working-from-home syndrome. The truth of the matter is, you have to work with your people in your office. That’s why you have offices, right? You need to talk to each other, you need to know what’s going on.

“There’s all this bulls*** about working from home, ‘What difference does it make if the job gets done?’ Well, it don’t bloody get done, it’s as simple as that.”