Apprentice winner Alana Spencer on this year’s candidates, and surviving on the show: 'It can be brutal'

The Apprentice returned to our screens this Wednesday, with a new batch of 18 sharp-suited egotists all hoping for a ￡250,000 investment from Lord Sugar. Excitingly, it looks like this year’s bunch could be the most dysfunctional yet.

We’ve already had our first controversy of the series, as Karren Brady took wedding company owner (and self-proclaimed “superwoman”) Siobhan to task, after she seemed to imply only attractive contestants should be put on sales duty. Siobhan has also begun a spiky feud with floristry chain owner Elizabeth, known to her colleagues “scary Liz”. Meanwhile, Lord Sugar’s unexpected decision to save troublemaker Charles and fire mild-mannered Danny left viewers divided.

But which of them has what it takes to win? If anyone should know, it’s Alana Spencer. The Welsh entrepreneur won last year’s series, after impressing sweet-toothed Lord Sugar with her cake company, Ridiculously Rich by Alana.  A self-taught chocolatier, Spencer left school at 16 to start her own business. A year on from winning the show, she’s now in the process of taking on 25 new franchises. We caught up with her to hear her thoughts on the class of 2017:

Who’s the most promising candidate?

On first impressions, Michaela is definitely my frontrunner. She first stood out for me when they mentioned in the boardroom how successful she already is. [Michaela runs two businesses with a combined turnover of ￡3 million.] I was kind of confused why she was there, to be honest. But of course working with Lord Sugar is an amazing opportunity, so I could see why she would want that.

She really grasped the nettle when faced with the sales task. When she was negotiating in the shop, that impressed me: it showed she understood that it’s all about making a profit, even if it’s only a few pence.

And who’s off to a rocky start?

I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to be annoyed about Charles. But he did the right thing by taking the time to work out the pricings - even if he didn’t do it well! If he takes on board Lord Sugar’s advice about listening to people, I think he could do well. Lord Sugar was right to save him over Danny – I don’t think Danny had any talent for leadership.

I think leadership is more important than working in a team when you’re the project manager, particularly in week one. Everyone's trying to come across as strong, and to make a good first impression as a potential leader.

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It can be quite intense for the candidates. What advice would you give them?

It’s hard, because there’s only one winner and one runner-up. If you don’t get to that point, you’re inevitably going to be shown doing something bad. But you have to be yourself, because that way at least you can go out with your head held high.

Some people try to be a different person for the cameras. They seem to think they can say a few impressive things while the camera’s rolling and that will be enough, but Karen and Claude are with them all the time - their true colours will always come out!

You’ve just got to be true to yourself.  I you try to be someone else on the task to who you are in the house, it’s always going to cause stress. If two people don’t like each other, they should try to stay away from each other as much as possible. Like Liz and Siobhan... Though actually, the highlight of the whole show for me was watching them bicker – I loved the bit when Liz got her name wrong! Ideally, they should be made to work together in every single episode.

Do you think Siobhan’s comment about being ‘good to sell to men’ was sexist?

I think she just made a comment that was a little bit silly – I don’t think she had any any bad intention behind it. But Karen was right to pick up on that, all the same. Everyone is in that process because they are good at sales and good at business, so it was an unneccessary comment.

Does anything happen off-camera that we don’t see?

A lot of secret chatting goes on in the bedrooms at night about tactics. You’re not allowed to talk about the task in the house – if a fundamental decision is made off camera, it doesn’t make sense for the viewing public, so there’s a team in the house doing their best to stop you. But people do talk about it up in the bedrooms at night.

You’ve been in touch with last year’s Bake Off winner, Candice Brown. What did you talk about?

We messaged each other after I won The Apprentice. I met her at the MTAs for the first time, but in the news it got turned into something that it wasn’t. Really, she just gave me a few tips about how to handle all the attention on social media.She told me not to read Twitter too much – it can be quite brutal.

I was very lucky. Because I won, I mainly got good comments but there were a few weeks when I got bad comments. You expect it really, but I don’t think people realise when they’re on Twitter writing comments about people [on the Apprentice], that we actually read them.

Have you been watching this year’s Bake Off?

Yes – I love Liam! I think he’s quite funny, and he comes across as really natural and normal. I’d love to see him win.

Would you want to work with him?

He’ll have loads of offers… but it would be nice to have a chat with him!

Do you have any tips for candidates who are kicked off in the first few weeks?

I’d tell them that it doesn’t have to be the deciding factor in your business career. Half the contestants have a business already, but for everyone I’d say you need to take every opportunity to that comes your way after the show.

There will also be the lure of doing other TV things, but they should really look out for proper business opportunities. They need to make the right decision for the long term, not just for another two minutes on the telly.

But what if they’re looking to launch a TV career?

Everyone on the show has got a business background - or desire for one - but there have been some cases of people just wanting to be on telly. But it’s definitely not the platform to launch a celebrity career. As far as TV celebirites go, in 12 series there’s only been two success stories, Katie Hopkins and Louisa [Zissman], so that’s not great statistics!

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It’s not unusual for candidates get dragged out of bed at 3am. How did you cope with the early mornings?

They’re going to need a lot of coffee! I didn’t enjoy it very much. It’s brutal – you’re very tired all the time while you’re in there. When I left, I was a bit broken because of the lack of sleep and the intensity of the tasks. But you get used to it. You become constantly on edge. There was one day when I got to bed at half 11; I heard someone open the door downstairs, so I leapt up and put makeup on – then I was told it was only 12 o’clock. It’d only had half an hour!

If Lord Sugar were to step down, who would you like to see replace him?

I don’t think it could continue without him – he is The Apprentice. I think his one-liners and his brutalness in the boardroom are what makes the show so great. I can’t think of anyone who could fill those shoes. What the public love is how he can cut through the rubbish and get straight to the point – even when the candidates bombard him with lies.