Get your Prokofiev blasting and your power suits ironed, because The Apprentice is back tonight! Having had a sneaky peek at episode one, we can confirm that it's just as funny and entertaining as ever - complete with four extra candidates, bringing Lord Sugar's rabble to a round 20.
To celebrate the return of the show we sat down with Karren Brady for 11 questions - read on to find out what her biggest bugbear is, whether her reaction faces are real, which tasks we can expect (and which one was a nightmare) and much more...
1. Does having 20 candidates make things even louder?
"Everyone wants to be heard, everyone wants to say their piece, everyone wants to have a reason to go into the boardroom and tell Alan how wonderful they are and it can get quite manic on the road. Sometimes what's impossible is I'm sitting there and they're having a debate here, and I can't even understand who's saying what, so the early days are very difficult. But it starts to pan out quite quickly and then you start getting down to the real candidates that are really going to start making a difference to the show in their logic and their business ideas."
2. What is your biggest bugbear this series?
"I think it's a bit of everything. It's quite difficult when they think they'll pop to Guildford to get a light bulb and then stroll over to Camden to pick up something else and they don't realise that actually it's probably a four-hour round trip to get to the two, so that can be quite frustrating. Also when they talk over each other [and have strange ideas]. Sometimes you're there and you're going: 'Sorry, what did you say?!'"
3. Are you aware of your amazing reaction faces?
"You never know [if you're being filmed], because there could be three or four cameramen and he could be in that corner over there, so you have no idea. The expressions are as they come out. You can't fake these things."
4. Do you ever have favourite candidates?
"I think there are some candidates you warm to more than others, but the place to deal with those issues really is in the boardroom and it's for Alan. It doesn't matter whether I warm to them or not, because I'm not giving them a quarter of a million pounds and I'm not going into business with them. It's Alan's decision. So Nick and I can tell him honestly and logically what happened on the task, we can tell him who did what, but he has to make his own decisions about whether he likes someone. And very often he will say, 'Look I don't think I can work with this person, however good they are', and that's his decision."
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5. A woman in the opening episode suggests 'short skirt' tactics. What did you make of that?
"Equality is a champion thing of mine and I'm a feminist to the core of my bones, so when you do hear a woman saying, 'All we need to do, girls, is shorten our skirts and put some lipstick on', it is frustrating. And the issue is not the fact that she said it, it's the fact that there might be a young girl out there who thinks that's a good idea and that's the way women have to portray themselves or conduct themselves and that's not right at all."
6. Have you had to tell off the women like you famously did before?
"I think the boys are much worse in this series actually. They do talk over each other a lot and there is quite a lot of tension and aggression between them. Whereas the girls have a much more professional attitude in the way they conduct themselves. I think from that speech I did all those years ago, I think the women now know that that just won't be tolerated. But I do always want the girls to do well and I always expect more and I'll always say in the boardroom, 'None of you are doing well enough and you've got to try harder and you've got to be better'. And I think it's an important message."
7. Do you always enjoy following the tasks?
"There's lots of different types of tasks this series. Everything from manufacturing a soft drink to wearable technology. I think the one that almost did me in, if that's the right phrase, was coach tours. I think I spent about four and a half hours on a coach with their entertainment and it was at the end, like… Some tasks I enjoy more than others."
8. What's different about this year?
"The complexities really ratcheted up this year... And for the first time ever, we'll actually produce a product this year and put it for sale. Usually, we produce a prototype and you get orders, but we'll actually go and produce a product and see if people will buy it. So it's a good series in that respect."
9. Do you ever get anxious for the candidates in the boardroom?
"I don't feel nervous for them. There is a lot of tension in the boardroom though. No-one wants to go, everybody wants to stay and you'll see the emotion start getting far more powerful in the boardroom as the weeks go by. Obviously with 20 people, not everyone has their say, there's just not enough hours to do that, but as they start to come down, you'll see the emotion. You know, people really want to win this."
10. What difference did having 20 candidates make when it came to firings?
"It was good for Alan because it's a serious prize. When we've all left the show and gone on with our separate ways, he's still in business with them and his name's on the door and he's got a partnership with this person, so he has to pick the right kind of person. And I think his view was, with that amount of people, he can say, 'Look, you're never going to make it, leave'. So it gave him greater [chances] to cut out, as he called it, the 'deadwood' quicker. And there's some mass firings..."
11. What do you think of last series' runner-up Luisa Zissman and what she's done since the show?
"Look, I think with Luisa, when she was in the show, she really wanted to win. I think you remember at the final, crying because she didn't feel she'd done a good enough pitch - she would have done anything to win. She wanted to be the winner, she wanted the money, she wanted to go into business. And had she won, she'd be doing things very differently now. But she didn't win and she's gone on to make other choices. That's the freedom of choice."
The Apprentice returns tonight (October 14) at 9pm on BBC One and continues tomorrow (October 15) at 9pm on BBC One.
