The Apprentice’s Tim Campbell celebrates all-female final: ‘The boys have let the side down again!’

Tim has been loved by fans on this year’s The Apprentice (Picture: BBC / PA)

The Apprentice’s Tim Campbell MBE, who is standing in for Claude Littner, has joked the boys have ‘let the side down’ ahead of a strong all-female finale.

Tonight’s episode will see either Kathryn Burn or Harpreet Kaur receive £250,000 from Lord Sugar as he hires a new business partner. 

Tim was announced as Claude’s replacement to help Lord Sugar in his decision making after the 72-year-old was involved in a nasty bike accident shortly before filming commenced. 

Tim was always planned to feature in just one season, but fans have enjoyed his involvement with the show as he’s kept a close eye on the candidates. 

Chatting to Metro.co.uk, Tim gave insight on what it was like to be on the other side of the boardroom as he celebrated the women’s achievements on the programme. 

He told us: ‘I’ve had a huge amount of fun on the show but I think I was personally really glad to see Claude back because he’s such a big part of the actual process. 

Tim was the first-ever winner of The Apprentice and went to work for Lord Sugar’s company Amstrad (Picture: PA)

‘The circumstances that forced him to miss this show, we were really worried about how he would recover.’

Luckily, Claude was back to his usual scathing self in last week’s interview stage, calling Kathryn’s business plan ‘the ravings of a lunatic,’ which fans were loving. 

‘Thankfully, Claude is as tough as his interview style,’ Tim laughed. ‘He came back bigger and better than ever. I’m really pleased that Claude is back. As you saw from interviews, he hasn’t lost any of his ability to get right under the skin of the contestants and get right to the heart of the matter.’

Tim checked in with Claude routinely as he recovered, and shared what it was like to keep an eagle eye on the contestants alongside Karren Brady.

On Claude’s accident, he said of himself and Karren: ‘Both of us were incredibly upset. I think Lady Brady, especially because she spent so much time working with Claude, to find out the reason why I’ve been brought back was because of Claude’s accident, right? 

‘We were really, really upset about it. I personally was checking in to see how Claude was doing and how he was getting on.’

Karren gave Tim some great advice (Picture: BBC)

Tim said Karren was extremely ‘warm and receptive’ to work with, and gave him excellent guidance for being on the other side of the process.

‘Lord Sugar, I’ve always loved him, he’s a great guy. He’s part of my whole journey and it was great to be back on the show – but this time on a different side,’ added the entrepreneur.’

Sharing his thoughts on being able to watch the contestants learn and grow, he said: ‘Oh my God, it’s been amazing. I’m quite humbled by the fact you get to see firsthand, people give their absolute all in order to get to a particular end goal. 

‘Now, this year the women have been a lot stronger than the boys. Unfortunately, the boys have let the side down again!’

Harpreet, Steff, Brittany, Kathryn all made it to last week’s interview stage (Picture: BBC/Naked)

This year’s interview stage was a solely female affair, and Tim shared: ‘I’m really proud, for the first time ever in the whole show, four women got through to the final four. That’s an amazing testament and we’re having a very powerful conversation about inclusion and diversity within organisations.’

He acknowledged the interviews were ‘really tough and intense’ and admitted: ‘It brought back memories of when I’d done it. I was a bit more like Kathryn and Harpreet. I wasn’t really intimidated by the process. It was nervy, don’t get me wrong, you were anxious, but I thought, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got nothing to hide, but nothing to lose. Let’s have a go. I deserve as much as anybody else to be in that process.

‘I think the confidence that we saw in some of those candidates, particularly when sometimes women get negative connotations about being in pressured situations was a great testament to say we shouldn’t be treating anyone any different in a work environment.’

‘This week, a woman is going to receive an amazing investment from a fantastic entrepreneur, when in the venture capital private equity world, less than 1% of women founders received any money from VC businesses. So that’s great in terms of inclusion.’

Claude absolutely tore into Brittany last week upon his return (Picture: BBC/Naked)

Ahead of the finale, Tim is currently championing T Levels, a brand new two year qualification that combines classroom study in a school or college with a 45 day industry placement.

‘Unfortunately, there are lots of different options now and it can be a bit confusing. With T Levels, we’re trying to get individuals to think and focus that when you go to your next stage, after GCSE, to look at the 20 or so subject areas, 16 of which are available now, which might be aligned closely with what you’re passionate about.

‘The knowledge and skills are combined with the industry placement, which is so hard to capture nowadays, because unless your mum or dad or family members are in industries, it might be really difficult to get work experience, because you might not know anybody want to have that social capital.

‘From a social mobility feel, this is about levelling the playing field of access,’ he explained. 

But ahead of tonight’s instalment, what can he tease about the final? 

More: BBC

Remaining coy, Tim concluded: ‘It’s gonna be very interesting for people to watch on Thursday, to see how people perform under pressure when it comes to pitching ideas.

‘One of the greatest things that we’ve found through The Apprentice is that no matter how good your thing is on paper, you’ve got to be able to sell it in person. So let’s see how the candidates perform when they get a bit of pressure when they’ve got to present their ideas!’

The Apprentice concludes tonight at 9pm on BBC One. 

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