Apprentice winner Dean Franklin reveals present secrets and techniques bosses are determined to cover and ‘privileges’ stripped from candidates – as champ says Lord Sugar ought to DOUBLE prize

Apprentice winner Dean Franklin has lifted the lid on life behind the scenes of the BBC One hit – revealing that candidates have recently had key privileges stripped away.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, the 2025 champion, 35, said the show is now more ‘stressful than ever’, after a new alcohol ban means contestants can no longer unwind during their limited downtime.

Dean explained that brutal early starts and gruelling days on set push candidates to their limits, arguing Lord Sugar‘s £250,000 prize should be ‘doubled’ given the intense pressure. 

He explained: ‘A few years back, the show was more relaxed because candidates were allowed to drink alcohol and smoke and swear, but we weren’t allowed to do any of those things, those privileges were taken away.

‘You can only speak to your family members once a week. They want to strip you down from life as you know it and bring out the raw you, they want to see you stripped of all your armour so they take away everything.

‘They want to see the real you and see how you perform under the amount of pressure they put you under. It was ridiculous, but it’s part of the process.’ 

Being inside the Apprentice bubble is ‘all-consuming’, according to Dean, who ultimately impressed Lord Sugar during last year’s series with his air conditioning business.

Adding to the pressure, candidates are banned from wearing watches and there are no clocks in the multi-million pound London mansion where they live during filming, a deliberate move by producers to detach them from reality.

So when the house phone rings to kick-start a task, the wannabe business moguls have no idea what time it is – and it is usually at some ungodly hour.

Dean recalled: ‘You would get woken up and you don’t even know what time because there are no clocks in the house and you’re not allowed a watch.

‘But I knew what time it was because I knew where the air conditioning unit was, and it had the time on it. It was like 3am/4am and there would be a camera in your face, rush, rush, out the house, in the car.

‘There aren’t any alarms, a candidate gets told the night before that they’re going to wake you up and it’s your turn to answer the phone and they run around and wake everyone up and from then it’s go, go, go.

‘You are getting thrown in the car, and you’re driven around and presented with the task.

‘It’s constant pressure; the whole experience is pressure, pressure, and more pressure. That’s what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to test you under pressure and see what you’re really like.’

Dean said each task took between ‘two to three days’ to film, while the boardroom showdowns – where performances are scrutinised by Lord Sugar and his aides Karren Brady and Tim Campbell – were also shot over gruelling, day-long sessions.

The Essex-born entrepreneur, who left school with ‘barely any GCSEs’, admitted the confrontations with Sugar and his team are every bit as stressful as they appear on screen. And despite editing that can make certain candidates seem more prominent, he insisted everyone is given a ‘fair chance to speak.’

He added: ‘There’s a lot more pressure during those scenes.

‘When you walk in, the pressure kicks in and you have seen it on TV for years, to realise you’re actually there – it’s shocking. It’s overwhelming.’

After each firing, candidates are granted a rare ‘down day’, during which they are allowed to make personal calls and refresh their wardrobes, before the challenges begin all over again.

Dean survived all 11 rounds to secure a place in the final, where he beat pizza business owner Anisa Khan to become Lord Sugar’s latest business partner – and the show’s first male winner since 2017.

But unlike many reality TV stars, the trappings of fame did not come rushing in. Dean revealed he was back at work within days of pocketing the £250,000 prize.

He said: ‘After winning, it was straight back to work. I wasn’t in it for the limelight or fame; it was the business side of things and the money.’

Dean explained: ‘Before I even signed up to the Apprentice, I always thought I was going to win. I went onto the show to win, and that’s all I had in my head.

‘I was working in the background in preparation to win. I don’t just want to be an Apprentice winner – I want to become the most successful Apprentice winner.

‘I wouldn’t say I’m worth a lot right now, but we’re doing very, very well. We weren’t starting a business, and I was already doing well before I went on the show so after winning it was just about expanding, more engineers, more staff, more office and warehouse space, and all that happened very quickly.

‘The best way to grow a business is organically, and we have taken the steps when needed to be taken.’

On why he believes the £250,000 prize – Lord Sugar’s investment in the winner’s business – should be ‘doubled’, Dean said: ‘The winning amount needs to change… 100 per cent. It’s been £250,000 for years; it should have changed when I won!

‘It should be doubled at least, and I should be backdated on my payments. It doesn’t really get you very far in business, £250,000. By the time you buy a couple of vans and hire a few people, it’s gone.’ 

Dean now speaks regularly with Lord Sugar, his new boss within his ADL Air Conditioning business. 

Thankfully, their conversations are far more relaxed than the high-pressure world of The Apprentice, which returned for its 20th series on Thursday with a fresh lineup of candidates. 

He explained: ‘It’s great. We have our monthly meetings when we go through things whether that be on Zoom or at the office in Loughton, which isn’t too far for us.

‘When he is in the UK we do pop down to his office. It’s good to have someone in your corner and someone you can bounce off and get some feedback from someone who’s been there and done it. Lord Sugar’s team is great; they are the best at what they do.’

Dean continued: ‘He’s not as strict as he is on the show. Where we have been so busy, there’s not much he can comment on.

‘It’s all good at our end, we are working our socks off, we’re all happy.

‘We get the business stuff out of the way and then we have a chat, we go down to the office in our work clothes, and he’s dressed casually, and we’re having a laidback, chilled conversation.’

Dean admits he’s unlikely to follow fellow Essexman Tom Skinner into the world of reality TV. However, he revealed a surprising connection to the former Strictly star from before his time on The Apprentice.  

He explained: ‘I won a car off of him a few years ago. He did a golf day, and we got invited over and won the car.

‘Everyone there, whoever got closest to the flag with one shot, won the car. It was an Audi a3 convertible.

‘This was years ago. We sold it because it barely even worked! It wasn’t as good as what it seemed, it had dents all round, it wasn’t a glamorous car.

‘I told him back then I was going to get on the Apprentice and win it, and that was five/six years ago.’

The Apprentice airs Thursdays on BBC One and iPlayer from 9pm