Unlike his tenure at the helm of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur during the ‘90s, for Alan Sugar, The Apprentice has been a fruitful venture.

Since 2005, the BBC’s transmitters have broadcast 19 seasons of his wisecracks and dismissals. It’d be fair to think the magnate, as well as the six million or so people who tune in each year, have seen everything there is to see within the dramatic confines of the boardroom.

Enter Jordan Dargan. As well as being this year’s youngest contestant, the Dubliner is staking his claim as the first mixed-race Irishman to compete on the show.

“Listen, my goal was to make history,” the clean-cut and confident 22-year-old affirms. “I’ve been watching it since I was a child. Honestly, I don’t think I understood it at first. I just liked the fact that you had these men in suits getting shouted at by an old guy.

“To be the first Irishman to win that show, for my whole life, that’s been my goal. But ultimately you want to go on and discover more about yourself as an entrepreneur too.”

Hailing from Castlenock, Dargan ditched a PLC in e-commerce, opting instead to upskill with the help of YouTube videos. He’s since become an accomplished 3D animator with his company Rendify, a niche he says he arrived at out of necessity.

“Both my parents had working class jobs, and I never really had any ambitions of being an entrepreneur. My first job was at a night factory. I left and I needed a way to make money, when I saw forex trading.

“I hit the jackpot straight away, but I ended up losing most of it. That’s a story for another day, but it made me realise you can actually make money on the internet. I started looking into e-commerce, learning a skill and freelancing, and that led to 3D animation.”

Despite his apparent expertise in the area, Dargan was snubbed as project manager for the task in episode 2, which required contestants to create a 3D rendered pop-star and record an accompanying single.

The best his team could churn out were Fred and Nadz – a hideously designed and even less palatable sounding rap duo.

“Coming into this process as the youngest candidate, people had their preconceived notions of what I was capable of,” Dargan reflects. “I definitely think that played a part. There just was very little faith put in my ability to perform. And it’s unfortunate.

“There are certain characters who are going to play up to the camera and there’s nothing you can do about that. I think being able to navigate that is a skill in itself.”

The Apprentice s19,30-01-2025,1,(L-R) Mia, Jordan, Emma S, Nadia, Tourists, Candidates selling tickets, FremantleMedia Ltd

The Apprentice, as well as business acumen and corny bravado, is about treading the line between friend and foe, even when the cameras are off. Away from filming, the contestants reside in the lush Mansfield House on Hampstead’s Billionaire’s Row.

“The show is like a job, so there’s a clear line between your downtime in the house and when you’re filming,” Dargan says. “I had plenty of friends in that house, but at the end of the day, there’s no friends in business. This is why I say there needs to be that clean cut between the tasks and who’s in the house.

“You almost need to be numb to it. You need to be sure of who you are. When you go into a process like this, all your safety nets of family and friends, and anyone you would usually speak to, are gone, so you’re alone in there.

“You’re in this little bubble and it’s very easy to muddy the line between what’s the task and what’s not, and you have to remember people will use that against you if you’re not careful. If you say the wrong thing in the house, that could be the difference between getting fired and staying in.”

At the end of each episode, underperforming contestants are put in front of Sugar to plead their cases and avoid elimination. Is the man as cantankerous as he appears on telly?

“There are no games,” Dargan says. “It’s all business. Everything you see onscreen is exactly how he is in person. I lived in Dalston, a five-minute walk from where Lord Sugar grew up. To see what kind of area that is and where he’s grown to now is inspiring. Anyone who runs something like The Apprentice has clearly done something extraordinary in their business career.”

He has a point. After setting up his consumer electronics company Amstrad from a hundred quid’s worth of savings in 1968, Sugar is now one of Britain’s wealthiest people, with his net worth sitting at a cool £1.2bn. As a budding entrepreneur, Dargan touches on the root of the tycoon’s success.

“It’s his willingness to take action,” Dargan opines. “People spend years trying to come up with the right logo or get the right trademark, and they haven’t even started any kind of business. He’s said in interviews that he didn’t start out to be an entrepreneur, he did it out of necessity. There wasn’t money in the area and the jobs he had weren’t paying enough.

“That hunger is something I look up to. I think we live in a much more comfortable time now. This is one of the only times in human history where you can do very little; you can sit on a couch all day, have everything ordered to you, and not die or have to fight for your life.

“He grew up in a very different time and to have that hunger in this day and age is a blessing.”

The Apprentice S19, 30-01-2025, Alan Sugar and the series 19 contestants

Like the pudendum-grabbing convicted felon who hosted the American version of The Apprentice, Sugar is involved in politics, and has been as a member of the House of Lords since 2009.
Billionaires, as recent events in the US have rammed home, rule to the roost. Does Dargan share the same avarice for wealth and power?

“I definitely think you get to a point with money where it becomes a game of who can make more,” he observes. “After a few million, you’re at a point where there’s very little you couldn’t buy if you wanted it. When you’re getting into billions, you’re just trying to be the best. It’s that Napoleonic mindset of wanting to conquer as much as possible.

“Is it okay that there are people who have billions in the bank and there are people who are living on the street with absolutely nothing? That’s a whole different argument. But in my opinion the level of stress that comes with being a billionaire is not worth it.”

Away from his pursuit of Alan Sugar’s investment and trust, Dargan is a man of many interests. A former indoor athletics national champion, he is currently enrolled in the Lir Academy in Trinity College. Characteristically, he’s also been teaching himself how to play guitar and piano online.

“I’m a big Phil Lynott fan so I’ve been trying to learn the bass as well,” he says. “Maybe one day I’ll be in a biopic of him!

“I‘m a grandad,” Dargan continues, describing his music taste. “I’m stuck in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I love Bob Dylan, Elvis and Thin Lizzy. Michael Jackson is right up there too.

“Looking at all these artists, every single one of them redefined music. They were going against the grain of what was normal at the time.

“If you look at Phil, to be mixed race in Ireland was a very different thing than it is now. To go on and become as successful as he did when all the odds were stacked against him – I see that and take a lot of inspiration.”

• The Apprentice airs on Thursdays at 9pm on BBC1.