The Apprentice 2026’s Tim Campbell: ‘Me, softer than Karren Brady? Nonsense!’
As The Apprentice 2026 arrives on screens, Lord Sugar’s newest aide Tim Campbell MBE meets Adam Bloodworth
As The Apprentice 2026 arrives on screens this evening, viewers will no doubt be on the lookout for more of Baroness Karren Brady’s formidable eyebrow raises as she follows contestants getting evermore confused on their tasks.
By comparison to Baroness Brady, Lord Sugar’s other aid, the businessman and former contestant Tim Campbell MBE, is viewed by some fans as softer and more approachable.
“Nonsense!” Campbell tells City AM when we asked whether he agrees with that assessment. “Absolute nonsense. We are there to observe the candidates and be quiet actually. Our role is not to be smiley, happy, sad, our role is simply to feed back information to Lord Sugar. I don’t think we should be judged at all on whether we’re happy or smiley.
“Often we can’t hide our actual feelings around our candidates. Our facial expressions will share exactly what everybody watching is feeling. Whether it’s the raising of an eyebrow, shaking of our head or our heads in our heads…”
Campbell didn’t always display such a sense of authority. Critics observed a youthful innocence about him when he first appeared on The Apprentice as a contestant on the first UK series in 2005. He also stood out as a serious type: instead of investing in drama or backstabbing, he had a laser focus on getting things done and a natural sense of professionalism.
It took him on to win the show, and Campbell worked as a Project Manager for Lord Sugar’s technology firm Amstrad for two years following. He left in 2007 to pursue other projects, including his charitable work in setting up the Bright Ideas Trust, bringing job opportunities to young people not in employment, education or training.
In 2022 Campbell returned to work with Lord Sugar but this time alongside him, as one of his aides on The Apprentice opposite Baroness Karren Brady. He’d like the contestants to understand how tough life can be for some of the hardest-up people in this country, especially the ageing population, many of whom Campbell believes are being let down by a failing welfare system.
Are the contestants wined and dined?! This is not Masterchef, this is a business reality TV show.
Speaking about the new task he’d add to the show if he had the chance, Campbell says: “If there was something I specifically would lean towards, I think working and supporting the charitable sector, a brand and marketing campaign focused on a charitable sector, could be really interesting, when we think about the strain and stress that particular sector is under in the marketplace.
“Also maybe an intervention with regards to social care, another big strain on our economic prosperity at the moment. There is an ageing population, there are more people who will need care at the end of their lives than we have babies. So I think some of the economic changes – AI, global working – could be compounded with some of the social changes we’re seeing, to see if the candidates could come up with innovative business ideas focused on those two sectors.”
He puts the success of The Apprentice – over £6million people still watch on average, huge for terrestrial TV these days – down to authenticity. Nothing is faked for the camera, and tasks are professionally managed as if they were “an assessment centre at a university graduate programme”. Prizes for winning teams were removed this year to double down on the work and Campbell won’t miss those fluffier segments. Didn’t they bring necessarily light relief? “Not really.”
He’s incensed when I ask whether he and Brady dine with the contestants after long days of shooting (Hong Kong is one of the locations in the new series). “Wined and dined?! This is not Masterchef, this is a business reality TV show. The emphasis is on reality. They’re fed and watered. They’re looked after. We are completely separate from the candidates and rightly so. Just like you report in City AM all the time, there’s clear rules and regulations around compliance, making sure things are independent. That’s very similar to the robustness of the process we have with the contestants.”
Ironically, perhaps, The Apprentice’s latest entry is perhaps the funniest, most plainly entertaining ever. Much of the laughs come from liberal edits of Campbell and Brady’s shocked responses to the candidates, who – as ever – run around chaotically in a particularly hilarious first episode shot in Hong Kong. You can laugh along on the sofa, but none of that preoccupies Campbell, who is resolutely about the work. The show has huge potential to bolster the UK economy, he surmises: “We find viable businesses that are successful and individuals that go on to create employment for the UK, jobs, tax revenue and innovation.” Either that or Campbell faces having Lord Sugar’s finger pointed threateningly in his direction.
The Apprentice airs on BBC One and iPlayer tonight