'You're fired' – words Apprentice candidate has heard before

It always sounded as though it wasn’t going to be so much handbags at dawn, as something a bit more interesting at prime viewing time.

And a lot of the interest, in the new series of The Apprentice, will focus on former mortgage broker Christopher Farrell, 29.

As far as we know, he will still be shown as competing in the show – filming of which was completed months ago –  despite revelations that he was since arrested and is now on police bail on suspicion of fraud.

Farrell was sacked by Devon mortgage company, Mortgages4Plymouth,  in August last year after working for them on commission for ten months. Boss Tricia Kennedy said she  had fired him and had him escorted off the premises.

Courtesy of The Sun, we also know that he has a criminal record, having been given a two-year conditional discharge after admitting possessing offensive weapons – a knuckleduster and extendable baton – in the boot of his car.

His arrest, apparently, came only after police went to his home amid allegations he had hit his then wife.

None of this ‘background’ appears in the official BBC publicity material, in which Farrell sounds like just the sort of boy it would be nice to take home to meet Mum and Dad.

A bit ambitious, maybe. “I take that killer instinct into business,” says Farrell, a former marine.

Anyway, Farrell (assuming he is still in it to win it) will be up against former London estate agent Jamie Lester, also 28 – who is the bookies’ favourite at 6-1 to win the show. (How do they know – it doesn’t even start until October 6?)

Lester merely growls: “You’ve gotta break eggs to make an omelette.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that Lester sounds as though he has wandered on to the wrong reality show (did he get lost on the way to the Masterchef set?), we’d already be cowering behind the sofa.

Blimey, they both make Srallan (as in Sugar) sound like a pussycat.