The Apprentice’s fired Dan Callaghan: “I thought going into this process, how hard can it be?”

Joking that he’s had his moments as an “armchair contestant” while watching the show at home, Dan added: “I felt very much that it couldn’t be that hard. But having said that, I’d never had any experience of it. When I did it, it turned out there was more to it than appeared at first glance.”

Dan found himself in the boardroom after team Connexus managed to bring in a profit of just £1.87 after a day of selling fishcakes – sorry ‘jumbo fishcakes’ – and a £9 nicoise salad, which unsurprisingly no one wanted to buy (“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would pay that.”). Project manager April blamed Dan for taking too long ordering the ingredients and his sales sheet showed a “big fat zero” for money made.

“The minute I knew I had zero sales I knew that if we lost the task I was gone – and so it proved,” he admitted.

“I felt that the main reason I would go was for the sales and that’s how it turned out to be. As for the ingredients, it was a little bit more complicated. If I had been fired just for the ingredients I would have felt it was a little bit more unfair. But it wasn’t.”

“I did sort of think Lord Sugar might fire April, as he was really gunning for her in the last boardroom. I thought he might fire her as well after I’d gone. But it turns out she stayed in. Good luck to her.”

Nevertheless, Dan is very philosophical about his firing: “It’s not the end of the world, is it? It’s a bit disappointing, but you just pick yourself up and move on, don’t you?

“I never liked fish cakes to begin with…”

The Apprentice continues Thursday at 9:00pm on BBC1