BBC ONE’s multi award-winning business entertainment series The Apprentice returns for a fifth run as a new line-up of corporate contenders battle for boardroom supremacy.

A new intake of aspiring tycoons will face the biggest challenge of their careers to date, embarking on a job interview from hell with multi-millionaire tycoon, Sir Alan Sugar. As Britain experiences its toughest economic conditions in decades, for this year’s prospects it really is ‘crunch’ time. Aided once again by no-nonsense advisers Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford, Sir Alan will be sifting the wheat from the chaff in a series of grueling tasks and gripping boardroom showdowns in what promises to be the most tense and unpredictable series yet.

The CV’s of the candidates reveal; a city stockbroker, an award-winning restaurant owner, a qualified lawyer, an aristocrat, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, an ex-professional footballer and a chess champion. The high-flying line up also includes two international candidates who hope to eclipse their British counterparts; a New Yorker who has performed Mozart in Carnegie Hall and a Tanzanian beauty queen.

For these elite professionals it is make or break time in the most daunting challenge they will ever face. One job. 15 candidates. Sir Alan’s search for his Apprentice is about to begin...