BBC bosses told Lord Sugar to remove Amstrad phone from Apprentice boardroom

Lord Alan Sugar once handed out an infamous rollicking when BBC bosses told him to remove his Amstrad phone from \'The Apprentice\' boardroom.

The billionaire businessman was told he couldn\'t use the phone - made by the company he founded age 21 in 1968 - and his former adviser Nick Hewer has revealed how the star reacted when producers delivered the news.

He told The Sun newspaper\'s Bizarre TV column: "In one of the very early episodes, somebody from Compliance intervened on set and said, \'I\'m terribly sorry, Sir Alan, but we can\'t allow an Amstrad phone on your desk in the boardroom because that would be considered promoting your product\'.

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"He said, \'Right, so whose boardroom is this?\' \'Yours, Sir Alan.\' \'And what does my company make?\' \'Phones, Sir Alan.\'

"\'Yeah. So do you think in real life I would have a Philips phone on my desk?\' "

The \'Countdown\' host - who left the BBC show after nine years in 2014 - has opened up in the past about behind the scenes secrets from his time on the reality show.

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He previously claimed producers wanted Lord Sugar to make sure more attractive candidates were kept on longer to boost ratings.

He said: "I\'d say to him, \'Oh, by the way Alan, the blonde, he or she is as thick as a fridge door. I urge you, with every fibre of my being, to get rid of them because they\'re going to let you down\'.

"And the producers will say, \'Do you think you could find it in your heart to not get rid of the blonde just yet?\' He will say, \'The blonde will go when the blonde deserves to go\'."