Bradley Johnson, a fired Apprentice contestant, didn’t even get a chance to explain himself to Lord Alan Sugar before being tossed out of the boardroom – but he believes he would have lasted in the game longer if he had.
After being hauled into the boardroom for the final time following three unsuccessful runs as project manager, the North Yorkshire businessman fell flat on his third strike.
The remaining participants were tasked with inventing a skincare product for males on tonight’s show, however Bradley’s sub-team managed to create a ‘anti-venom’ potion that actually made skin green.
After his team failed, Lord Sugar made it apparent that he had had enough, and fired Bradley before the final three were invited into the boardroom, denying him the opportunity to defend himself.
But, the 28-year-old believed he’d have a chance to go through if his firing hadn’t occurred at that same time, which he described as more ‘brutal’ on TV than it was in real life.
‘I’ve had several boardrooms I’ve had to talk my way out of, but somehow made it as far as I did,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
Commenting about the end assignment, he added: ‘If I wasn’t project manager, the chances are I probably would have still been in the process’.
Bradley continued: ‘Genuinely with that task, I did think I was going to go back to the boardroom, and talk about it in the boardroom, I’ve been in there a few times now, I had a case ready to put forward’.
‘The way I was fired, I didn’t get a chance to say my piece,’ he added.
Bradley previously informed us that he understood why he was fired after making three “fatal” blunders as project manager on various responsibilities.
Talking about the moment in which Lord Sugar fired him, he went on: ‘It happened so quickly, that there was no thought, it was into the boardroom, thinking about what I was going to say, the other team won, they hadn’t even left the boardroom, they were still in the building when I was fired!
‘That’s how quick it was, because usually they’ll leave, then you go off to the losers café, and you’ll get back in there after a couple of hours, after you’ve all fought it out… because it happened so quickly, that wasn’t the opportunity to speak’.
‘I was stunned, I didn’t expect it, and watching it back, it’s actually more brutal watching it back than it was in the moment, because in that moment in time, I was like, “Right okay I’ve been fired,” I almost hadn’t really processed it. Everything else was going through my mind,’ he said.
Despite the firing and the belief that it occurred at the ‘right’ time, Bradley believed he had a chance.
When asked if he believed he could have saved himself in the last three, he replied, ‘Yeah, I genuinely do. Even if all four of us had come into there, the whole team could have gone home.’
‘I could have maybe argued my way out of it,’ he added.
The Apprentice airs Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One.