{"id":11864,"date":"2022-03-08T01:01:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1597984"},"modified":"2022-03-08T01:44:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T00:44:14","slug":"claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Claude Littner hopes his Apprentice return will be \u201cworth the wait\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"><\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By David Craig\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Tuesday, 08 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>Claude Littner has confirmed that he will appear in the current season of <a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/the-apprentice-2022-air-date\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">The Apprentice<\/a> and said he hopes his return to the reality competition will be \u201cworth the wait\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He initially gained popularity on the long-running series as an interviewer known for giving the candidates an intense grilling, later being promoted to Lord Alan Sugar\u2019s boardroom after Nick Hewer left the show in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>However, he was forced to withdraw from this year\u2019s edition of the competition after sustaining serious injuries in an accident involving an electric bike last summer.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the crash, Littner told the Press Association that he <a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/reality-tv\/the-apprentice-claude-littner-bike-crash-newsupdate\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">feared one leg would have to be amputated<\/a>, but fortunately it was able to be saved after a long and complex operation.<\/p>\n<p>Now in recovery, Littner was not able to commit to being part of the entire season, but has confirmed that he will be back to put the candidates through his trademark terrifying interviews later this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, there\u2019s not a huge amount I can say without giving too much away but I just hope that when it airs next week [Thursday 17th March, 9pm], well, I hope everyone thinks it was worth the wait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe whole team went to so much trouble to have me back. I had written off this series, but it would seem Lord Sugar and the production company had other ideas!\u201d<\/p> <p>Littner continued: \u201cI\u2019ve had so many messages on social media too from viewers saying they hope I\u2019m coming back for the interviews and how much they miss my smiling, but obviously I\u2019ve not been able to say anything until now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The businessman, who is the former chief executive of football club Tottenham Hotspur, said that colleague Lord Sugar personally approached him about the prospect of a guest appearance in the latest season.<\/p>\n<p>Littner recalled: \u201cIt was quite funny how it came about; Alan arrived at my house one day (although he phoned me almost daily) and he just said, \u2018You will do the interviews, won\u2019t you?\u2019 and I replied, \u2018Yes, of course.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe moment it came out of my mouth I was thinking, \u2018How on earth am I actually going to do it?\u2019 The truth is, by the time it came to filming I was feeling better but the team had been so kind and gone to so much trouble so I could be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until the start of the year, The Apprentice had been away from our screens since December 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic, so these latest episodes have enjoyed a particularly enthusiastic response from longtime viewers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Apprentice continues on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday 10th March 2022. Check out more of our <a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">Entertainment<\/a> coverage or visit our <a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">TV Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/magazine-subscription\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener noopener noreferrer\" noreferrer=\"\" data-auth=\"&quot;NotApplicable&quot;\" data-linkindex=\"&quot;0&quot;\">subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong><strong>isten to the\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/podcasts\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener noopener noreferrer\" noreferrer=\"\" data-auth=\"&quot;NotApplicable&quot;\" data-linkindex=\"&quot;1&quot;\">Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Craig Published: Tuesday, 08 March 2022 at 12:00 am Claude Littner has confirmed that he will appear in the current season of The Apprentice and said he hopes his return to the reality competition will be \u201cworth the wait\u201d. He initially gained popularity on the long-running series as an interviewer known for giving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11865,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait.jpg",620,374,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait-300x181.jpg",300,181,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait.jpg",620,374,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait.jpg",620,374,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait.jpg",620,374,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/claude-littner-hopes-his-apprentice-return-will-be-worth-the-wait.jpg",620,374,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By David Craig Published: Tuesday, 08 March 2022 at 12:00 am Claude Littner has confirmed that he will appear in the current season of The Apprentice and said he hopes his return to the reality competition will be \u201cworth the wait\u201d. He initially gained popularity on the long-running series as an interviewer known for giving&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}