'Apprentice' hopeful branded an 'arrogant fool'

UK 'Apprentice' hopeful Ricky Martin is branded "crass, obnoxious and infantile" and an "arrogant fool" by one Alan Sugar's top business advisers in tonight's gripping final.

The 26-year-old recruitment manager and fellow finalists Jade Nash, Nick Holzherr and Tom Gearing are grilled in a series of excruciating interviews by tough-talking executive Claude Littner, free magazine business pioneer Mike Soutar, former Young Entrepreneur of the Year Matthew Riley and Sugar's former personal adviser on the show Margaret Mountford.

Martin, an amateur wrestler, is forced to apologise for his "ludicrous" personal statement in which he likens himself to the demi-god Thor and brands Sugar an "old dog" who he promises to teach new tricks.

Riley tells him: "I opened your application. There were just so many things in there that make me want to be sick."

Soutar questions why the amateur wrestler, whose real name is Richard, chooses to call himself Ricky Martin, like the Latino pop star: "It all sounds a bit more show business than real business to me."

Littner tells Martin that his personal statement is "probably the most crass, obnoxious and infantile personal statement that I've had the, not really a pleasure, I've had the opportunity of reading. Quite clearly, some of the statements you've made are completely ludicrous … the problem is that you're an arrogant fool."

Martin somehow manages to turn the attack around in his favour by admitting he was a fool to say such things but that his 11 weeks competing on the show have changed him.

He appears to win Littner round, saying: "When I turned up to this process, I had a lot of bravado about me. I was happy to sit there and say these bold statements to get myself noticed and to get myself heard. I'll be honest to say that throughout this process I've realised a lot about myself and I'm a very different person now."

Meanwhile, Nash admits she was "slaughtered" in her interviews where her business plan is ridiculed and branded "a pretty grubby little business". She is also left shame-faced when her N grade in business A-level is exposed.

No one escapes the firing line. Holzherr's internet scheme is branded "irrelevant" and Gearing is accused of being a "daddy's boy" when it is revealed his his father is a director of his wine investment company.

'The Apprentice Final' airs tonight at 8.30pm on BBC One.