Simon Smith ('The Apprentice')

On this week's Apprentice, the teams were asked to run their own photography business in Bluewater shopping centre. Simon Smith lead Renaissance with a "glamour" theme, while Helene Speight helmed Team Alpha, who utilised a David Beckham "lookalike". With a loss of £73.81 compared to Alpha's profit of £145, Simon chose to call Alex and Claire into the boardroom. Despite Margaret Mountford's disparaging comments about Simon's teammates, Sir Alan Sugar decided it was time to for the satellite TV engineer to be axed as he was "out of his depth". DS caught up with Simon to talk about his time on the show.

Some of the other contestants seemed shocked you got fired. Did you think you were going to go when you went to the boardroom?
"Yes, I was packed. I was expecting to go from about midway through the task. You can see on the episode, when we were at Bluewater, that I said, 'This is going to get me fired', when I completely unravelled. I wanted a quick execution, I'd given it my best shot and I was at the limit of my abilities. It was time to go. It was very apparent I wasn't going to be the next Apprentice. I pretty much dared him to let me be in charge. Sir Alan made the right decision."

What do you think was the main problem with your team during the task?
"A dis-unified team, wasn't it? I didn't get any backing from any of the candidates. I thought we had a strong team when I looked at us in the car on the way to the cafe. I made the fundamental mistake of making myself a project manger and a photographer. It was a stupid, stupid thing to do. Looking back in retrospect it was daft and people will be shouting at their TVs, but I did it and I blew it. I blew it spectacularly and it's a real David Brent unraveling moment."

Alex and Claire seemed determined to make things hard for you from the start. Why do you think they were so against your leadership?
"I have no idea. I can't speak for their motives in doing it. I tried to get them to understand that if we won the task nobody gets fired. Claire was a very good manager but when she's not in charge, she's not happy with it. That's something she's going to have to address now because Sir Alan's pulled her up on it. He really ripped into her - I've never seen him get that angry in a boardroom - and he's marked her cards. All I would say is that she'd better start impressing him soon because if she messes up, she will be out."

Sir Alan's made Claire a project manager next week. How do you think she'll cope?
"She is a determined businesswoman and a very, very competent one. If she's in charge and gets her own way, she will do very well. My suspicion is she will do very well."

Who did you blame more for the team's failure, Alex or Claire?
"I took Alex into the boardroom to just take him down a peg or too. I really rate Alex to win it, but I think he thought he was already the finished article. I knew he was never going to get fired and I knew I was going to get fired. He could go on and win it. Claire was more culpable from the start as she never got into the task. She had one job to make sure the photos were coming down right, but she was more interested in managing me. I was getting stressed because I had to deal with genuine customers that were saying, 'Where's our stuff?'"

Sir Alan seemed to focus on your physical attributes and ability to get things done. Do you think he failed to see your other skills?
"I actually think that is what I do. In order to be a success at business, you have to stick to what you're good at. Everybody on The Apprentice is taken out of their comfort zone, and I think the true Apprentice is a more rounded individual. It's a little late to knock off the rough edges from me and turn me into something I'm not, but you have to go on it, try it and extend yourself."

You seemed to fall in love with using the camera on the photography task. Are you going to take it up as a hobby?
"I'm going to buy myself an SLR camera now, because I can do it and it is interesting. Photography's one of those things though, where if you wipe off some one's wedding photos from a memory card, it's a lot of pressure to put yourself under. I'm a good satellite TV engineer and I'm going to go back to being a good satellite TV engineer on Monday, and I'm going to let work take the rise out of me. It's been emotional, but Sir Alan let me go with a lot of dignity. I was out of my depth and he let me go."

Thanks for your time, Simon!
"Thank you mate. You're from Digital Spy, right? Your forums are fantastic! I've got a lot of support on there and it was really quite humbling to read some of the things people have posted. It's a good site and I have been reading my fan pages, so once I'm unveiled, you may see me turn up on there in a couple of days to thank the guys for all their support."

The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.