The line-up for the new series of The Apprentice is announced - with the programme's producers predicting the largest audience to date.

The sixteen contestants are all playing for an apprenticeship with Amstrad owner Sir Alan Sugar.

Amongst the players is a London Olympics hopeful, a quantum physicist, an Iraq veteran and an ex-MI5 worker.

According to the Daily Mail Sugar has not changed his hard-line tactics with the contestants.

He reportedly told them, "The worst kind of schmooze is, 'Sir Alan, I'm just like you - I came from a humble background.'

"This is no game show. There won't be some busty blonde waiting outside to hug so that you can sob into her bosom. There will be a black cab waiting to take you to the station."