MULTI-MILLIONAIRE Sir Alan Sugar exudes such power and authority, you can't help feeling nervous in the 61-year-old's company.

In reality, he's much nicer than his television persona leads us to believe - definitely not so shouty and scary, although still pretty intimidating.

Indeed, Sir Alan thinks he's got a bit of a raw deal from the producers of The Apprentice, which returned to BBC One on Thursday, with 16 new candidates vying to become his latest employee.

"It is a continual argument I have with the production people," he grumbles. "Unfortunately, like it or not - well I don't like it that much - the perception of me is that I'm banging my hands on the table and screaming at people.

"We actually do have quite a bit of humour when we're filming, but the BBC has categorised me as Mr Nasty. That's what they want, so all the humour ends up on the cutting room floor. But as you go through the series some of it has accidentally slipped in. I might get a comedy slot soon!"

This fourth series of the show is certainly amusing, or at least the contestants are. As we are introduced to one after the other in the first episode, it's clear they all share two traits - they are incredibly smug and horribly arrogant, making claims like, "I am an exceptional individual".

Of course, we're all for a bit of self-belief, but does Sir Alan think this sort of over-confidence is important in the business world?

"There's a time and place for arrogance. Continual arrogance is not a very good trait," he says.

"There are some characters this year that believe they're on a different level to others. They start off that way, but you knock a bit of that out of them as you go along.

"They really get brought down to earth, and I hope they realise it's done them a bit of good. I hope they look at themselves and perhaps adapt their demeanour."

The candidates this year are from a range of backgrounds. Some are sales people, some are in management, others are from legal backgrounds and one is even a satellite TV engineer. All of their skills will be put to the test over the coming weeks, but their first task seems relatively easy - to sell a van-load of fish at a London market and come back with a profit. Simple, right? Wrong.

The candidates are split into two teams and things start to go belly up very quickly when none of the fish is priced up correctly, and one group even sells lobsters at the bargain price of £5.

"We start off with something very basic," Sir Alan sighs, banging his fist on the table (I thought he didn't do that in real life?). "The simplest task ever is to see who is going to dirty their hands, and it never fails to amaze me, they just don't grasp it.

"They waste so much time arguing amongst each other that they forget the basic things - what did something cost me and what should I be selling it for? This haddock costs £1 and the bloke down the road sells it for £3, so I'll sell it for £2.75, and I'll make a 200 per cent margin."

Sounds like something even a schoolchild should be able to understand, but the candidates are under immense pressure, and as Sir Alan points out, they are so busy thinking about beating each other they forget about the task in hand.

It's something that happens every year on the show, and it never ceases to shock Sir Alan that contestants haven't noted where previous unsuccessful contestants have tripped up.

"It's amazing," he groans with a roll of his eyes. "But there is this element of competition. I think they are distracted by this jockeying for position rather than focusing on, 'Yes I did see that last year, and the bloke spent too much on the chickens'. But they don't, they miss it every single time, and I guess that's what provides the entertainment."

Last year's Apprentice sparked some controversy when candidate Katie Hopkins, a mum of two, stood down after she was questioned about her childcare arrangements, something that wouldn't have been allowed to have been asked in real life.

Sir Alan has recently said he believes employment laws have gone too far, and thinks they are actually counter-productive for women. In an interview earlier this year, he said employers are more likely to discount a women of child-rearing age without even interviewing her because they are not authorised to ask them if they are planning to have kids.

But, he says, those laws do not apply to the TV show, and he wouldn't hesitate to make enquiries about a female contestant's family life again.

"The interview process that I have got in The Apprentice takes no notice of what I can and cannot ask under employment law, it's as simple as that," he says matter-of-factly.

"I take no notice of that whatsoever. They get asked what I think is appropriate at the time, and if that infringes section 497 of the employment act then sod it."

Recently, Sir Alan, the son of an East End tailor who is now worth over £800m and was ranked as the 84th richest man in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007, has been helping Prime Minister Gordon Brown come up with plans to inspire young people to become involved in business. Recently, one of his ideas, the so-called McDonald's A-level, was adopted by Downing Street.

It's a project he's passionate about. He says: "My children were brought up in quite a difficult environment, because they were the children of a wealthy man. Fortunately, from my background and where I came from, I was able to instil upon them some values.

"But some of the youngsters today live in a dream world. They're not focused on what they are going to do when they leave education, not focused on the fact they have to support themselves and how there's a necessity for finance, there's a necessity for enterprise and there's the necessity of being self-sufficient.

"We want to try and instil some spirit of enterprise into young people. We can't all be city slickers sitting in front of screens - someone's got to make something."