Lord Alan Sugar working on huge new TV project as The Apprentice final looms
LORD SUGAR will be swapping the boardroom for the box office, as I can reveal he has begun work on a TV drama.
At the age of 77, the business legend turned media mogul is looking to his own life story for inspiration for the project.
While a number of ideas are on the table, wheels have begun to turn as the boss of BBC One’s The Apprentice explores potential producers and writers keen to come on board.
A TV source said: “From the days selling computers out of the back of a van to leading his colossal Amstrad business empire, Lord Sugar’s trajectory in the business world alone is inspiring.
“Then add to the mix his work within politics, football and beyond — plus the showbiz sparkle since he became the face of the BBC’s Apprentice — and you’ve got a very rich tapestry for an amazing story.
“Talks are under way for the project, with ideas on the table spanning from a straight biopic through to a drama inspired by real-life events.
“Either way, as Lord Sugar approaches his 80th, he’s as keen as ever to stay ahead of the curve and sees the project as an interesting way to update his life story beyond everything covered in his 2010 autobiography.”
There’s no shortage of potential storylines to work with.
From Hackney, East London, Lord Sugar founded electronics company Amstrad in 1968 at the age of 21, selling audio and computer equipment.
Business boomed and he became a household name.
In the Nineties, he teamed up with Terry Venables to buy Tottenham Hotspur football club.
The Noughties sparked his TV career when he took on The Apprentice — with the 18th series currently on air — then in 2009 he joined the House of Lords as Baron Sugar.
Exciting project
In the past, Lord Sugar himself has joked that Martin Freeman would be his pick to play him in a story about his life.
Rumours about a biopic have been rife for years, but gathered pace last summer when the tycoon publicly reached out to Noah Pink, the scribe behind 2023 film Tetris which starred Taron Egerton and Mr Bates star Toby Jones.
Sugar wrote to Pink on Twitter: “I need to contact you on an exciting movie project.”
Either way, I’m sure he’s not short of potential investors.
IT’S EKIN SOOTHE
EKIN-SU CULCULOGLU has broken her silence after taking time out following her shift on Celebrity Big Brother.
The reality TV star, who struggled on the ITV show, has revealed she has used the break to “reflect, recharge and restore”– and do some reading.
Posting a snap with self-help book The Power Of Letting Go, she wrote: “I haven’t felt (like) myself for a long time, and for a while didn’t know who I was beyond being defined by ex relationships or TV shows, and that needs to change.
“I am so excited for all the growth and full healing. CBB was the final light-bulb moment to make me realise what needs to be done.”
All the best to you, Ekin-Su.
ITV registered its best ever results this quarter, thanks to Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the Six Nations rugby and Love Island All Stars.
In total, 896million streams were recorded on the ITVX hub. Maya Jama‘s dating show was viewed more than 100million times.
BILLIE’S PRINCELY GOSSIP
NETFLIX’S peek behind the scenes of Prince Andrew’s explosive 2019 Newsnight interview is juicy enough – but Scoop star Billie Piper now reveals one thing that did not make the cut was how producers never believed the royal would say what he did.
Chatting to her ex Chris Evans on Virgin Radio, Billie said: “You don’t see it in the final edit, but in Andrew’s pre-interview interview he was giving those answers about Pizza Express, not sweating . . . all the stuff that people were like, ‘What?!’
“The team were like, ‘Well, this is gold, but he’s probably not going to say this on the day’. Then he said it all.”
Scoop lands on Friday but Billie is already looking forward to her next Netflix gig – the darkly comic Kaos, a reimagining of Greek myths, due out this summer.
She said: “It’s loud and dramatic, with a lot of Nineties references – my favourite era.”
PROVOCATIVE dating series Milf Manor is back for a new series.
With mid-lifers daters who put Davina McCall’s My Mum, Your Dad gang to shame, a new group of sexy mums will hunt for love in the American format.
It streams in the UK from April 29 on Discovery+.