Durham estate agent Philip Taylor lost the chance of a job with a six-figure salary, but found love when he appeared on The Apprentice. He tells Steve Pratt that he wasn’t scared of his prospective boss, Sir Alan Sugar.

FOR most of the hopefuls on BBC1’s The Apprentice, having to face prospective boss Sir Alan Sugar in the boardroom week after week is a terrifying thought. But fired contestant Philip Taylor reckons that squaring up to the top businessman at the climax of each programme didn’t scare him.

The 29-year-old estate agent says his boss back at the Durham City firm where he works is much more frightening.

“I wasn’t scared of Sir Alan. The difference for me is I work for George Robinson. He’s equally stern and three times the size. I’ve sat on the other side of the desk from him, so Sir Alan didn’t worry me.”

Taylor is back home in Durham after being fired from the show last week and losing the chance of winning a job with Sir Alan’s company.

He may have blown his chances of a six-figure salary, but he did find love with one of his fellow contestants. And it’s that romance with Kate Walsh and a brush with an advertising character named Pantsman that have kept Taylor busy since leaving the programme.

He and his new love have been snapped by the paparazzi, while he’s told his story in newspapers and magazines. Instead of a job with Sir Alan, he’s had a double page spread in the News of the World and has featured on three glossy pages in gossip mag, Heat.

Not, perhaps, what he expected when he signed up for the programme, but Taylor is taking it in his stride, admitting that life has been a “little bit hectic” but “ was fun”.

Nothing, he says, can prepare you for the media blitz that follows a firing. “When the producers warn you about the media attention, you don’t understand why,” he says. “Some of it’s enjoyable, some of it isn’t. But if you put yourself up for something like that, you have to expect it.”

Especially if your romance with another contestant – a Sugar babe, you might say – causes you to lose sight of the goal of winning the prize position as Sir Alan’s apprentice.

“It was always about the job and I had good fortune of meeting Kate. I wouldn’t say it was my downfall, but didn’t help. I took my eyes off the ball,” Taylor admits.

Despite his relationship with Kate – and he intends to move south to be nearer her – he didn’t lose sight of the fact that he wanted the job. He applied to take part because, after watching others on the show, thought that he could do a better job than some of them.

“I applied and, after a long process, managed to get on the show. It was a big buzz, although very tough physically and mentally – the hardest thing I’ve ever undertaken,” he says. “It’s a lot more pressured than you think watching it on TV.”

One of the most difficult things was coping with the other personalities in the apartment house shared by the dozen contestants. He clashed with one in particular, Lorraine Tighe, as viewers saw as they undertook the weekly tasks.

“It was, let’s say, meeting people you’re never going to get along with. You take your work home with you in the show as you’re all living together. It’s not the best thing in the world,”

he explains.

“One of the things I did miss was the personalities of the North-East. People are not as gracious in the South.

“Pressure and time constraints were the most difficult things. You’re away from home, but living in a swish penthouse and getting looked after very well. It’s a business show, but we’re presented as entertainment. You have to have those big characters in there.”

Taylor’s confident, bordering-on-arrogant manner was commented on during his time on The Apprentice, but he comes across as someone who knows what he wants and doesn’t intend to be diverted from that intention. Which makes it all the more surprising that he was distracted by Kate, spending time flirting, instead of concentrating on the task in hand.

He’s said he’s head over heels in love with her and would like to marry her. “We are close, we spend time together,” he comments when I ask about the state of their relationship.

There must have been times when “the estate agent from County Durham in the £25 Tesco suit” (as he described himself in one interview) wondered what he’d got himself into.

He least enjoyed the sandwich task when contestants had to cater for a business reception.

“It’s one thing to walk into a two-bedroom terrace house and pitch it, and another to find yourself on the 26th floor of the Gerkin, in London, trying to pitch business to the biggest law firm in the world.”

Much more enjoyable was creating and marketing a new piece of fitness equipment. Taylor’s “bodyrocker” was judged a success.

Another of his ideas is remembered for very different reasons. He created a superhero called Pantsman, who wore his pants over his tights, to promote a breakfast cereal.

SIR Alan ridiculed the idea, but Taylor could have the last laugh despite fearing that Pantsman might prove his legacy.

“It’s funny, I got hammered for a while but I haven’t become Pantsman,” he says.

“You do get people shouting out the name in the street, and then saying it wasn’t a bad idea.

You can buy T-shirts and mugs for Pantsman and it’s being done in fancy dress. It’s stuck in the conscious.”

He’s had job offers since being fired, and is talking to people about work in a different field to property. As a big fan of sporting goods, he’d like to get into that line of business, either marketing or developing products.

He’s aware of the dangers of all the media attention he’s receiving and it’s not going to turn his head. “You could end up thinking you’re something you’re not,” he admits. “Now I want to put my head down and get on with work.”

He still watches the programme and remains friends with some of the candidates (not Lorraine, I bet).

Obviously, he’d like to see Kate win. He also thinks Ben, the youngest contestant, is good.

But his outside bet is Debra, whom he feels is strong and puts her point across.

Despite not being scared of Sir Alan, he admits finding it difficult to know exactly what the tycoon was looking for. “It’s a tough one because sometimes you convince yourself he wants to see passion and yet other times that he just wants a yes man,” says Taylor.

■ The Apprentice continues – without Taylor – on Wednesdays, on BBC1, at 9pm.