• Leigh Holmwood
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 March 2009 13.24 GMT
• Article history

Sir Alan Sugar. Photograph: Talkback Thames/BBC

Hit business reality show The Apprentice has not escaped the recession - its budget has been hit, the overseas episode axed and contestants will instead undertake several "buy British" challenges, Sir Alan Sugar said today.

The traditional mention of Sugar's wealth has also been omitted from the opening credits of the fifth series, which begins next week, although the winning apprentice will still secure a six-figure salary.

At the launch of the new series in London today, it was revealed that one male contestant pulled out of the factual reality series the night before filming because he could not face leaving his family.

Only 15 contestants start the series, including two international contestants for the first time.

Speaking at today's launch at the Kings Place building in London, also home to the offices of MediaGuardian.co.uk, Sugar said the production team had been conscious of reflecting the recession.

"As we go through the series you will see some shows that are specifically made towards recognition of what difficult times we are in," he said. "At the moment, people are having to consider whether they can go on holiday and so there is one episode about reinvigorating one of our seaside towns."

The episode - to be aired on BBC1 on Wednesday 25 March - will see the hapless contestants go to Margate to renovate part of the town. In another instalment, instead of the traditional challenge of promoting a new foreign product, the contestants will instead undertake a "buy British" challenge where they help promote small businesses.

"The apprentices always think they can second guess us a bit and imagine they are going on some exotic trip, but this time they ended up in Manchester and Liverpool, where they were set a task of helping local small businesses to sell their merchandise to other businesses," Sugar said.

BBC1 controller Jay Hunt said: "In the current economic climate, The Apprentice has never seemed more relevant. That emphasis on sheer hard graft seems more appropriate than ever before."

Asked if it was harder to be an apprentice in a recession, Sugar said: "Yes ... in this day and age people are not being recruited. Companies are not taking on people that can get lost in the background and be part of some unknown part of the management. It's much, much tougher out there.

"The person that comes on board in the end is going to have to do some work."

No mention is made of Sugar's worth at the beginning of the series, although the press release accompanying the show quoted the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List as saying his wealth was valued at £830m.

Show executives also confirmed the programme's budget had been frozen.

Sugar described the unnamed male contestant who had decided not to take part as a "bottler", telling the others who were taking part in the first episode: "Someone has already bottled it. You can't even blame me because I have never met him. Business is about pressure. Are you tough enough to put up with it because matey wasn't."

The contestant who dropped out of the show has recorded an interview which is expected to be aired on the BBC2 spin-off show, You're Fired!, next week.

Among this year's candidates to win a top job with Sugar are a lawyer, an ex-professional footballer, a former chess champion and a lookalike of Welsh rugby player Gavin Henson. Sugar's aides, Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer, also return.

Last year's winner, Lee McQueen, is still working for Sugar developing digital display advertising. "He is getting on very well," Sugar said. "He is doing a very good job."

Sugar said he was amazed that the candidates continued to make the same mistakes as in previous series. "This being the fifth series and having the benefit of seeing the previous four, you would think they would come in well armed with what not to do," he said.

"But they still don't know what to do and they don't learn the lessons."

Sugar said he was hopeful of a sixth series, but said it was "very much down to whether the punters really like the product ... at the end of the day the customers are the ones that will decide whether it's any good or not."

He said discussions on a junior version - originally revealed last year - were also continuing.