Lord Alan Sugar's new business partner and winner of The Apprentice 2014 has admitted to EntertainmentWise that he is "under pressure" to match the success of the show's winners before him. The Australian native was crowned the winner in last night's grand finale over fellow competitive candidate, Bianca Miller.
As last night's final episode played out, viewers saw a few familiar faces return to the show to help Mark and Bianca launch their business which culminated in a pitch to a room full of industry experts. It was tough, and both finalists had some tricky questions to answer from the experts before heading back into the boardroom one last time where Lord Sugar deliberated over who to choose to go into business with. Despite confessing to be interested in Bianca's skin tone hosiery business idea because he's a "product man" - as Nick Hewer put it, he decided to opt for Mark's advanced digital media company.
Mark was crowned winner of The Apprentice last night (BBC Pictures)
But with victory comes hard work as Mark, whose constant arguments with Daniel made for excellent viewing, admitted that he feels "under pressure" to do as well as Ricky Martin, Tom Pellereau and Dr Leah Totton, who have gone on to succeed in their own business ventures since winning the £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar. Speaking to EntertainmentWise, the Australian said: "Absolutely, I feel under pressure but that's from myself. I'm competitive in nature as you saw from my clashes with Daniel and you know, Ricky is really competitive as well. So is Tom and these guys have gone a good job and I don't want to be the first to do a bad job."
However, as nervous as he is feeling, the businessman revealed that he was confident that he was going to win: "I was sure I was going to win it. From the start, throughout and right until the end, I was always confident. People were like: 'Oh my God you can't say that', But I was. I was good in the process and I was very confident with my business plan. I think that's what got me through because when I did struggle at times and I had bad days, my passion for the task in hand really got me through."
Some familiar faces returned to help Mark launch his business (BBC Pictures)
With his business all ready to go, Mark joked that he could have another job on the side when The Apprentice returns next year. Asked what he thought about Nick Hewer's decision to leave and whether he could take over, the winner said: "Well, it's a big loss. It's a huge loss and Nick is such a character and he holds such an aura as Lord Sugar does, but his time has come and he's thought about that decision and wants to wind things back. When Margaret [Mountford] left, it left a big hole but look how well Karren [Brady] has done. We'll always remember Nick as we've always done with Margaret but I'm sure someone else will come in and Lord Sugar will have someone in mind that he's worked with in the past or had in his brain for a couple of years and they will come in and they've got big shoes to fill.
"I've been practicing pulling the faces in the mirror this morning", Mark went on to quip about possibly replacing the Countdown host. "Once I heard he was retiring, I got a mirror and started practicing but I haven't got there yet so it needs a bit more work and then I'll see how it goes."
What did you think of Mark's victory on The Apprentice last night?
