Mike Soutar speaks out on replacing Tim Campbell as he shares 'privilege' of BBC Celebrity Apprentice advisor role

It's a role that has been carried out by Mr Campbell for the past few years after he took the reins from Lord Sugar's close friend and acquaintance, Claude Littner.

The decision for Mr Campbell to miss out on the festive edition was a result of scheduling conflicts, and the subsequent opportunity to fill the void was one that left Mr Soutar "delighted".

"I was absolutely delighted that I was invited to act as Lord Sugar’s eyes and ears as Tim was unable to make the filming dates work," Mr Soutar explained.

"I had to don the attractive Christmas jumper and jump on a plane to Lapland. I’d never been before, so it was a thrill, and what an interesting bunch of celebrities to spend time with.

"It’s a rare privilege being Alan’s eyes and ears, especially while being relentlessly snowed on in Lapland.

"Unlike in the interviews where I speak a lot, my role was to observe quietly, say very little, and then report back to Lord Sugar with complete honesty.

"It was a bit like being a secret Santa but with a clipboard and a sceptical expression instead of a sack of presents," Mr Soutar delved.

Lord Sugar has also spoken out on the decision to replace Mr Campbell, heaping nothing but praise on his new advisor

The 78-year-old businessman said: "Unfortunately, Tim couldn’t make it, so we called upon Mike to come in, and Mike's very good.

"He's been in lots of our shows; he’s well known for doing all of the interviews. He’s a very nice man, and he knows the programme inside out, so who better to call in other than Mike? He was very good, honestly."

And Baroness Brady echoed the sentiment held by the BBC show's leading star. "Well, obviously, I know Mike really well because he's been doing the show for a number of years whilst I've been doing it," she said.

"So it was great to work with him, and he has stepped in for Tim before a couple of series ago. So I know him, I like him, he's good, he's great at it."

Baroness Brady did add that she found it a "shame" Mr Campbell was unable to return to the boardroom, but admitted it was "great" to see Mr Soutar in his new role.

The trio of Baroness Brady, Lord Sugar, and Mr Soutar were on hand to put this year's cast of famous faces through their paces when they filmed the festive edition earlier this year.

The full line-up boasts TV presenter AJ Odudu, broadcaster and podcaster Angela Scanlon, Radio 1 DJ Charlie Hedges, and I'm A Celebrity star Eddie Kadi.

Elsewhere, EastEnders legend Jake Wood, singer and TV presenter JB Gill, and Paralympic athlete Kadeena Cox also put their business hats on.

And the likes of Gladiators’ Legend Matt Morsia, barrister and TV presenter Rob Rinder, actor Sarah Hadland, former Apprentice star Thomas Skinner, and comedian Shazia Mirza completed the line-up.

But did any of the celebs surprise Mr Soutar and try to take over proceedings? "Oh yes! It was so interesting on the first morning, sitting around a campfire next to a frozen lake, and Matt put his claims forward by declaring he’d built two multimillion-pound businesses," he explained.

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"You know then that the boardroom ego levels are set to 11! Then you had Matt and JB who put themselves forward for Project Manager.

"As I said, Matt sold himself big, meanwhile, JB, interestingly, didn’t talk about himself at all or his own qualities; he spoke about the strength of the team and how they could work together. At which point everyone voted for him, apart from Matt.

"That’s real leadership right there, you don’t focus on yourself, you focus on what you can do as a team. I thought JB was an excellent team leader; he didn’t directly try and confront a lot of egos in the room.

"Instead of getting involved in arguments with them that wasted time, he was actually really smart and led brilliantly by keeping a good rhythm, supporting people, and avoiding pointless ego clashes. I thought he did brilliantly."