[Harry!]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/en...nt/default.stm



Former army surveyor Simon Smith is the latest candidate to be booted off The Apprentice.

But the 36-year-old is not in the least bit shocked and says he deserved to be thrown off the BBC One series.

He has admitted behaving like David Brent, the clueless and embarrassing manager in the hit show The Office, while trying to win his dream job with Sir Alan Sugar.

The senior satellite engineer, who was "fired" after losing money on a photographic portrait task, said he cringed watching himself.

"I completely unravelled," he said. "I'm not completely delusional. I'm aware of my limitations.

"I'm a good team worker but I wasn't a good manager. I resemble David Brent at certain times in that last episode.

"I wanted to throw my fist into the TV at the bit where I'm lying down on the sofa demonstrating how I want my customers to look. I was aware when I did it that I'd just provided them with an absolutely classic moment.

"Sir Alan was right to fire me. It was the right time for me to go."

The father-of-one failed to impress as the Renaissance's team self-appointed manager in the photography challenge at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

"I put myself forward as project manager and it was like a tumbleweed moment, everyone just sort of looked and thought 'oh god, he's going to give it a go' and it didn't go well for me," he said.

He chose a "glam" theme to appeal to all the "footballer wives" in the area, and while it attracted plenty of customers, problems in the back room meant most went home empty-handed.

Dictator Simon

Unsurprisingly, Simon hauled the unsupportive Alex and Claire back into the boardroom.

Despite Claire's sniping about his dictator-like leadership, Simon says she's a "wonderfully accomplished businesswoman", who just cannot handle someone else being in charge.

But he thinks it is Alex who has what it takes to go all the way.

"When I took Alex into the boardroom it was to take him down a peg or too. I think Alex is a potential winner - he just lacks that tiny bit of maturity," he said.

But his new best mate from the show is posh Raef, who Simon said "will be a lifelong friend".

Simon says he has an "enormous amount of respect" for Sir Alan, and his firing was "very dignified".

"It was almost like he was saying, 'I really wanted you to win, but you've proved my suspicion that you're not good enough'," he said.

Simon was given an exemplary discharge from the Royal Artillery, where he specialised as a surveyor, in 1998.

After being fired, Simon returned to his old job, which involves rolling out new technology for the National Lottery.