Months of work by Visit Isle of Wight has secured the Island a starring role in one of Britain’s most-watched television programmes.
The BBC’s The Apprentice will feature the Isle of Wight in an episode broadcast on Thursday 19th March on BBC One, with the episode also available on BBC iPlayer.
A coveted filming opportunity
Now in its 20th year, the show sees Lord Alan Sugar – alongside advisors Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell MBE – set a series of business-related tasks for candidates competing to win his backing.
Television production company Fremantle first contacted Visit Isle of Wight in 2024, seeking a location for one of the show’s most popular recurring challenges: the discount buying task, in which candidates must source nine items and achieve the best possible profit margin.
Visit Isle of Wight pitched local products and proposed filming locations, competing against two other destinations the producers had under consideration.
Previous locations for the task include Jersey, Brighton and Stratford-upon-Avon, where two teams of candidates race to source and purchase items within a set time, before reaching a dramatic finish line.
Showcasing Island businesses
Amy Summers, Head of Marketing and Sustainability at Visit Isle of Wight, said the opportunity was immediately apparent. She said,
“From the initial call, we realised that this was an incredible opportunity to showcase the Isle of Wight in front of millions of people.
“It isn’t just the chance to show off how wonderful the Isle of Wight looks, but it also highlights local businesses and their products.”
Amy acknowledged the challenge of keeping the project under wraps ahead of broadcast,
“The hardest part of the whole project was maintaining the secrecy – we’d like to thank the Isle of Wight businesses who worked with us and the production team from Fremantle to make this happen.”
Ventnor hotels at the heart of production
Baroness Karren Brady and Tim Campbell MBE stayed at the Royal Hotel in Ventnor during filming, while the cast and crew made The Wellington Hotel their base.
Andy Kinnaird, owner of The Wellington Hotel, welcomed the production warmly. He said,
“It was incredibly exciting to welcome such a well-known television production to the hotel.
“Our team loved hosting the cast and crew, and it was great fun having them stay with us while they explored the Island for filming.”
The Wellington Hotel sits above Ventnor’s seafront and provided the production team with a central base as they travelled across the Island to film the episode.
