Food poisoning sees Doncaster businessman miss two episodes of The Apprentice
A Doncaster businessman bidding to win TV’s The Apprentice has revealed why he failed to appear in two episodes of the hit show – after being struck down by severe food poisoning during filming.
Former RAF gunner and HGV driver Levi Hague is one of 20 candidates aiming to win £250,000 of investment from business mogul Lord Sugar in the hit BBC show.
Earlier this month, pet urn entrepreneur Mr Hague was missing from the boardroom segment of the task, with Lord Sugar telling viewers he was absent due to ill health.
And in the following episode he didn’t feature at all as teams took part in a cooking task before attempting to sell their produce at London’s Greenwich Market.
No reason was announced on air for his non-particpation in the show.
However, Levi took to Instagram to reveal he couldn’t take part in the latest task, because he was too unwell.
He said in an Instagram video: “I wasn’t in there [The Apprentice] again. I got a load of messages asking where I was.
“I was still man down with food poisoning. That’s how hard it hit me.
“I missed boardroom [episode] two, which I was gutted about, and I missed the whole task of week three.
“I couldn’t do anything about it.
“But don’t worry, tune in for the next one and you’ll still get to see this face and these rosy cheeks shining.
“Cheers for the support.”
Some fans thought Levi had been edited out of the series when he didn’t appear in episode three and there was no explanation about his whereabouts.
One wrote: “Oh I only just realised Levi was missing from that episode! Did they really just edit him out? Or was he still ill? Why no explanation? #TheApprentice”
Another posted: “It’s getting more cringe worthy every series. The candidates are useless. No explanation about the missing Levi either. Time for something new @BBC my licence fee is being spent on rubbish!”
After the first episode of the 20th series aired, Mr Hague was named as a rank outsider to win by bookies.
Before the BBC One show got under way he had been made 3-1 favourite.
But despite being on the winning team in a shopping challenge in Hong Kong in the opening episode, his odds plummeted to 50-1 after both sides delivered a calamatious perforfmance which enraged business tycoon Lord Sugar.
Talking about his business ahead of the show, Mr Hague said: "Each urn is crafted with care to help families honour their pets in a truly meaningful way.
"I plan to scale production, expand into the pet cremation service sector, and establish Living Forever Memories as a globally recognised brand within the cremation industry."
Ahead of the show Mr Hague said he will do the city proud, after issuing a video statement apologising for offensive messages shared when he was younger, releasing a three minute apology after a national newspaper unearthed old tweets.
He said: “I’m proud of the man I am today. It’s going to be a good show and I hope I do Doncaster proud. I’m proud to be from Doncaster, I’m proud to be a Yorkshireman.
“I am sorry for the tweets and if they offended anybody, the terminology wasn’t right and wasn’t very articulate – we’ll end that there.
“I am really excited to get this going – I do have some really good moments – I hope people get behind me.”
"On one episode, you’ll see that all this will be irrelevant. You’ll be blown away.
"I can’t go into it or give and spoilers but you will be surprised.
"Tune in and watch me do Doncaster proud – I hope you’ll all get behind me.”