The most talked about reality show on TV has managed to keep its winner under wraps - despite its contestants living in a residential area of Richmond.

The eight-bedroom luxury mansion, in Christchurch Road, East Sheen, was home to the entrepreneurs while they battled to impress Lord Sugar in The Apprentice, currently showing on BBC1.

The stunning house, which also boasts six bathrooms and three receptions, sits back from the street and is guarded by huge wooden gates at the entrance, along with tall trees and bushes.

The Georgian-style luxury pad was sold for £1.75m in 2004 and is now worth a staggering £4.7m after a major redevelopment, according to property website Zoopla.

Tabloid reports have suggested the house belongs to opera singer Katherine Jenkins and she is renting the property to the BBC for £5,000 a week.

Other celebrity residents in the area include newsreader Trevor McDonald and journalist Andrew Marr, who recently hit the headlines over revelations about his private life.

Neighbours said they were unaware that 16 of today’s most talked about reality TV stars had lived just a few hundred feet away in their leafy street.

Christopher Taylor, 33, of Graemesdyke Avenue, said: “Until now I was not aware they were filming here. I feel quite honoured they moved here.”

Nikki Barton, 26, of Temple Sheen Drive, added: “I saw the house [on TV] on Tuesday but did not recognise it, it has made no difference to the area. You would think Alan Sugar would put them up in his house to stay.”

In previous series’ of The Apprentice contestants have stayed in properties in Bloomsbury, Ladbroke Grove, Chiswick, Notting Hill and Battersea.

The show’s seventh series got off to a good start, with the first episode attracting an audience of 8m.

Before the show aired the contestants were largely anonymous, helping to keep the winner a mystery - and residents in East Sheen were certainly blissfully unaware.