The Boss is Backis a new 5 part series on BBC2 that focuses on high profile directors returning to companies they once ran.

The first episode saw Dragons’ Den favourite Theo Paphitis return to Millwall Football Club where he was a chairman from 1997 to 2005, a club that he took out of administration and under his watch reached its first ever FA Cup final.

Whilst he was the chairman at Millwall FC in 2000, a BBC documentary team produced a series called Back to the Floor. In the show company directors rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty working in various departments within their company to get a real picture of how the business was performing—not unlike the recent series of Undercover Boss produced by Channel 4, although the identity of the boss was never a secret. The Boss is Back series revisits the previous show to see how many of Theo’s changes are still in effect, and how many of his ideas fell by the wayside

We first join Theo at the opening of one of his new lingerie stores in Newcastle, where he shares some of his business philosophy. “Retail is detail” he tells us, expanding slightly he goes on to say that the answers to problems usually come from customer or from the store staff, very rarely from management, in fact all management need to do most of the time is listen to both their customers and workforce to find the right business path.

Some of the changes that Theo implemented at Millwall FC were not profit related, for instance he decided to reinstate the use of radios for the catering staff—a move that would cost money but would ensure the safety of the staff working in the various catering units around the club.

Other changes were more up his street, after spending time with the kit man he discovered a pile of Sloggi briefs, as the then owner of the lingerie chain La Senza he knew that he would be able to sweet talk a better deal for a year’s supply of the pants.

With the issues of footballers having their underwear provided for them, a brief visit to the players’ breakfast area saw Theo decide that the players were rich enough to pay for their own toast in the morning. He argued that all his other businesses operated a subsidised canteen service for staff and he didn’t see why Millwall FC should be any different.

We doubt that players having to part with 50 pence for a round of buttered toast each morning the main reason that Theo managed to turn around the fortunes of the club, both on and off the field, but it showed the business mentality that he had.

Other changes included getting rid of the old score board after he had to climb some perilously high ladders to change a light bulb. A high-tech video screen was put in its place at the cost of half a million pounds—on the face of it a costly way to get out of changing light bulbs but the video screen paid for itself very quickly by raising revenue from sponsors and advertisers.

The Boss is Back program showed that most of Theo’s quirkier off the field changes were still very much in place, including players buying their own breakfast.

The Boss is Back is on BBC 2 Thursday at 10pm.