I'd agree, he works quietly away and is developing into quite the salesman, very good pitch to Argos, selling that large print (which I want!), works well as a team player, if he can deliver as PM next week I think it's his to lose as well.

Zoe won't win, I can imagine him using the "I fear that you'd upset everyone in my organisation" line on her. With good reason too, she's vile!

Tim's not perfect but he's a nice enough guy and has a lot of good ideas - I hope he wins and gets a secretary!

Arjun won't win as someone said he is more a brains from Thunderbirds type of role, hence his fixing computers in his bedroom. He is not a front of house type of person as the women will probably hang him out to dry if he is pm next week.

The points regarding Zoe in that she would upset people are valid too, however its not a job in his organisation for this remember.

I beginning wonder if someone like Emma will come through and win now.

I'd like to see Arjun as PM next week, I think he's a dark horse.

The winner won't be the little Scots girl. (sorry forgot her name)

Tim & Zoe are the biggest personalities, but also have the most potential to mess up big time - and to be nasty to the others in the boardroom, which isn't always going down well this series. Zoe really needs taking down a peg or two, there's confidence & there's arrogance. She bulldozes everyone and she isn't always right.

Emma, I can't make my mind up on. She needs to get away from Zoe, who clearly intimidates her. I think she's good but I'm not sure if she's dynamic enough for his Lordship.

But, he's not really looking for an Apprentice here, is he? Isn't the prize just start up cash for the winner? So should he be looking for initiative and independance rather than leadership & teamwork skills?

I'd disagree with that. In the opening shows he did seem to be that sort of character, but he stepped up with the pitching, and did a damm good job, and he managed to sell well in the art task. I think he's learning all the time and there's much more to him then a calculator. At the moment I think it's between him and, possibly, Emma, although I've yet to see any real spark or contribution from her.

Agreed. IMO Emma is the weakest out ot the final five.

But she's low key, pretty, unthreatening and sucks up to Sir Alan though. He goes for that in the female contestants - Michelle Dewberry being the prime example, but Naomi in Simon Ambroses year got way further than she ought for eg. So I wouldn't bet on her doing worse than the other girls. Arjun is, I agree, the best candidate. Real all rounder so far and steps up to the plate when necessary.

Why isn't he front of house? He pitched well in the camping task, despite Hannah dropping him in it. He sold well in the art task. He can talk to customers.

He's not just good at maths, he also has good judgement about numbers. He understood immediately that someone who sells 2 or 3 pictures a year is a bad risk when they have only a single night to sell in.


She has a lot of confidence, but I don't think she has the ability yet.


No, she didn't. She failed to negotiate any discounts. Everyone got discounts except her, and that's because she didn't think to try.

She also got the pricing wrong last week. She failed to realise she could charge more for customised cakes than standard ones. Something which Kirsty figured out. And, despite having Arjun telling her they needed 250 bases, she ordered 400. They didn't even sell 250.

On the camping task she pushed the cupboard thing in the focus groups to the detriment of all else, and that was a major part of why they lost.

At first I liked her, but she's made a lot of basic mistakes. Where-as Arjun has hardly put a foot wrong.


Well, no. The artist turned up because, frankly, he didn't trust them. Zoe was the one who greeted him, presumably because she had met him before. Then the artist checked out what they'd done with his work and pointed out mistakes. I saw no sign she had asked him to check.

(Similarly the other team had artists turning up and helping with the price tags because that hadn't been done. Generally with this series, I think the Juniors get more assistance than in the main series. People can afford to let them fail too badly.)


Except she didn't, always. Emma had good advice for her but she ignored it.

In particular, even though she bridled when Hibah interrupted one of her sales in ep1, she did the same to others in the art task. And then she claimed she only did it when a customer has asked a question that the other candidate couldn't answer, which as we saw, wasn't true. I doubt that was deliberate lying, but it does suggests she doesn't know herself or how she comes across.

Although I am certainly not a Zoe fan, and she typically ignored the team leader's instructions, she was correct in thinking that price was not crucial. If people want to buy a piece of art they will, and if they don't no discount will make a difference. She also rightly thought that you had to appeal to the artist by appearing to be interested in the work itself rather than the price. Kirsty, by contrast, got things utterly wrong.

I can see Arjun and Emma being the final two at the moment. Not really sure how its going to work though - we have two episodes left, but next week seems to be another task. Unless the losing team gets fired I dont see how he can narrow it down to a final two.

It's also possible that unlike some he's had little actual experience of selling to the public. In which case he's even more remarkable. Ok as a prefect he'd have shown parents round the school, but that's hardly the same. He's learning, thinking and applying much more than the others.

Talking of Tim and bullsh*t, how much bullsh*t did Alan Sugar have to spout over the years to get where he is now?

But as it turned out quite a few buyers wanted to haggle. The prices on art are pretty arbitary and based on what they think they can get for it/get away with. Much of the art market is buying as an investment in case prices for that artist shoot up. It of course helps if you like it. But hell yeah, if you can get a discount you'll feel all the smarter.

The selling of amateur art at summer exhibitons is a bit different. There the prices are usually sub £200 and you buy cos you really do like it and can see it somewhere in your home. Haggling with non professional is something most wouldn't do.

Zoe definately missed a trick there. In this case the artist's background stopped her thinking in business terms (ie like a buyer)

Do you mean can't afford? In which case I agree.

The artists turned up last time they did the art task too (Series3).
This time round the artists were quite reasonable. Last time one of them, Elizabeth Hoff , turned into a major prima donna/grade A a***hole. If there's a show artists are usually supposed to attend at least on the first evening. They would normally expect to have a say/check on the display as well.

Nick Hewer as his PR man would have spouted some too. Some would say it continues

Read some of Amscreen press releases and you'll find just as much BS as ...any commercial press release

In the BS league I find Branson to be even worse IMHO. Whatever floats his balloon.

It's only BS btw when someone spots it.

Except we saw Tim make a sale based on getting a 30% discount, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have got the sale without the discount. That was a big discount, but even 10% is a reason to buy today rather than next month, and you need to provide such reasons to close the sale.


I'm not convinced. In my opinion, it isn't really about flattery. It's about showing the artist that you understand the work and know how to sell it. The artist wants to make as much money as they can and will pick on that basis. Being talented but poor gets old fast. So it's OK to be interested in price and the whole commercial angle. That's what they want you to do: to sell their pictures for them for the best price so they don't have to get all commercial.


Zoe versus Kirsty here reminds me of Katie versus Adam on their art task. Adam was very upfront about prices, and it seemed the artists appreciated it. Katie took the more softly-softly approach, and didn't sell anything.

I agree Kirsty got it wrong, but I don't think her mistake was talking about money. Her mistake was to not get the kind of information about the art that they would need to tell to prospective buyers to get them interested in the work. Basically, she was rubbish at sales. Rubbish the first day doing the preparation, and rubbish on the afternoon when even Hannah did better at selling than her.

Tim is about to win you just watch

Well that was a shock to me, thought he has chosen Tim weeks ago, well done to Arjun.

Based on the last two tasks, I rather think Tim should have won it. Arjun did a poor job as leader on the products task, and then it seemed to be Tim who was making all the running in the final. When he said he could have done it all himself, I believed him. I don't think Arjun could have.

I always think the bit in the taxi is rather revealing so I was a little disappointed to see Tim missing out. My opinion of Tim has changed 180 degrees since the beginning; he has grown into a young man of substance.

I agree that Tim was the strongest based on the last two weeks. But he had quite a lot of making up to do, as he was unimpressive up to that point.

I think the thing that really clinched it for Arjun was his huge sale on the art task. We knew that he was good with the finances and he had shown himself to be a very competent pitcher. He'd always been a good team player with good people skills. But he didn't immediately strike me (at least) as a great salesman. Yet two weeks in a row he sold more than Zoe (the designated sales one).

I've just caught up with JA and am disturbed to find that I fancy Tim a little bit I'd like to add that A. I am 20, B. He has stubble! and C. he looks a bit like my boyfriend.
None of this has eased the weirdness of fancying a 17 year old!!

But to get back on topic, I think it is noticable in the last 2 episodes that Lordalun and Nick picked on him a little bit. Like LaurieMarlow just said, he had a lot to make up for in those last 2 weeks so maybe it was skepticism on their part about how qualified he was to be there.

he looks even sexier two years on <3 ....mm