It's pretty obvious by now that Helen, Tom and Susan are by far the strongest candidates and will, baring some major upset, make it to the interviews.

Who will be the fourth, though?

After last night's boardroom debacle with Sugar appearing to have Jim marked out as this year's Wotherspoon/Sophocles/Baggs, it look as if he may be the one, as I'm sure it will keep people watching just so that they will see him finally get his comeuppance.

But if not, who will be the other?

I reckon Jim will, just for TV Gold ..... he will be great in the interviews.

Tom hasn't been PM yet

And Susan has been brought back in the last 2 boardroom battles (her team mates are gunning for her)

Did I say he had?

What is confusing you?


Dear me, you do seem to be confused.

The fact that a couple of PM's have made the mistake of thinking she is an easy target will count against them rather than her.

Jim made a complete fool of himself last night lying his backside off trying to extricate himself from the mess he's got himself into by ignoring her 100% correct strategic advice.

The lame 'you didn't say it soon enough or loud enough' was clearly contradicted both by what we saw and Nick's notes.

No

Reasons again, neither Helen or Tom have that flare Alan Sugar is looking for, both of them are scared of taking risks. Every challange Tom has been the one who has questioned the motives, and is usually correct, however its complete BS when people say hes always shot down, the simply fact is, he dose not have the balls to stand up for himself, and this shows with him not putting himself forward as PM yet.

Susan on the other hand does try and tell the team where they are going wrong, but is shot down. However she has gained favour with Nick and probably Karen so she will be fine unless she messes up big time.

For me Melody is the best one there, she gets on with her job, tells the team is she is not happy with how the task is going, and seems to work well with everyone.

Helen, Tom and Melody are the only ones not to have been in the boardroom (in Helen's case its because she hasent lost). But I think if both Tom and Helen were in the boardroom, they would be eaten alive.

Quiet people with not strong enough voices... the pair of them.

I'm not sure about Tom. He does seem to be a very nice person who always tries to work cooperatively. We really need to see him as PM.

As to Helen, I have a feeling that the first time someone turns on her they are going to get one hell of a surprise.

She seems to be extremely well organised and quite unflappable. She gets straight to the crux of the matter and deals with it. I think it is her no nonsense, get the job done, approach that has led to her not appearing in the earlier edits; she simply didn't cock up!

None of these attributes are in the least surprising for someone who is a PA to a CEO.

Well Tom should be Pm next week.

In regards to Helen, thats her problem, shes too robotic like Kate from series 5. Its Alan Sugar picking who he wants in the end, and he likes the ones with a few sparks to them and takes risk. I just cant see Helen doing that, however we will see.

I think I would laugh if she turned into a monster in the boardroom

Well, he did pick Stella last year

I don't think she'd turn into a monster.

I think she would have the exact responses required for any criticisms made and would make then quietly, calmly, and succinctly.

Possibly the only way to shake her would be to tell outright lies and hope that Nick or Karen were not on the ball.

I think Melody is the other front runner, she hasn't done much to put a foot wrong, has a strong personality and puts her head above the parapet, although she seems to have disappeared into the background lately for the last couple of tasks.

I think Zoe, whilst smart, has a problem with her people skills and her sullen attitude. Leon seems a bit wishy washy and lacks that killer instinct, I think Jim is still a gonna even though he wasn't fired at the first opportunity because I don't think LS trusts him as far as he can throw him, and Natasha has got herself a reputation for being carried and I think it's too late in the game to change that opinion.

I suppose :yawn:

Helen took a risk in the task last week,and it paid off

It's worth bearing in mind that, based on the show's recent history, there'll probably be anywhere between 1 and 3 candidates out of the remaining 8 Lordalan won't get the chance to fire, because they won't be in the boardroom between now and interviews.

The only person I'd be surprised by making it to the interview stage is Natasha. That's not solely due to her ability or otherwise - I just don't think she's got the edit for it. She's like Sandhurst Ben or Michael Sophocles : we've never really been encouraged to see much up side to her at all, and I don't think they'd do this is they were subsequently going to have her be on the "Final Five" show or featured in interviews.

They are bound to ditch Natasha before the interviewing stage to spare themselves the excruciating experience, yeah.

Hope we get to see Margaret interviewing Jim

I think Helen is completely unflappable so far, mainly due to her winning streak. I would like to see how she performs in the boardroom final three.

Tom needs to grow a pair and be PM, hopefully he can get his ideas across then ... otherwise Mr Quiet Guy should not make it any further.

Susan will be PM and storm it ... shutting Jim up in the process.

Jim should get to the interviews, if only to see him get a withering stare and arched eyebrow from Margaret as he tries to manipulate the Ulster link

the interview stage will be Melody, Helen, Tom and Jim.

Susan is not a strong candidate, yes she might say the right things but she is not strong enough to get her point across and then she just buckles under the pressure and agrees with the rest of the team until the boardroom. though I think even if the idea was good she would disagree with whoever came up with and then play the I'm young, noone respects me, i'm being bullied card again.

Susan has consistently and correctly homed in on the salient points of a task.

In the real world, where Sugar and his new 'partner' will operate, people with good ideas and natural business insight rise to the top above those who are all mouth and no trousers.

Imagine a real world situation where each of the teams were told to do what they did last night but then have their plans OK'd by a more senior manager.

Any decent manager would have immediately seen that Susan's objection to the title was valid, that her grasp of discounting the rate card was valid and that her wish to have the more 'active' photographs (that she took) used in preference to the 'knitting pattern shot' was valid.

Her insights into the task would have outshone those of any of the candidates on her team or the other.

I think that's unfair. It was obvious from week 2 last year that Stella was at least twice as good as the next best candidate.

This year by comparison there is not very much at all between the remaining eight candidates. There is no standout, and equally strong arguments could be put forward for most of those who are left.

I've had a strong regard for Tom since the beginning, but at this stage in the competition he is underexposed. Even the quiet Helen has taken her role as PM and survived that test by now. It did look from the editing of the trailer at the end of YF that Tom may receive more focus next week. Interesting to see if that is a good thing.

I like Leon the best. Have liked him since this series began.I like the fact that he just gets on with things and doesn't end up arguing. I think he would be a good business partner for Lord Sugar.I do like Leon's manner.

Personally, I thought that Liz was a better candidate and Joanna was at least as good as Stella.

Joanna was better. And in my opinion one of the best ever. She had the bright ideas for every single task. I cant remember a single good one from any of the present candidates. No the BBC havent come up with good ones this time.

Joanna was hopeless in the interviews. She lost all confidence.

Stella and Liz dominated the first two challenges, then Stella went over to the boys team and totally dominated a pretty hopeless bunch to win again. She was a shoe-in from that point on. Liz was also excellent for much of the series, but didn't present a very compelling case when she eventually found her way into the boardroom.

It is not sufficient to throw a good idea into the ring like Cassandra, expecting others to support it and implement it.

In the run-up to 2007 plenty of persons prophesied an impending meltdown thanks to the way UK was piling up sky-high credit card debts borrowing against alleged house values. The Cassandras failed to make themselves understood by a wider public and thus failed to influence the course of events. A prophet only needs to pronounce an idea, then to claim credit after the event. A leader is needed to implement it, and persist in the face of opposition. Susan was always waiting for rescue by the Seventh Cavalry. Alan Sugar at age 17 WAS the Seventh Cavalry.