I wouldnt say equally important. Who was the bloke a couple of season ago, that hardly won a task, but won the final (chap with glasses, inventor type bloke? Padrew? or something like that). Its defiantly biased heavily towards a good business plan. I would say its something like 80% business plan and 20% person.

Remember that Sugar doesnt really have to work with them, his people do. So if they are difficult, its not that big an issue. Whilst they may be difficult on the tasks, as they probably think they are the best candidate. When they work with Sugar/his people, they will accept they dont know it all, so will spend the time taking instructions.

His name is Tom Pellereau. He won though because he was a good find; he lost nearly all the tasks, but in general his performance was pretty good. He was only in the final boardroom a couple of times. He didn't win on his business plan, as that was actually changed afterwards. Lord Sugar went with Tom, not his business plan.

He went with the nail file, with a patent on it, and past experience that it could be sold to retailerrs. Tom had already done what was needed so there wasn't even any need for him to be able to do it on task - he had done it before he entered the show, The only other contender with a viable project was Susan and she didn't have the figures available - when he had a closer look he took her too.

He's got a better choice this series with, I think, 4 existing businesses on offer still.

But surely the plan wasn't changed until after Tom had won? Tom was pitching for Lord Sugar to back his chair business. Lord Sugar couldn't have planned at the time he told Tom that he was the winner that he'd actually be investing in the nail file business. What if Tom hadn't agreed to that? He invested in Tom as a person, and the business plan change was agreed between them after the event.

Hmmm, I love that in this thread everyone is attributing Luisa with feminine wiles, and Neil was just the star crossed bloke who was taken in by her evil schemes. Seemed pretty clear to me that the two of them were in cahoots in setting up Fran for the fall. They smelt the blood in the water - as they did with Jason - and hung her out to dry. Fran massively contributed in her own demise though, she just went to the kitchen and sulked; had they lost, I think she would have gone on the basis that she hadn't tasted the food, as Karren would have given SirAl a glowing report of how Luisa had straightened up her act. I can't see Fran lasting much longer as she is weak, and unless they mix the teams, L & N will continue their double act.

Not everyone ... In fact I'm pretty sure that Neil can't stand her. He's playing the more astute game for sure and it will be amusing to see if the programme has edited her candidness in such as way as to leave her with 'egg on her face' in the final weeks.

As to Francesca, I don't think she is weak. I think she is more measured and that may cost her a place in the final. If it does then so be it. I think she has acquitted herself well.

Would Karen have given a glowing report? Karen did notice, that Louisa didnt go into the kitchen, as she claimed she couldnt cook savoury things. Then at a later stage told Fran what ingredients to use etc.

Fran was a bit weak. She should have put her foot down, and said she wasnt going into the kitchen, and that it should be Louisa. As she is the one with the cake baking business.

Because they both said they couldn't cook to the required standard, and he trusted what they said.


I agree with this. I'd add that Luisa underestimated how poor a cook Francesca was. When she said things like, "Just do it like you would a stir-fry", it hadn't occurred to her that Francesca might never have cooked a stir-fry. People who are good at every-day things sometimes forget that others don't do them.

So I don't think she lied about being a bad cook. She just didn't realise how much worse Francesca was. She thought it was something anyone could do. (Or at least, to be sexist about it, any woman. Although some men do cook, it's easy to believe Neil let his wife do all the cooking. Some households are like that.)

Likewise I don't think Neil realised the disparity between their cooking abilities. Hence it wasn't a prior plan to stitch Francesca up. They may both have believed they were being generous to her, by giving her an easy, safe role that anyone could do. She had a proper cook to assist her, and all she had to do was to make sure it tasted OK. Neil seemed genuinely surprised that she hadn't tasted it herself (as was Lord Sugar). It meant that Francesca became the obvious person to blame, after she had done so badly at cooking.

True, although as some have pointed out on twitter, Francesca's cooking was a known commodity as they had suffered it in the house. Looked at tactucally, Neil wasn't going to cook it himself, and, if he had done the food selection, marketing and design part with Francesca, he would have dominated her. If he had made the wrong choices, being fired would have been between her for doing nothing, and him for gettng it all wrong himself - and not using Luisa to the full. Luisa doesn't trust him to get it right and if he does doesn't want him to shine on his own. She thinks she needs to be where the key decisions are. If he allows that, he can dump blame on Luisa. If he shares the big decisions with her, and they make better decisions together they win.If they make worse decisions, she's looking more at risk than he does, on past history. Luisa working so well with him, with Karen looking on, though, blunts his strategy as he can hardly say she's been acting up on him, or blame her for decisions they made that jointly, when he had the final say.

Was that speculation, or tweeted by a candidate or someone else who knew what had gone on in the house?

It should also be noted, that Fran burnt her first two tries and cooking the food. She only just managed to get something out to the taste test team - just the one bowl of food for them to share.

One thing that wasnt shown on tv, was Fran burning her first two attempts at cooking the food. Also not shown , was the surprise of the taste test team, when one bowl was provided for them to taste. They asked if there was more, and Fran replied that the rest was burnt. I know someone at the factory where the food was prepared, thats why I know this.

Fran: can you burn chicken?
Chef: yeah.

As Fran stirs charred chicken in pan.

Luisa's ex boyfriend is a pimp and she knew about it
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...d-join-in.html

The BBC will be loving this

I don't know why the Daily Mail print things like that. It's not news.

They print it because the Sun printed it first and they want a piece of it. The whole "sidebar of shame" is not news too.

I'll be amazed if she survives the interview stage. I hope she's annihilated by them all, especially Claude. Then again, they were charmed by Katie Hopkins so you never know...