Luisa did have a few bad weeks, think it was the week she won as PM (milkshake task??) and Lord Sugar made a nasty comment to her. Also, the abdication (sp?) episode wasn't exactly great for her. But, as mentioned, it was a mystery as to how Fran got that far (mind you, Helene from series 4 also kinda made the final). It was a female final, but I don't think (based on the tasks) that anyone would have been surprised or shocked if the final had been between Jordan and Neil.

At the time, Luisa's PMship was criticised by her team. I can't really remember as I have only seen that episode once, but on the treat she said that she actually disagreed with the team and thought that she did a good job, so it's something that is open to interpretation. In the Final Five show, her role on that task was praised, so there was clearly more to it than meets the eye. I thought she was pretty good on Task 8 as well. The way she spoke to Jason was described as being appallingly bad manners, but I didn't see it like that. I think that she just wanted to win the task, and felt that Jason was going about it all wrong and that she'd do a better job - and even though they still lost, I think that she did do better than Jason. There's nothing wrong with pointing out what your PM is doing wrong if you feel you can do a better job - Claire is criticised for doing it with Simon in Series 4, but I feel exactly the same way about that. I didn't think Claire was being unpleasant, just critical. Kristina does it to Paul in the France task, but no one has any issue with that - quite rightly so.

Don't think that this situation can be compared (if only because Jason and Paul were very different characters and had different motives for what they did or rather didn't do).

And Lord Sugar heavily burned her on the milkshake task ("you might have them to thank for the win from what I've heard" ). Not the most ringing endorsement for a WINNING PM. And that camera shot when she walks out of the waiting room

I think Luisa actually worked only really well on the cooking task (even if Fran got royally stitched up by her and Neil).

In terms of female candidates this series was only slightly better then series 8, but had nothing on series 5, 6 and 7. I did like a few of the women in last two series, but not enough to really root for any of them.

He said 'from what I've heard'. That usually means from the advisors, but could also mean from what the candidates are saying about her. In the Final Five programme, it was made clear that actually the advisors thought she was a better PM than what we saw on the programme.

Any updates when this is back

They're still keeping it ambiguous - 'Autumn', is what sites like Tellymix are still saying.

Yes, but that is not a ringing endorsement to a winning PM, surely.

A similar type of character for whom I did have a weak spot was Melody, also very overpowering and sure of herself (and also there is the Tom/Jason comparison in terms of geeky guys who let themselves be run over by them). That biscuit sketch is comedy gold

So why did it come out that he and the advisors were actually quite impressed by her performance that week on The Final Five?

I think he either had only heard one side of the story at that point, or else he was calling her bluff and trying to determine how she'd react to him saying that.

Almost certainly autumn, as previously suggested from various sources. For sure, it won't be on in the summer because of the World Cup. I would assume it will start in early/mid October, running up to the final being aired a week before Christmas. as Young Apprentice used to.

Yes, I know its definitely in Autumn, but I was meaning that Autumn is quite a broad term

Oops, so you did. I think, though, that it's possible to be reasonably precise given that the BBC won't break the series across the Christmas period.

If we assume that series 10 follows the same format as series 9 - Wednesday nights, 12 episodes, with the first two being shown as a double header in week 1, then that would point to the final most likely being on 17th December (we won't get the final on Xmas Eve). Working back, that would put the first two episodes on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th October.

If the first two episodes aren't shown back-to-back (last series was, I think, the only time this has ever happened), then the series would instead start on 1st October. Of course, there's no guarantee the series will air on Wednesdays, but either way we're almost certainly looking at a start date in the first half of October.

Last series was not the only time that the first two episodes were shown back-to-back. It happened in Series 7, but in that series Episode 1 was on Tuesday night and Episode 2 on Wednesday night.

Thanks George, I had forgotten that.

Series 9 episodes 1 and 2 were on Tuesday and Wednesday, not Wednesday and Thursday.

I don't think they'll do that this year - they'll want it to finish just before Christmas, but they also won't want it to start later than need be I think.