Since we're trying to get these threads a bit more active again, I thought I'd start this one. We have the 'Who should have won each series?' thread, but obviously winning isn't all about performance on the tasks, but a whole host of things. I was thinking recently about who was the best task performer in each series regardless of anything else, and I was quite surprised at how much this differed from my choice of winner.

Here are my thoughts on this:

Series 1:
It's very close between two candidates, but overall I'm going to say James Max. It was agonising choosing between him and Miriam, and in the end it came down to the fact that Miriam made a big mistake in Task 8, whereas James didn't really have any weak tasks (unless you count Task 7, and I don't really count that as a weakness of James' - it was just something in his style that didn't work quite so well for what they were doing.) I think that Miriam should have won though, as I don't think that James was really the style that Lord Sugar was looking for, and was possibly a bit overqualified for the job.

Series 2:
It will come as no surprise to anyone that I'm choosing Ruth Badger. Incredible sales, calm and rational, exceptionally good performer. In fact, if I were to write down all of the candidates across all of the series in order of task performance, Ruth would come second overall, after someone who I'll talk about in a bit. I think that it was absolutely criminal that she did not win after that performance, and I will never understand what Michelle had over her. I do think that Ansell and Paul deserve a creditable mention though, they could achieve 'strongest performer' status if they were in other series.

Series 3:
It's quite close, but I'm going to have to say Katie Hopkins. It's between her and Kristina, but overall I think that Katie's performance was slightly better. I think that she was more charming than Kristina, and was better at reading people and getting them on side - she was creative, a good team leader, able to work with pretty much anyone, and had strengths that Kristina didn't have. I felt that Katie's shopping channel performance was much better than Kristina's, for example. Of course, I certainly don't think that Katie should have won, because despite her performance she is an unpleasant, bullying attention-seeker, and I don't think that she wanted the job anyway. I think that Lohit should have won.

Series 4:
This was an odd series, but I think that the strongest task performer was Claire Young. I can't from the top of my head think of anything that she did badly in the whole series - the only vague thing is something minor in Task 7, but I can't remember what it was and I think it was fairly minor. I think that Sara should have won, because I think that she was fair, ethical, a good task performer and creative, but in terms of individual strengths, Claire is definitely up there.

Series 5:
This is the first of two occasions when my strongest task performer, my choice of winner and the actual winner are all the same person - yes, it's Yasmina Siadatan. Very clever, very shrewd, aside from one bad week in Task 4 was consistently firing on all cylinders, and was the first person to achieve a 3-0 PM record - something that has never yet been beaten, and only once been equalled. The best winner of any adult series, in my opinion.

Junior Apprentice Series 1:
This is the second and so far last of the occurrence that I mentioned above - it is of course Arjun Rajyagor. It was a toss-up between him and Zoe, but overall I think that Arjun deserved it. He was one of those rare breeds that is a very good numbers person, but can also be exceptionally creative when he needs to be. He is also the most supported winner, I think - usually there is at least some debate about who should have won, but I think I have only ever spoken to one person who did not agree that Arjun was the right winner. Very strong all-rounder, didn't have any real weaknesses.

Series 6:
Well, it would have to be Melissa Coh... no! Just joking I think that most people would say Stella, but I think that she was overrated. She was only on the losing team three times, but each of those times she did something pretty weak. In Task 4, she messed up the pricing and I think that she should have been in the boardroom over either Stuart or Melissa, because after her sales were voided, she actually sold nothing at all. In Task 9, Laura got the blame for paying too much for the truffles, but that restaurant would never have taken anything less than what they paid, and Stella was the one who wanted to go there in the first place. In Task 10, I thought that her 'Knees Up Mother Brown' tour was really cringeworthy, especially when compared to Jamie's. It's a difficult series to pick one for, because anyone who was at all decent (and I admit Stella was one) also had big flaws - except, it seems for Joanna Riley, who gets my vote, because aside from one disastrous week in Task 2, she was generally extremely consistent. I still think that Laura should have won though, not so much on task performance, but because she showed enough basic knowledge to potentially be successful in the future, and she was one of the few people who actually would have suited the job being offered.

Series 7:
Without a doubt, Helen Milligan. In fact, I think that she was the strongest task performer not just in this series, but in all of the series. Super-efficient, kept her head down and did the work, was good at pitching, was good at managing people, was good at remaining calm - it's rare for someone that good to be on the show. I can understand why she didn't win, but I think that she should have - I think that what clinched it for me was that Lord Sugar actually changed Tom's business plan after picking him, which makes me think that he should have gone with Helen. She was criticised for changing her business plan at the last minute, but that is exactly what Lord Sugar did with Tom. A couple of series later, Neil was actively encouraged to change his business plan, but he was too blinkered to see what he had to do. I think that Susan Ma very much deserves a mention though. I think it's unfortunate for her that she was in the same series as Helen, who will always be the one remembered for being great on the tasks. If Susan Ma had been in any other series (bar probably Series 2 because of Ruth Badger) she would definitely hold my title of strongest task performer.

Young Apprentice Series 2:
I feel like the world's biggest traitor here because everyone knows that I have a particular fondness for Zara, but she had some very weak tasks, so if I chose her, it would be entirely down to my personal bias in her favour. Objectively, the best task performer was Harry Hitchens. He was very consistent, didn't make many mistakes, was calm and rational and I think deserved to get to the final over James. I still think that Zara was the right person to win though, because she had other things going for her over task performance - a huge amount of passion and determination, a strong business plan, and above all an incredible level of maturity and an ability to remain calm under pressure. In fairness, Harry was quite good at keeping calm under pressure as well, but not as good as Zara - she did not lose her cool even once, whereas Harry got stressed out a couple of times.

Series 8:
This was a very similar decision to Series 1 as there were two extremely viable candidates, but I'm going to pick NIck Holzherr over Jade for the same reason as my Series 1 decision - they were very close, but Jade had one weak task on the first occasion that she Project Managed, whereas Nick didn't really have any tasks like that. I think that Nick should have won, not due to his task performance, but because I thought his business plan was incredible and I didn't understand the criticism that it got.

Young Apprentice Series 3:
This was undoubtedly the most difficult series to choose anyone for, because everyone who excelled at anything also had big flaws. Here is my thinking on it:

-I don't agree with Jack about Ashleigh, as I thought that she was very bright, charming, practical and had a lot of common sense - however, she had a huge gap in her skills with creativity, which was especially apparent in Task 5.
-Lucy came across as a fantastic team player, a good manager of people and a really nice girl with a strong work ethic. However, I didn't think that she really excelled at anything in particular. She didn't have the practicality of Ashleigh, the creativity of Patrick or the sales skills of Andrew and Steven, and that rules her out for me.
-Maria did a few good things, but she also did some awful things - The Professional Woman was appalling, and I didn't think much of her deliberately tacky 'Strexy', which I think they were very lucky to win. She's not strong enough for me to name as the strongest performer.
-I really liked Patrick, but I think that he had arguably the most unfair edit in the whole history of the programme. Anything good that he did was glossed over, whilst anything bad that he did was really played up. I rated him higher than most other people did and I actually had a tenner on him to win, but with such a negative edit, I don't feel that I can judge his good qualities well enough for him to be my choice.
-Andrew had probably the strongest start out of everyone, but from Week 3 he came crashing down. To his credit, he was a good salesman, but that was pretty much all he was good at. I see him a bit like a young Adam Corbally.

Which means that the only person I can justifiably choose is Steven Cole - unless I chose someone who didn't get to the Task 7, but I think the final six were too strong as a group for that to be fair. It's not a very satisfying conclusion though, as while he was consistently strong he wasn't a real stunner on the tasks - but he's also the only strong candidate who didn't have a huge weakness. In this case, I felt that I had to pick the all-rounder. Overall, I was happy for Ashleigh to win.

Series 9:
It has to be Jordan Poulton. Good team player, good manager, didn't really do anything bad on the tasks (apart from the vase, I suppose, but that was just a risk that didn't pay off - we've seen people do things like that and it work out fine.) It's an interesting one, because if I was ranking the candidates in this series generally, I would cite him as one of the worst, but just on task performance I can't fault him. I think that Luisa should have won over Leah, as I think her business plan was better, and she was a little stronger on the tasks.

What does everyone else think?

Totally agree with you on Stella, it seems like her performance in task 2 (where she whipped the boys into shape) has blindsided everyone (this was even in the week of the bookstand, and the falling out between Joanna and Laura if I recall correctly).

But it was obvious she had won it, after them showing the post-boardroom fall out in task 9.

As for Laura, well let's just say that I am surprised she even made it that far (nobody would have been surprised had she been fired early on).



I would actually put the following all ahead of Jade:

-Tom
- Nick
- Adam (yes, him)
- Katie
- Gabrielle
- Ricky
- Duane


It was nowhere near as bad as series 4, were you could argue that none of the finalists belonged there, but this was a series that suffered because some of the better candidates were fired too early (what would have happened for instance if Ricky was fired instead of Duane in the gym task?).

I didn't even think Stella did an amazing job as PM on that task. She didn't seem to be able to stick to decisions. She said firmly that she wasn't going to be a model, but then they persuaded her to change her mind. Also, she made the decision (quite rightly, in my opinion) that Jamie would pitch, not Chris. We didn't see what happened after that, but when the pitches happened, Chris was pitching, so she must have changed her mind about that as well. God knows why!



I know that you really did not rate Jade, but I have never understood why. I thought she was a really exemplary performer. Her first time as Project Manager was awful, but I think everyone is allowed one weak task - most of the strong performers have slipped up at one time or another. Apart from on that task, what else did Jade do that was so bad?

Stella is someone who I genuinely think had her reputation on the show ruined by events that happened afterwards. I maintain that on the show, she was still exceptional and I still can't think of anyone on that series who remotely deserved it as much as her. Stella was a very strong leader, imo, though, so maybe that's why I rate her.
In terms of Week 2, I think she led the team very well actually and her only real mistake was allowing Chris to pitch, imo. Had Jamie pitched, I reckon Synergy would have won by a much bigger margin as Chris didn't really convey (what I thought was) a really good product well.

My opinion of Laura is well-documented by now! Still don't think she did anything remotely to deserve the win, but I haven't seen the series in a while I confess.


Sherlock, I know we have always disagreed majorly on Jade BUT I really do think its a bit harsh claiming everyone was blindsided by Stella and then criticising Jade when I would argue most people were blindsided by Week 7. I actually think Jade was exceptional in the weeks after that PM loss and she certainly deserved a place in the final.

As for who you rate as better than her?

- Tom - fair enough, I didn't really take to him but there was no denying his competency.
- Nick - again, can't disagree, did really well overall, should have come at least Top 2 imo.
- Adam - No Way. Adam was a one-trick pony, he was a salesman (a very good one but still just a salesman) and that was it. Jade, on the other hand, proved that she could sell on several tasks (Weeks 3, 4, 6, 8), was extremely creative, had a win as PM and was excellent on virtually every week after Week 7, including a win where she pretty much single-handedly won a task (Week 10). Adam never won a task by himself.
- Katie - She was strong early on but its difficult to argue this because Katie did have a load of negatives as well. Difficult to compare though, because Katie wasn't on the show for long.
- Gabrielle - I'd put her and Jade about even, actually. Maybe even Jade a touch ahead as her business acumen was clearly better than Gabrielle's. Gabrielle was just as creative and could sell well, but whilst Jade picked up momentum as the weeks went on, Gabrielle got more and more exhausted until she could fight no more. Compare Gabrielle's input in Week 10 to Jade's in Week 10 and 11.
- Ricky - Again fair enough, though a comparison isn't easy for two candidates never on the same team.
- Duane - Certainly not overall, even with Duane's strong start. Like Katie, not easy to compare with Jade at all due to his relatively short time in the competition.

I do think that perhaps your opinion of Jade isn't all that fair.

Would you say that Stella was the strongest task performer then? I gave a few other occasions when I wasn't happy with her performance (I didn't like Stella personally, but I've tried not to let that influence my judgement.) I would say that Joanna was the strongest task performer.

Well as I said, my reason for thinking Laura should have won is less on task performance and more that she was the only person who got as far as she did who was actually suited to the job (apart from Stuart, but come on!) Stella, Chris and Liz were all overqualified to be an apprentice, and Jamie and Joanna had other projects to work on. Although I appreciate that this says a lot about the candidate selection in this series.

What do you think of my other choices?


She was pretty exceptional in the weeks before the PM loss as well in my opinion, although of course she didn't stand out much then, because when there are more candidates you don't see so much of the people who are doing well.