which are your 3 favourites of all time?

I'd say... Lucinda, Gabrielle and Katie Hopkins (no I am not joking)

Lucinda (series 4)
Ruth (series 2)
Saira (series 1)

My other faves were Jadine (series 3), Yasmina (series 5), Susan (series 7) and Gabrielle (series 8) so I guess I tend to like the fiercely stubborn but talented females.
I've liked a few males but the only one I think I'd class as one of my proper faves is Ansell (series 2).

There are many to choose from, but I think I would have to say:

Zara (YA2)
Miriam (Series 1)
Gabrielle (Series 8)

1. Yasmina Siadatan
2. Kristina Grimes
3. Sara Dhada

Not an English candidate in sight

Michelle and Liz would probably be the first (fully) English choices on my list.

How far back do you have to go for someone to be classified as English? Yasmina has Iranian blood, but she grew up in England. No one is fully English if you go back far enough.

You are aware its not just English people who watch the Apprentice? It is in fact aired to the whole of the UK. And, it's not just English people posting on here.

Probably:

1. Joanna Yates
2. Yasmina Siadatn
3. Leah Totton

Saira
Paul
Tim

All series 1 - and I'd add James too if allowed a 4th and Miriam if a 5th.

Joanna's surname was Riley. Joanna Yeates was a murder victim in Bristol a couple of years ago (I think it was actually at the time that series was being broadcast, so that may have been where you got confused).

Oh dear, what a mix-up to make!

*Favourite* is such a broad term. In no particular order, and all for different reasons ...

Saira Khan - occasionally annoying, but a good businesswoman with an admirable amount of drive and determination.

Stuart Baggs - vastly overrated view of his own abilities, but he made for great TV.

Philip Taylor - for Pants Man alone! One of the few contestants who had absolutely no redeeming qualities. A proper pantomime villain who we could all hate.

No doubt my three would change if I had to pick again tomorrow, though ...

Lucinda (S4), Miriam (S1), and my third is between Ruth (S2), Stella (S6), and Katie Hopkins (S3) for sheer watchability. I think Ruth would probably edge it for competence and her no-nonsense attitude though.

Special shoutout to Jo (S2) for being great to watch too - although probably a nightmare to work with!

I like Jo too! So funny! And her exits is probably one of the most entertaining, just because is so shocking how she aks twice for another chance, but its also quite sad

Andy in Series 3 did that as well. On You're Fired, Adrian Chiles wondered what would have happened if she'd just refused to go, and suggested that maybe Nick and Margaret would have got up and dragged her off!

My top three were:

1. Lucinda Ledgerwood
2. Yasmina Siadatan
3. Susan Ma

Other narrow misses were Saira Khan and Miriam Staley (S1), Kristina Grimes and Jadine Johnson (S3), James McQuillan (S5), Stella English (S6), Nick Holzherr (S8) and Jordan Poulton (S9)

In hindsight, I'd probably switch Lucinda and Susan around and maybe have Saira just sneak in the Top 3. I loved all four though, particularly Susan. Genuinely one of the most business savvy and entrepreneurial candidates ever to appear on the show, imo.

I think it was a bit unfortunate for Susan that she happened to be on the same series as Helen. Helen is the one who will always be remembered for being the best task-performer, with her incredible record and everything. Which is a shame, because Susan is one of the best task performers across all the series (I'd say possibly third after Helen and Ruth).

I'm surprised that so many people rate Stella so highly - I thought she was far overrated, and didn't come across as an especially easy person to warm to either, but that's just personal opinion.

I do wish people would stop going on about Helen's wonderful record..... she was in the main just lucky to have been on the winning team each week... the edit didn't show her doing that much in the tasks except for when she was PM, so her record is down to sheer good luck - just as Tom had bad luck to be on the losing side each week.

Whilst Helen kept a reasonably low profile in the tasks (or at least was edited as such) and her huge sale was as more down to the great product than her dull pitch. Tom was shown to take an active part in all the tasks, and only went into the boardroom when it was unavoidable (either as PM or last 3)

Back to the original question.....

1. Ruth Badger
2. Yasmina Siadatan
3. Paul Torrisi

Which people? Only one person in this thread (george.millman) has even mentioned her. And I had no idea who she was or what she looked like until I looked her up - even though I watched every episode (plus You're Fired) for the series that she was in.

She was probably one of the least memorable contestants - as every post in this thread apart from George's (and yours) confirms.

I know what the poster above means as I think people do talk about Helen's record, but I don't think it was undeserved. I was keeping a conscious eye on Helen right from the start because I found her very intriguing in the early weeks. The edit didn't show her much, but whenever we did see her she was cracking on with the job and generally coming across as very professional, and I looked out for her because I thought she was one to watch - and I was right, because she went on to prove she was one of the strongest task performers in the history of the show, if not the strongest. Lord Sugar said that she would certainly have won had the prize still been a job, and I think that she would have won had she gone with her bakery business to start with, because whilst Tom was very good and unlucky to be on the losing team so much, he was a bit of an unknown quantity and his business plan wasn't great - in fact, his business plan was changed to one about a nail-file after the win was announced.

I think we all know that just because someone doesn't show up in the edit, doesn't mean that they don't deserve credit. The editors pick and choose what they like based on entertainment, which means that some of the most calm, professional and competent candidates get a bit lost, and then they get lambasted for sitting back and not doing anything.

I personally don't think Helen would have won had she gone with her bakery business. The thing is that the Final business plans turned out to be pretty irrelevant (Seeing as Tom's ultimate business venture had nothing to do with his chair). I think that only Tom and Susan had a realistic chance of winning going into the final as they were genuine entrepreneurs, who had a proven record of success in business. Helen was great on tasks, but it was a huge risk to go into business with her when she was comparatively so inexperienced compared to Tom.

In fact, had the series followed the same pattern as the one in Series 9 had, I fancy Helen wouldn't have made the Final 2 at all. I think Susan was closer to winning the series overall, due to the fact that Lord Sugar did indeed go into business with her and because she already had an existing business to go into. If interviews had been Task 11, I think Helen would have had a "with regret" firing for a poor business plan and Lord Sugar would have made his mind up in the final task. With no disrespect intended to Helen (Because she was very good in the tasks), I often think her Final 2 positioning was more due to the fact that it was acknowledging her amazing task record and (if I'm being brutally honest) arguably to make it more dramatic with her against Tom.

But that's just my opinion based on the fact that Susan and Lord Sugar are currently in business together.

I think Series 7 was bound to be finding its feet a bit, as it was the first series with a new format. Lord Sugar clearly hadn't examined their business plans at all before the series started, which led to a final with two people with dreadful business plans, one person with a not very good one but a lot of entrepreneurial experience and one person with a very good plan but too inexperienced to run with it at that stage. I think it makes the final of that year's Young Apprentice even more notable, as even without the examination of figures, Zara's business plan was clearly considerably stronger than at least two of the ones on that year's adult show.

Since then, I think business plans have been looked at from the start, at least the early stages of them. In Series 8, Lord Sugar said in the introduction that he has already looked through them all and eliminated the ones he has no interest in, and in Series 9 they talked about them openly right the way through the series (though they obviously aren't examined in any detail - Jade, Jordan and Neil are proof of that.)

Sorry Chasing Shadows - but Helen's "amazing" record crops up in this forum again and again, and I'm not alone in thinking it's not entirely warranted.

IMHO she was a classic fly under the radar candidate..... In all the early tasks she was invisible (the only time I actually noticed her before she project managed the first time was when she was "backing up" Zoe as she was ripping into Susan). As I said before she was lucky to be on the winning team each week, just as much as Tom was unlucky to be on the losing side. However, neither of them were in the boardroom unless they were project manager/ in the last 3 standing.

Neither of them was "amazing" they were both solid candidates, but Tom was clearly considered by the losing PMs as someone who was not responsible for the loss whilst Helen's abilities were never really explored or tested before the latter stages

As someone else said, had LS actually seen the Business Plans before that series started, Helen would have been quietly eased out well before the final as her proposal was complete and utter rubbish. I think he learnt his lesson in subsequent series as he has made it clear that he is aware of what they are offering, and has brought up the business plans int the final boardrooms in the last couple.

Actually, Zoe brought Tom into the boardroom in Week 9, when there four people on the team, so he was actually brought in once.

As for Helen, the first time I watched the series, I must confess that in the Week 4 Beauty task, I thought she was an assistant provided by the spray tan company.
I think she was a better candidate than you're making out; she didn't deserve to have the best record ever on the show, but she was very good in the second half of the series, bar Week 10 and an excellent PM.

As I said, if you actively concentrate on how well someone is doing, you get a very different picture of them than if you just look at what shows up prominently in the edit. Helen was my favourite to win that series way before Week 6.