My friend asked me this question this morning, and I thought it was pretty interesting, so I'm putting it on the forum. Have there been any candidates who you haven't rated on performance, but really liked generally?

After thinking about it, my favourite bad candidate would have to be Jaz. She messed up the first task, but I thought she seemed like a really cool person, a lot of fun to have around. I've always said that if I could pick someone from Series 9 not as my business partner but as my friend, Jaz would almost certainly be the only person I would consider. I think she'd be a right laugh to go for a drink with or to invite over to your house. Another thing I liked about her was that although she said things that were as arrogant as the other candidates, she didn't sound like she really meant them - it seemed a lot more tongue-in-cheek. I also thought her education-based business plan sounded great, and probably a lot more thought-out than Jim's.

Another person worth a mention, who I didn't exactly like but I felt a lot of empathy for, was Melissa. This might sound odd, but hopefully I can explain it. I don't deny any of the criticisms that are thrown at her, but I felt like I could see why she behaved in the way she did. I got the impression that she herself was really, really insecure - didn't have any confidence at all in her own abilities, and to stop anyone else from realising this had built up a wall of supreme arrogance so as to come across like she knew what she was talking about. She focussed so much on this persona that she wanted to portray to give the impression of confidence that she forgot to actually show her talent, which was a shame because she had something to her - she had been very successful in her day job and she came up with some good points in the earlier episodes (for example, in the sausage task, she was the one who pointed out that the girls weren't listening to the advice of the experts regarding gourmet sausages, and I actually think that contributed a lot to the win), so she clearly wasn't a complete idiot. I can actually really identify with that, because I was in a similar place at the time - I had just started my A-levels, and I really wanted to prove to everyone that I was as good as I wanted to be, and for a while I focussed more on that than on actually getting on with my work and ironically being as good as I was trying to prove to everyone. I saw some of the worst aspects of myself in Melissa, and I think that if she'd done The Apprentice at a different time in her life, she could possibly have gone a lot further.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

Jo, Melissa, Jaz, Uzma to name a few

I think Jason is my favourite person who wasn't able to do anything; he was funny and had a lot of character. It was clear everyone liked him but he was pretty clueless in most tasks. I also thought James from Series 5 was a very likeable character but he did manage to get to end without doing much and his interviews were hilarious.

Uzma (would make a fantastic BB housemate, but a terrible Apprentice applicant)
Geri (ex-MI5 worker from Series 3. Clearly cast to be the next Ruth Badger but never quite got it together)

Who was that ex-Army nobber who tried to cook sausages in a can over a candle, or similar, as "I've done this on exercise!".

Then there was someone who bought a load of mild cheddar catering cheese, on a task where they were selling premium British goods to the French. It might've been the same bloke.

That was indeed the same bloke - Paul Callaghan in Series 3. I actually did think he was a rather good candidate, because on every other task he performed very strongly (having said that, he performed so poorly on that task that he had to go). I didn't think he seemed like he had a lot of common sense though, not least because he had a fling with Katie Hopkins!

I think this says it all.

Most people in the UK don't enjoy mild catering cheese, with its anonymous taste and plastic texture. Why did he think a bunch of cheese snobs like the French would buy it?

He took a gamble on cheddar, because whilst cheese is the French thing, cheddar is very English. It was a huge gamble that was never going to pay off, and then he made it even less likely to work by buying really poor quality cheese and not paying enough attention to the sausages, that they were also selling. I think he could possibly still have saved it if he'd said, 'Right, forget the cheese, let's push the sausages' - but he abandoned most of his team, whilst he took Katie (the only other French speaker besides him) around to sell to shops, and he'd even change prices without telling people. One of the most awful Project Managers of all time, in my opinion. Up there with Lindsay Bogaard and Rory Laing.

Wasn't there a fiesty Irish girl on the same task, who negotiated with a local cafe to let her cook her sausages on their griddle, then she took the hot sausages out to sell?

Sophie from series 9 because she was so useless she made for entertainment.
Bilyana from series 8 because of how she shot herself in the foot in the last few minutes in the boardroom.

Wee Mohammed from the Young Apprentice was superb.

Yes, that was Kristina.

Sophie Kain from Series 3 seemed like a very pleasant person despite never being especially impressive, as did Alexa actually.

Why was Gerri cast as the next Ruth Badger? Apart from the fact that like Ruth she was quite a big woman, I didn't see anything similar about them at all. The odd thing is that it was made very clear that Gerri was very enthusiastic about fast cars, which is unusual for someone who went out so early. Normally we don't find out very much about the early casualties.

Simon from Series 4. Definitely one of the nicest guy in a series with more than its fair share of arseholes, but unfortunately Sugar was absolutely right; he only showed any real proficiency when it came to physical tasks, and his turn as project manager was a complete mess.

Perhaps they were trying to be ironic in revealing that one?

Not sure about early Apprentice but certainly Jason Leech from last year - a bit bumbling maybe but seemed like a genuinely nice guy but he certainly lacked the business nouse to be a good candidate. Though it pains me to say it Lord Sugar was right to fire him as he showed inexcusable weakness not just in abdicating but in some of his dealings in earlier tasks. Though I do feel it should have been a double firing with Louisa going as well.

I actually thought Luisa was great, but I know she's one of the most controversial candidates ever, with some people loving her and some hating her. Personally I loved her.

I think she got an awful lot of bad press and not entirely unjustified either but that is neither here nor there. I'll admit that I did not like her so much after her little Jason incident. By that point she went out of line. Ok Jason was foolish to let her walk over him like that but that's a separate issue.

Didn't Simon also say in an interview he had the hots for Katie. I mean WTF?? Apart from the horse face there is the dreadful personality. She must have some Sharon Stone-Basic Instinct aura going on or something.

I have no idea, I didn't know that.

Jaz, Jason

I actually thought Simon was alright. He was very practical, one of only people talking any sense on men's restaurant task, and seemed to do most of the sales for the photograph task. I really didn't think that the loss was his fault, I thought Claire and Alex were insubordinate and disliked Simon so they actually were keen for the task to fail so he'd be in firing line.

Got to be Baggs.

Jo (series 2), because she was a trainwreck.

Majid (series 5) He kind of sunk into the background but I think that's because he was a laid-back guy with a chilled sense of humour, maybe never taking the process too seriously.

Gavin (series 7), not really a rubbish candidate, I thought he was very likeable but then completely flopped on the 3rd task and I think was fired before his time.

Natasha (series 7) I remember rooting for her because I think she tried hard and she felt like a proper underdog because everyone seemed to think she was rubbish.

Bilyana (series 8) she was very entertaining on the first task and made me laugh when she kept interrupting Sugar in the boardroom.

I've had experience with laundry....in Bosnia

As for my favourite, Dan Harris.

"I give the orders, you do the work"
"Who's doing the mincing?"

Bilyana wuz robbed of her place, which was the first in a series of firings which made it a rather boring series in the second half!

yep Claire and Alex set Simon up to fail - he was lovely too Claire was so close to going home and its a shame she didn't , Simon would never have won it but the way they got him fired was a disgrace