Last week though, Lord Sugar was apparently more concerned about Mark and Lauren not having done it than Bianca. Of course, this may have just been because they were on the losing team and Bianca wasn't, but the fact remains that if you have warned two people very severely that they have to step up soon, that message is going to strike them harder than someone else who wasn't warned in the same way, and for that reason it strikes me as odd that they weren't appointed, or at least placed on different teams.

I think Bianca only escaped the same warning because, as you say, she was on the winning team.

My guess is Sugar wasn't too fussed about forcing them both to be PM, but was interested to see who came out on top in the battle to lead between the two of them, with the winner moving ahead on points in the early rounds. A case of "who wants it more" being a factor (not the only one, but a factor nonetheless).

It had nothing to do with who wanted it more. I didn't consider that Lauren could have put herself forward any more forcefully. The fact was that the team chose Mark. If they'd chosen Lauren, he would have been in the same position she was, but there was nothing further she could have done to make them choose her.

I don't understand why Lord Sugar was being so critical of people who hadn't done it yet when there was no one who had done it more than once. If someone had backed out on purpose when they were the only person left on their team who hadn't done it and someone else had to take it up, I'd understand the criticism. As it was, someone was inevitably going to be in the position that Lauren, Mark and Bianca were in last week - it just happened to be those three. Besides, six out of twelve winners have been either last or joint last to be Project Manager.

I wasn't judging whether Mark wanted it more than Lauren - more that this is how Sugar might have perceived it back in the boardroom.

You're right that no one had PM'd more than once, but I think Sugar's comment was based on his impression that both of them had run away from the opportunity on more than one occasion. Even though the avoidance of the PM role, particularly in the early weeks, has proven to be a successful formula on several occasions.

Well, Lord Sugar gets his perspective from Nick and Karren, and if that's the impression that Lord Sugar got Nick should have been clearer with what happened.

Edits can be wonderfully misleading!

Yes, of course they can. Were you thinking about anything in particular?