If you're good at pitching you don't flop like Mark did with Tesco, frankly I'd have fired him for that. That would be like a TV presenter just not being able to do their job one day and standing like an idiot on camera.

If you want to big yourself up then you better be damn good at it.

Based on what? On that occasion, which was only one scenario, his pitch was fine. In fact, he and Gary saved Scott from total embarrassment. Both were way better than Charlene, and there were others on her team who would have been better suited to the task too. Vana was right to raise concerns, but Charlene wouldn't listen.

Perhaps, but a thank you speech after being crowned Miss Universe would be quite different to delivering a pitch in this type of field. From what I've seen of her communication skills thus far I think she'd deliver a good pitch, but it remains to be seen.

I think Richard is all right, sometimes he's too pompous but when he states his opinion about something, most of the times I agree with him. I dislike Charlene and Vana more.

From what we've seen of Richard so far, I'd say his pitching is fine. As for April, who knows? She certainly has the poise that comes with being a pageant winner but there's a huge difference between being able to speak presentably in public and being a good pitcher. A good pitch is a combination of good delivery and getting your content and message right. A lot of candidates seem to think it's all about style over substance - they couldn't be more wrong.

It's interesting that Richard is being compared to Mark as I really liked Mark last year and wanted him to win, while I don't like Richard.

I think the difference could be that Richard comes across as pompous and not a team player. He also has shown less ability than Mark did while having the same level of self belief, which makes him more similar to Daniel out of last year's candidates.

Interesting you say that, as I think Richard is more of a team player than Mark was. I mean there's no doubting Mark carried a lot of his teams but he was also forever looking for ways to stab his teammates in the back had they ended up losing the task.

Mark Wright was a team player

Are you not confusing him with the Strictly one

Think that Richard is far more direct then Mark, who was basically doing it Katie Hopkins style (slamming team members left and right in the bits to the camera).

I wasn't saying that Mark (from Oz not Essex) was a brilliant team player, but he seemed to gel between with the other candidates than Richard has. Apart from Daniel none of the other candidates seemed to actively dislike Mark while both David and Charleine (and others) clearly don't like working with Richard this year.

I didn't compare Rochard to Mark. I just pointed out that even a good pitcher like him can fail. So Richard's performance in one pitch does not mean he is always like that.

You don't fire an outstanding candidate over one failure like that. Be realistic please.

Very smug character but one who has performed consistently well. Richard will come close but don't see Lord Sugar going for him

Richard is a good candidate. That I can't deny. He's articulate, he's shown himself to be good at creating a vision and following it through into an end result. He managed a team well - he got them all to do what he wanted. And, whatever anybody might say, he pitched well from what we saw.

I can't bring myself to like him though. Nothing to do with his credibility as a candidate and everything to do with him bearing a close physical resemblance to a former manager of mine who shared many attributes - most notably, "delegating" tasks to others with such strict guidelines that they could only possibly do exactly what he wanted.

I think that pretty much sums up my view of Richard. Is he capable? Yes. Does he manage teams well? Yes. Is he likeable? Not overly. Could I work with him? Yes, actually much more so than I could with Charleine or Selina or most of the other candidates.

It does appear that, as with Mark last year, some viewers are downgrading Richard's chances on the basis that they don't like him. But Sugar won't care about that one jot. Can he get the job done in tasks, and does he have a good business plan? That's all that matters.

As I've said elsewhere, I don't believe that Richard can win if his business plan is in his area of expertise, digital marketing - solely because that would put his business a little too close to Mark, and I suspect Sugar will want his new investment to be different from his previous ones if possible - a diverse portfolio.

Richard's likeability problem might be a factor in the interview rounds, where four strangers will each have half an hour or so to like or dislike Richard. It is hard for us to predict how that will turn out because it is not really obvious what is the problem -- which might of course be external to Richard himself if it is really due to others forming a clique, though the fact that Karren was moved to comment does not augur well.

It might be a factor at interviews - and could certainly become important if the candidates are close and Sugar has to choose between two viable candidates, one of whom he likes and one of whom he doesn't. But, of course, it's the business plan that is most important.

Sugar doesn't have to like his new partner (although, of course, it helps). It's not even as if he will have to deal with him on a day-to-day basis, really. I imagine that, once the business is up and running, Sugar probably doesn't meet with the winners more than a handful of times a year.

Smug and arrogant, I can't stand him.

I love it when someone praises him and he starts to blush like a 5 year old.

I almost can't believe I am saying this but Richard is actually growing on me! Most of this is down to how Charleine treated him last week mind, I was a fan of hers up till then but she was just so unprofessional and came across as a total bully to be honest. He got his hands dirty tonight and listened rather than try to make everything about him, hopefully he's learned a lesson!

Me too! I think he'll go very far in the process

he is really growing on me
and he is the fittest one, being very superficial

I think he gets a lot of bad editing but he is willing to pick up where others fade in the background

I was v impressed with him getting stuck into the physical work, I'm always shocked at people who just dont do manual labour for no good reason. Brett had a good work ethic too-I'd hire him to build a patio and I'd end up with a new garage

Agreed. Richard mucked in with little apparent hesitation. Sam and Selina were more reticent, but both got on with a pretty crappy job anyway. From what we saw with Vana and her garden shears, though, I think we were supposed to get the impression that she isn't so much one for manual labour. (Whether that's a fair representation or not is anyone's guess.)

Nobody, but nobody, comes anywhere near Katie Hopkins in the unlikeable category.

I think Richard's ok and that he'll probably win.

I don't think Mark was stabbing his team mates in the back by pointing out their faults - a lot of the time, the faults he was pointing out were glaringly obvious and were right to be pointed out (Robert and Scott in Week 2 comes to mind).

Richard clearly wasn't too liked by his fellow contestants to begin with (something that didn't appear to bother him at all) although he has a tendency to win people over when they actually work around him. Having said that, I think he definitely has the potential to bring up flaws and throw a competitor under the bus should he be in the boardroom.

Richard was a good laugh last night, to be honest not sure if that was with him or at him (I mean, his own project manager left him behind ). But he's fast becoming one of my more liked candidates of this season, in fact I dare say that of the remaining candidates this season, Richard is in my Top 5.