I think the thing with Helene is she's pretty honest. Whilst Shazia should never have been fired last week, she did go home when she was the only one who knew the system. Whether she knew Jenny had allowed Shazia to go home or not is another question.

This week, and last (when Lucinda stated all the blame should lie at Jenny's feet), Helene has stated they should all take some responsibility for their groups failings. With respect to Helene, so far, she seems to defend people who are being attacked when people are trying to place all the blame on them.

Totally agree. Helene seems to speak the truth rather than be out to get anyone. And it looks like Sir Alan has spotted this dependability too. You can always tell who he likes because he asks for their opinion and he did this with Helene last week. I've actually got her pipped for the final. Maybe even the winner. She's like a female Simon.

As for Claire.... I think she's ambitious and very strategic. Not necessarily a bad thing in The Apprentice just as long as she avoids being sly or destructive. My jury's out. She's not the winner, but she's certainly not going to be rubbish either.

Thanks for making that clear. I only made that assumption based on the information given in the show. It just seemed to me that it is better to stick to what you know and go for a menu which you actually know how to cook.

Of the clip from the show, I have to agree with Clare that Sara was like a headless chicken in this task. There was no direction to the planning other then 'we are doing a bollywood night', something they didn't even know how to cook let alone plan. Sara (not intentionally) mislead them in to believing her Asian heritage made her an expert in Indian Cuisine, the alarm bells would be ringing in my head when she went to consult an Indian Restaurant down the road.

A bit like the boys, they were trying to sell food before they had even cost it up or planned a menu. From experience, that is not how you run a restaurant, which both teams found out to their cost.

As for the comment by Clare about them winning only because the boys were incompetent. Truth hurts, but they did do poorly in regards to the takings they made, over the spending the boys dished out. £200 odd profit I think it was, whereas the boys if they had spent the same amount as the girls; would have had more then double that amount.

Great minds ...................

I was about to post that it dawned upon during a trailer for The Apprentice last night that she looks like a chubby Cheryl Cole.

Claire totally lost credibility when she was in the boardroom being insincere about her support of Sara.

That spells out somebody who is ruthless enough to set themselves apart and be disagreeable for the duration of the task.....but then act like they have totally changed their tune and became supportive (in the boardroom)

Sara made massive mistakes on the day.....but whereas the others pitched in to help her out of the mess, Claire was positively undermining her at every step of the way......and then made out to SA that she was honest enough to state her case, but big enough to put it behind her and become a team player.

Total untruths all round from Claire in the boardroom.

Her dishonesty and her non-team playing skills, renders her as a non-winner IMO.

So your saying a PM who is clearly not able to handle the job, should be backed up to the hilt by their underlings? Claire was trying to help, by pointing out that they didn't have time to talk the problems to death (perhaps trying to avoid the Jenny/Lucinda issues of wk 2). She even offered solutions to the discussion, but Sara wasn't listening to that as she had her mind focused in one direction only. (Flip chart in the pub, before they went off to the Indian restaurant to learn Indian cuisine)

As for the boardroom, she didn't outright say Sara was a brilliant PM. She stated there were problems at the start, but she worked through them. I don't see how that can be considered a stab in the back. Its like you would rather she said nothing like all the other girls (silence like thunder, as Simon said about the boys answers to the same question ), then to speak up and give her at least some credit.

If we took just the instance of that one question, to decide if they stayed - Were they a good PM?

The silences of both teams would have doomed the PM from the start. It certainly was a contributing factor in Ian's demise from the show, with no one willing to back him up.

Yes, and she said that curry is a 'niche market' - what a ridiculous statement to make!

Cannot stand Claire, she's a trouble maker, two-faced, undermining and scheming.

The 'curry' idea was even more rubbish. Nobody knew how to make it.
At least if they'd had British food they might have managed to open at lunchtime.

don't like her at all. and that awful voice of hers where she stretches her words is soooo annnoyying

she's not a team player and isn't flexible in her opinions at all. i hope she has a spectacular fall from grace.

don't like Jen with the red hair either but it was good to see her let her hair down by dancing in the pub - was a bit embarrassed forher but hey she was trying to get everyone to have a good time no matter what.

Claire lost all credibility when lunch got cancelled, she said to the camera:

"hate to say I told you so but told you so. I knew Bollywood wasn't going to work" or something, with a smug grin.

I would have more respect if she had said something like

"OK, I didn't like this idea but I am in a team and we want to win. Lunch may be cancelled but I am going to help the team put more effort in to dinner"

Yes, Sara did make mistakes but did you see any other team member roll their eyes and say Bollywood theme was a mistake? no they didn't. They got on with it and tried to save the task.

It all came down to the fact that Claire didn't like the fact her English theme wasn't chosen, so was looking for any way to put Sara down, so that if it came to the boardroom and the girls had lost, Claire coild just say "well I did say not to use that idea Sir Alan", when really, her idea was rubbish because they needed something which would attract punters and stand out. Just how was the English theme different to any other pub?

Her sucking up to Sara in the board room was of fear that if the girls had lost, Sara would choose her as one of the the three to bring back in

Oh dear this is laughable, if we took your view of things Claire would be a liar and deceitful; for not stating her mind in a truthful manner. She can't win either way, guess I should leave her to the lions that are circling.

She made it clear right from the start her opinion of the Bollywood night, if that wasn't accepted then to critisise her for speaking her mind after the shit has hit the fan (while she was there as part of the same team) is just as disruptive. How disruptive would it be to be constantly looking over your shoulder, waiting for that hidden disruptive influence to mess up your co-workers and the task involved? With Claire, you have it out in the open. You can then get someone (you trust) to watch her; while you concentrate on managing the team. Simple common sense, that is all it is; yet some people don't seem to have this concept.

This is based on the small snippets WE as the audience see, I would rather have 10 Claire's on my team as I would know where I stand and what I can do about getting them to do what I needed. The Jenny's and Helene's of this world I would ship off, so that I wouldn't be stabbed in the back when I wasn't looking.

OK First of all, please don't call my opinion laughable just because I have dared criticise st Claire

She is not the saint you make her out to be. FACT- She is two faced. FACT-She is not a team player and Yes, she did state she didn't like bollywood theme but then why sulk about it when the task was underway and look for every little thing to blame Sara with and then be smug when things were going badly. Thats not what I call a good team player. You say we only saw snippets, yet Helene also seemed to think Claire was in the wrong!

In football, if a player didn't like the formation a manager was using and therefore sulked throughout the game, didn't try hard enough, looked smug when things were going badly for them, they would be slaughtered by the press and their manager etc and rightly so. Its a similiar thing here. I actually started gaining respect for Claire when she came up with an idea of English theme because it showed she wasn't afraid to contribute ideas. But when everyone else goes against you, which is what happened here, she should have accepted things and moved on. She didn't. Also, if she really thought Sara was a bad project manager, which was her opinion, then why did she not tell Sara this? Why lie to her face? Could it be because she is out for herself, which she criticised Shazia for?

I disagree with most of that. Sara was seen in the "Simon" role of setting the priorities and keeping them focussed on the crucial elements, getting the menu first. The Bollywood theme worked well partly because it was relatively simple and they could get cheap costumes etc. Both teams lacked a proper cook and were caught out by the scale of cooking for 100+ people.


Did we see the same show? In the version I saw, the girls made over £600 profit, not £200. The boys takings were only £50 more than the girls; if they had spent the same they're profit would have been about 7% more than the girls, not "more than double". Half the boys spend was on marketing; presumably they got some return on that so if they'd spent less, they'd probably have reduced takings. It's astonishing that the girls were so close on takings despite not doing lunch. They must have taken much more than the boys in the evening.

The figures:
Boys: takings £845, spend £543, profit £302.
Girls: takings £795, spend £191, profit £604.

The big failure for the girls was failing to serve lunch. And that seemed to be due to lack of time, which both teams suffered from.

Maybe she was telling the truth?

On the task, when they cancelled lunch, she said then the first day had been a fiasco. We don't get to see much of what happened, although there was a comment from Nick that they were slow to get started. Claire may have been right; we can't tell.

After the lunch catastrophe, it all seems to come together. They get the food sorted, they look nice dressed in Indian costumes, they have the dancer and they take a lot of money. This is reflected in what Claire says in the boardroom. A few hiccups at the start, but it ended well.

The edit tends to focus on mistakes, especially on the losing team, so we don't see what positive things Claire may have contributed.

I would however point out there were a lot of things organised that we know nothing about from the girls team.

- who hit on the idea of selling tickets for £5
- who decided the menu, where were supplies purchased

much of the PM activities were not shown ....

Thing about Claire is she lead task 1 and took blows doing it and didn't complain

For sara she asked people that if they wanna be heard then so be it & that she will listen.

When Claire asked about bollywood night Sara shut her down and was 1 sided convo.

So its a bit broken atm but time will tell more broken wood coming off soon.

Claire came across as a two faced moose.

very scary

Your right it wasn't laughable, it was conflicting arguments which negated each other. On the one hand your stating she was deceitful and a liar for supposedly stabbing Sara in the back in the boardroom and the task. On the other she shouldn't have said anything, there by making her just as contemptible for hiding her misgivings from the team and SAS. In some people's eyes, she is a liar either way you put it.


I apologise, I evidently misheard the takings figure of the girls. It doesn't mean Claire responsibly for the failing of the lunch not being served. That could very well have been down to the menu, the sourcing of ingredients or the running around getting recipes. To blame just one person as a disruptive influence, based only on a snippet of the show is unfair.

Um, I hope nothing I wrote was taken as blaming Claire for not getting lunch served.

Of course not, perhaps like many on here it is frustrating to only see the edited highlights. However part of the appeal of this type of programme, is that we have so little to go on; so we speculate as to how the rest of the day went. It gives us something to debate and discuss while waiting for the next installment of the show.

As can be seen on these boards, people will be taking sides or giving opinions left right and center. There are no right or wrong answers to this discussion, but it is fun to debate the merits of our favourites. Simon and Claire for the final

I think the bollywood theme was a good idea if you have someone who KNOWS how to cook indian food. Most english people dont. However, the margins to made on indian are good- rice is dirt cheap, not sure about spices, but sauces are as well. For the purpose of serving for 100 it is easier to serve from the pans. Due to their lack of experiance with indian food and an over complicated menu- the prep did take all day which was their downfall had the boys not over spent.

Something like country and western or Mexican night would probably been easier in terms of the cooking, because it uses familiar foods.

The boys over spent on the marketing and the produce, although pasta is cheep to make, buying in pizzas probably doesnt have the same marigns. Underpricing certain things like soup- £2.95 in the middle of london- are you kidding? thats why theres good profit in soup, you dont sell it for that much.

Personally I would have gone for something like a Taste of the World. That way it doesn't limit you to certain section of the custom. I personally don't like curries, so would never have gone to the girls pub at all. I am sure that there are many who feel the same about Italian or Mexican. However catering to many, especially families in the lunch period would have been better.

Start off with Minestrone soup (Italian), main courses would have been Burgers and Chips (American, great for kids), with perhaps Steak & Ale Pie* (British), Chilli con Carne (Mexican) or Chicken Tikka (Indian, kind of). For dessert you could have a selection of desserts i.e. gateaux (Black Forest, Germany), apple pie (English) or ice creams for the kids

Very little prep required, with this kind of menu prep shouldn't take more then a couple of hours (good for those inexperienced in a kitchen, eh Kevin ), easy to serve and cook.

*Would have been best in the boys pub, which I believe served Real Ales?

That drove me barmy. It's hardly a secret that Chicken Tikka Masala is considered the 'english national dish' these days and is more popular than pie and chips.

I have to agree with you wholeheartedly about the editing.

We have absolutely no way of knowing.

The edit we were shown was meant so that we would have exactly this type of debate.

People who already have strong feelings for Claire (as front runner on last week's show) are bound to feel that they have pegged her to a tee this week. And next week will be the same for Sara.

It's par for the course that anyone who becomes PM, isn't going to come out squeaky clean.

The editing didn't do Claire any favours IMO, as she came across as being manipulative with her talks to the camera, stroppy when her own idea hit the fan, non-team player and then seemingly being on side with Sara in the boardroom, which appeared sly and manipulative.

As I said, this was how some people would view it who didn't favour Claire last week either (me being one)....but that could be exactly the effect that the producers want for all we know.