Me too

Me three... Tho am liking claire more than I did over the last few shows

Actyally they could have played on The Apprentice tounge in cheek and done a Youre fired advert. With the loser wiping his/her tears with the tissue. That would have been funny

I think she's going to do well, but she really needs to learn when it's best to keep her gob shut, plus she really is terrible at working in a team. Good entertainment though.

That is why her and Michael are still in ... good entertainment

This episode showed what a lucky, barrow-boy Sir Alan is.

Just film a box of tissues for 30 seconds and you would have won. This is 2008 not 1981.

Yep I suspect that's playing quite a big part in it. Firing a popular person like Raef gets people talking about the show on forums and at work, and Michael and Claire provide villains for us to all complain about.

Why Helene then?!


Actually I think Claire is quite good and capable. Just a bit rough round the edges. Possibly not the nicest of the bunch but then we're not looking for a friend.

Interesting that Michael was outed as an out of work actor.

She's the one SAS is actually teaching with his hints in the boardroom.

Tonight SAS predicted lots of gob but, from what we saw anyway she said virtually nothing which should be another tick in the box.

She noticed what was missing from the advert in second and said so and she also checked when they were actually filming that the tissues had been filmed in close up, so you hope SAS hasn't got it into his head that she didn't say anything.

Re: Claire. I am warming to her. The Simon/photography episode made me want to wring her neck. However she has calmed down and seems ideal for Sir Alan (which after tonight’s episode means unimaginative and taught in old-school sales technique).

Sir Alan didn't make the decision though.

Please expand.

Maybe I misread your post, but I read it as Sir Alan chose that advert as the winner - he didn't, he was told which was best by three advertising executives.

Thanks, I see what you mean. In fairness we never saw their specific comments. We just saw random statements and then Alan's comments. We know from last year's trainers ad that he just wanted to "see the product!"

I get his point but he really needs to step back. I thought the "new relationship" idea was terrific.

is this ep a goodun?

it certainly was!

Did anyone else think the footage of the final 3 in the boardroom was really short?.Usually there is abit of time spent with the 3 candidates but apart from the exchange between Raef & Michael & Sir Allan speaking to Claire it was short & sweet.

Yeah, it was pretty short...I presume they don't want to show too much footage of Michael's ar*e getting owned.

Ive just watched said episode, and Im not going to go through 38 pages of this thread so I dont know if this has been already mentioned.
SAS made such a big deal about the product not being prominent enough, but from a personal point of view there is an advert currently running for Aquafresh (I believe) that deals with a product in a similar fashion, that is by skirting round the issue. From a personal point of view advertising in this manner is more effective than a blatantly "in yer face" campaign

Rafe was really hung out to dry on this task.
Sir Alan doesn't seem to like him at all.
Michael really should have gone.

In hindsight, what bothers me the most is the WAY SAS went about firing him, what did such a nice guy do to be treated so disgracefully? The 'hot air' comment was such a cheap shot and to me showed a total lack of respect. It was like he had some sort of personal issue with the fact that Raef was even in his presence or something. I suppose it goes to show he is an inverted snob, is SAS.

Lucinda was guilty of not speaking up again imho. Did she not learn that always back fired on her in previous episodes? She made herself a huge target again.. same errors. And Alex played her perfectly.. he knew shes always negative, he just allowed her to become negative and from that point onwards she was a sitting duck.

Claire kicked ass at presenting the pitch considering the shock of seeing Sir Alan etc.. and NO NOTES! And once again she is singled out for praise. Compared to the others she excelled at that. Sir Alan seemed deep in thought during her pitch.. possibly pondering her now surely guarenteed place in the final.

I strongly disagree with Margaret that the box was rubbish. Also, what was Sir Alan going on about? Claire DID point out there was no product reference when she saw the product. What else did he expect her to do?

I'll say this much.. Claire has won this. I can't see who could possibly rival her other than Alex. Alex -v- Claire final for sure IMHO. Raef was the only outsider for me and hes gone now. Although she has been in the board room quite a few times now which is risky. I'm probably wrong and she will go.. I always am.

I for one thought Raef deserved to go (although a double-firing of him and Michael would have been a better result). He made a major cock-up in task 1 and since then has been pretty much hiding in the background. Last night just high-lighted his ineptitude yet again and as SAS said, he'd been very lucky in not being in the boardroom on more occasions.

If it was a competition to find a well-dressed, well-groomed, polite, honest individual he would have walked it (closely followed by Sara). But it isn't. And he didn't.

Thought Claire did well again last night; she highlighted the need to emphasise the product in the advert whilst they were filming and expressed her concern when Raef & Michael decided to omit the shot. But it seems she was in the wrong by not speaking up more, even though SAS shot her down for doing that exact same thing on earlier tasks . At least they were complimentary about her pitch.

On the subject of the pitch, why did Raef let Helene do some of it? If he considers himself to be such a wordsmith and words are his tool, surely he would have been better doing half of it himself? Or was it just another example of him shirking responsibility?

Whilst I still think Lucinda is in the running to win, she went down a few notches in my opinion last night. She had some valid points about her team's efforts but they way she put them across was very negative and not beneficial to the team.

Don't think any of the others did anything to change my opinion about them either way.