I think she might now, on last last night's programme she came across very well.

I get the feeling we have not seen all her good points for some reason?

Most interesting back story, she came acrosss well, no tears. Unlike Lee's my Dad was a milkman, Mum was a receptionist.

She certainly won't fold on the interview, I think the guys might get ripped to pieces on that.

Only Lucinda has no chance.

It's possible, I think she might get through the interview stage, but she definitely wont win. The two who I think will crumble in the interview stage? Lee and Alex

I've always thought that there was more to Helene than was being shown.

Most people dismiss her out of hand for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.

I wouldn't want to see Lucinda win because although she can undoubtably shine in the right environment this isn't it - she'd only end up being very miserable after a short space of time. She's proved herself by getting this far.

I hope so, even though I liked her before last night, her backstory puts a lot into perspective, and she has clearly worked hard to get where she is.

totally agree

I'm pretty sure that if I referred, in an inteview, to my fellow candidates for a job as "Gobshite" I wouldn't get the job.

It's unprofessional and disrespectful. A potential employer would have to be crazy to see that as anything other as very negative.

I'm dying to see that in context.

I agree that it's an awful thing to say and I still wonder if they've done some tricky editing, not least because I don't think she sees all her fellow contestants as gobshites.

She doesn't react to them like that and if she did find such a cross section of people so problematic she'd hardly be able to get on with anyone and she clearly can do that.

I have to disagree with you there, I think Helene is there because she worked for a ruthless corporation. She isn't the strongest salesperson, motivator or manager. In the last 10 weeks she has done nothing to demonstrate that she has something. My guess is that she will be the first to go. From the preview of this week I think SAS said "the last 10 weeks speak for themselves" or something similar to that.

I think Lucinda, has a much better chance than her. Some of her ideas have pleased SAS especially the one in the ice cream task. She has been in the winning team 8 out of 10 times and she is the highest earner there. Helen shot herself in the foot on the final five last night because she said in my current job I have a nice big desk and someone brings me a cup of tea, this is exactly what Sir Alan was worried about. She's had an easy ride.

No to Helene making the final.

In regards to the interview stage, don't write off Lucinda, she won't fall apart now, she'll shine, as will Claire.

she won't fall apart, she will definitely shine, she can speak up for herself and she can do a much better job than Helene.

I would read that exactly the opposite way around.

If I knew that someone was prepared to give up a good job, good salary just for the mere chance to work in a much less comfortable but more challenging environment I would be extremely interested.

Nick actually said that there was a whole functional segment which, should that be where AS wanted to place his 'apprentice', Helene would be the one to hire.

Each of Lee, Helene, Claire and Lucinda have certain strengths that would mean there are areas where they would shine and the others wouldn't.

Alex needs more experience. He needs to get out of his comfort zone and try other things so that he can build his confidence. Then he would not appear as slimey - an impression that a lot of people have that is probably a bit to simplistic an assesment of an obviously complex charactr.

But she could be doing that for the chance to earn a lot more money and she may be deceived into believing she will be working in a similar environment to the one she is used to. I don't have anything against Helene but I honestly haven't seen anything from. In the car task she said that she wouldn't have expected herself to sell any cars? what the heck is that all about? I mean the task was to sell cars, was she expecting to be carried through by her team? Even Lucinda didn't have her attitude and she actually made a sale.
There are two tasks in which Helene has made zero contribution, the photography task and the Car renting task.

I think she probably does have many good points but I can't forget what a complete cow she was to Lucinda during the photography task.

I just don't think you can excuse behaviour like that.

People of course will takes sides but both Lucinda & Helene are strong women who work in differant enviroments.
I do think Helene & Lucinda are the two who could do well in the interviews although I am looking forward most to Helene's comment on the others.

As for Helene getting to the final I'm not sure as it all depents on the others do in the interview.

But Helene can't sell, manage or delegate.

Why on earth should she win?

I don't think she will , but nor could Simon last year but he managed to win it

I thought he was a damn site better than Helene though!

She's just floated into the final without actually proving her worth.

I've seen her do NOTHING!

I think those people who believe that they haven't seen Helene do anything need to realise that it is partly down to the editing.

The way the programmes is constructed may be flawed in many ways but it's really beyong belief that anyone can blag their way to this stage by doing nothing.

Most likely, given the comments others have made about her, when you can't see her she's just quietly getting on with what she's supposed to with no fuss, sorting out her own problems as they arise.

That sort of person is not generating interesting TV footage but is an asset to any team, hence the reason why you do not hear much criticism of her from her team mates.

That's giving her the benefit of the doubt though.

I cannot see why any significant contributions she would have made to a task would have been deliberately edited out?

Even Nick said last week that Helene made no impact.

It would be extremely anti-climactic indeed, if out of all the thousands of applicants, someone as undynamic and uninspiring as Helene triumphed.

From what I've seen, she hasn't excelled at selling and she cannot manage a team effectively. I've seen these things first hand from the shows, I haven't come to these conclusions based on what I haven't seen.

I would like to believe that it was down to editing but the last boardroom confirms otherwise. SAS thinks that she did nothing in the past 10 weeks and Nick said: Helene is just there she has no impact.

I tend not to take editing seriously and I sometimes disagree with SAS's opinions. I even disagreed with Nick's opinion ofRaef "behind the flowery language there is nothing there" because I think they were unable to see behind the flowery language. However, saying "Helene is just there and that she has no impact " and also SAS' words about seeing nothing from Helene can't have any interpretation other than that she did nothing significant during the tasks.

The editing did confirm that. I am sure that Helene is a very capable woman but I don't think that her performance in the tasks reflected her abilities. That is mainly because of the limitations of the tasks - they are not designed to reflect the kind of skills Helene has. I am not sure that the editing is largly responsible for the way Helene has been portrayed.

What AS actually said was that he didn't know what she'd done.

Not quite the same thing.

It's very interesting that he said exactly the same thing to Tim the week before the interviews.


So what you're saying is that you form an opinion and then selectively agree with anyone who supports that opinion and disregard anyone who doesn't?

(I think that's how we all work to a certain extent, tbh - otherwise we'd all be George W Bush*)


Lee probably thinks that Claire is his main competition because she is most like him: quite loud, energetic and a salesman.

I agree that Claire is more likely to win than Helene. I just think Helene has done more than it appears.


* Whom one aide characterised as always very strongly holding the opinion of the last advisor he had spoken to.

Sir Alan actually said: I am struggling to see what you do. He also said to Helene: You I see nothing.

I thought may be SA just wants to hear Helene defend herself. Then after they went out Nick said: Helene has no impact on anybody, she is just there, quite unmemorable.

This is their impression of Helene after 10 tasks. It doesn't mean that she is incapable it means that she wasn't significant in the tasks. This was confirmed by the edit.


I brought as an example of being prepared to give the candidates the benefit of the doubt. What was said about Raef is subject to discussion. Sir Alan said: Raef was lucky to be in the boardroom only once. According to the edit, he wasn't. Sir Alan said that: Raef is a lot of hot air. I don't think he was. I saw in the edit many good points about Raef and every fired candidate so far thought that Raef should have won which says something.

I tried to give Helene the benefit of the doubt. Even in yesterday's program, they could have shown us more examples to demonstrate her contributions in the tasks but they didn't. They must have something against her then!! She had 12 min about her and again nothing!!

I have to agree.

On last night's final five programme, someone was saying how one of Helene's strengths was being able to size up people and put them into the right roles when managing a team...

... which is in direct contradiction to her insistence on putting Lucinda, the least technical person, in charge of operating the computer. And even after the event, she completely failed to understand why this was a seriously poor decision.

I suspect she will interview quite well; but I don't think she deserves to be in the final.

Am I the only one who thinks Claire is a dead cert for the final?