Following hot on the heels of this year’s Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, Season 5 of The Apprentice (UK) kicks off on the 25th March and to whet our appetites the BBC has today released details of the candidates. They are:

Anita Shah – a qualified lawyer and self-confessed perfectionist. She claims that she’s inspired by my favourite Dragon, James Caan as she believes (like he does) that you can be successful by investing in relationships and being nice to people, rather than being ruthless or devious. Which is true, you can, however unfortunately I’m not sure it’s the right way to succeed in The Apprentice.

Ben Clarke - a rebellious stockbroker who apparently considers himself to be ruthless and money-obsessed. So he’s clearly got the right stuff to star on The Apprentice. According to the BBC, he admits to being ‘cocky’ but insists that he takes business very seriously.

Debra Barr - a direct and driven saleswoman with a passion for business and a love of horses. She cites Bill Gates and Richard Branson as her inspiration and describes herself as a go-getter who would rather ask for forgiveness than permission. I’m not sure how well that’s going to go down with Sir Alan Sugar though.

Howard Ebison - says he’s a  "credible businessman". I wonder what he means by that? I thought candidates for The Apprentice had to believe themselves to be "incredible"?

James McQuillan - a former child chess champion, who claims to suffer from ‘foot in mouth syndrome’, ooh that should provide some juicy TV.

Kate Walsh - she claims to have an ability to develop and sustain business relationships at all levels. Apparently she admires the approach to business taken by Sex & The City’s Samantha.

Kimberly Davis - An American who says "I bring honesty and integrity to the table, I don’t lie, cheat or backstab". You’ve got to wonder if she has ever seen The Apprentice?

Lorraine Tighe - a top selling single mum who sums up her attitude to business as the ability to drive a dead horse to the winning line.

Majid Nagra - a reformed rebel who now works with youth centres and charities while running his own car hire business. Apparently he says "I think that business is the backbone to this world. Without companies buying and selling there wouldn’t be any economy." I tend to agree.

Mona Lewis - sees herself as shrewd and honest in business and believes that personal emotions should never interfere with decision making. Keeping personal emotions out of The Apprentice has never seemed to be a strong point of past candidates so it’ll be interesting to see how she gets on.

Noorul Choudhury - is a science teacher who hopes to become a property development millionaire. Well if he wins he’ll be starting the job just in time to put the £100,000 salary to good use buying some cheap property! He believes that business is a cut throat, dog-eat-dog game that you must play to win – he’s definitely cut out for The Apprentice then!

Paula Jones - A HR consultant and self confessed scatter brain, who apparently shoots straight.

Phillip Taylor -says that "Business is the new rock ‘n’ roll and I’m Elvis Presley". Apparently he’s also a control freak, so it’ll be interesting to see him as a team leader.

Rocky Andrews - The young boy and owner of a sandwich chain. He says "business is about hard-work, attention to detail, being willing to make mistakes and learning from these mistakes". The BBC claims he already makes in excess of the £100,000 salary on offer. I can’t fathom that myself as I don’t see why any successful business owner would EVER want to work for someone else, even if it is Sir Alan, I know I’d never chose to be employed by anyone else again.

Yasmina Siadatan - says "Business is about a simple formula. Make more than you spend. That’s what I do, I keep business simple and it works. I’m good at it" Amen.

So there you have it, fifteen candidates, we’ll find out which is the first to go on March 25th at 21:00 on BBC. I know it’ll drive me mad is it presents the wrong image of business, but I know I’ll be glued to the screen – see you there!

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