Tuesday 2 September 2008

Thought Of The Day: Dragons' Den

Tuesday 2 September 2008

I like the opening credits for this sixth series, mostly for the way dragon James Caan's name is mentioned at the exact moment we see a sign for French resort "Cannes" -- implying he owns the place! Or it was just named after his family?

It's also amusing to see Peter Jones' neutered role in the titles; sat alone in an office, on the phone. No Gremlins in sight, sadly. No time for tennis this year, Pete? No yachts or sports cars to zoom around in like your fellow millionaires? I wonder; is this the BBC's revenge for him absconding to America and tweaking the DD format into American Inventor?

Also, specific to last night's episode, is it suddenly a good idea to have a sob story in the Den? The dragons all hated that recycled packaging business, until the two entrepreneurs mentioned that, between them, they'd been in rehab and contracted a killer virus in hospital!

Suddenly, they had two dragons eager to do business (Peter and Theo), who gave them £60,000 investment -- 8 grand more than they asked for! All very well, but it could set a dangerous precedent. Can we expect to see people hobbling up the stairs on crutches, hacking into their sleeves mid-pitch, and mentioning their gran's medical expenses from now on? Maybe I should pitch some nonsense to the dragons from inside an iron lung next year?