Dragons' Den starts up an online pitch

Dragons' Den starts up an online pitch
Dragons' Den starts up an online pitch (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Dragons' Den is going online, offering the chance of securing up to £50,000 investment in tough economic times. As with the BBC2 programme, the two online Dragons are highly successful business people ready to commit financial resources to entrepreneurs. Their identities will be revealed in the coming months, the BBC said. Anyone with a must-have product or top-notch business idea can visit bbc.co.uk/dragonsden to apply. The most innovative and entertaining ideas will be selected by the BBC to be pitched to the online Dragons. For the first time, visitors to the Dragons' Den website will be able to debate and rate the ideas prior to them being put before the Dragons, but the comments will not affect the choice the BBC makes. Dominic Bird, executive producer of Dragons' Den, said: "As financial backing for businesses becomes more difficult to come by, this is a timely alternative opportunity for entrepreneurs to bid for investment. "The online Dragons' Den will complement the television programme and we are confident it will breed its own entrepreneurial successes like those of previous investment winners such as Levi Roots and his Reggae Reggae Sauce and Imran Hakim's internationally successful iTeddy." Get exclusive access to your favourite stars. Subscribe to TV Times magazine

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.