Smart money is on Eric
IMAGINE if Dragons’ Den only had one dragon.And didn’t have a den. It might not sound as if we’d be left with much of a show.You’d probably switch over to Emmerdale, or that thing about Kate Humble and her farm. I can’t say I’d blame you.
Both those shows have lambs in them, and lambs are tremendous, although Emmerdale’s get dreadful storylines these days.
But what I’ve just described there – depleted-den-wise, I mean – isn’t a million kilometres away from C4’s new factual show THE MONEY MAKER (9pm). And The Money Maker is really very watchable. Its sole dragon, although I guess he’s not allowed to call himself that or some legal people will get all huffy, is a charismatic chap called Eric Collins, a venture capitalist originally from Alabama.
Based these days in London, where he’s CEO of a firm called Impact X Capital Partners, Eric is on the lookout for promising firms to invest in, to help steer them through the post-pandemic economy, even though I’m not sure we’ve got one of those yet.
By “promising”, I mean firms that could be making a lot more money than they are right now, such as Manchester-based Prymo.
Although it sounds like a cross between a budget clothing store and a hovermower, Prymo is actually a firm that carries out specialist repairs in the construction industry (owner Jasen explains it far better than that).
Its headquarters, JFDI House, are Eric’s first port of call.And pretty much his first question on arrival is: “What does JFDI stand for?”
The answer includes a rude word, so I’m not going to tell you what it is, but the fact that Jasen is clearly very proud of it, while Eric gives a smile that could at best be described as polite, suggest these two might not entirely be of like mind.
Still, they can work on that. Assuming Eric decides it’s worth his while investing, that is.
There’s clearly a lot about Jasen he admires and respects, so that’s a good start.
And Jasen’s team seems incredibly committed, not to mention staggeringly versatile. One of the first people Eric is introduced to, director Steve, tells him: “I spin plates, put out fires.”
Elsewhere tonight, we have the final episode of Kay Mellor’s THE SYNDICATE (BBC1, 9pm), at least until she kindly writes us another series.
The kennel workers are back from Monaco and they’re feeling rather glum.
All that way, all that expense, and the one thing they went for, to get their lottery winnings back from thieving worm Frank, has ended in failure.
Hardly worth watching, you think?
I wouldn’t be so hasty…