Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fired up Dragons pitch for more
Moving a TV show in its 18th series from BBC2 to BBC1 might seem an unlikely pitch to make to television bosses.
But whoever suggested it has plenty of backing and the next season of Dragons’ Den will be on BBC1.
The business dragons – Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Tej Lalvani and Sara Davies – will make the move in the coming months and bosses hope it will lead to a bigger audience for the show, which currently gets just under three million viewers.
With TV taking longer to make during the Covid crisis, we suspect this is an opportunistic move from the makers which the dragons themselves would have been proud of.
Since the Den’s doors first opened in 2005, more than 1,000 entrepreneurs have passed through them. There have been 18 dragons, who have made 276 deals and pledged more than £22m.
BBC1’S Acting Controller Kate Phillips says: “It feels like the time is right to move our formidable dragons to BBC1, so they can entertain an even wider audience.”
It will be interesting to see if the channel hop breathes fire and new life into the Den in series 18, starting soon.
DEVILS Sky Atlantic, 9pm IT could be a fair assumption that if you’re looking for Lucifer in the modern world, a good place to start would be in a boardroom full of bankers.
Satan is probably far more likely to be a corrupt billionaire wearing a Savile Row suit and handmade shoes than a red demon with horns and cloven hoofs. And that’s part of the idea behind this slick new 10-part thriller, set in the world of high-stakes banking and the hedge fund-dealing mega-rich.
The devilish characters include A-lister Patrick Dempsey as Dominic Morgan, the handsome silver fox CEO of one of the most important investment banks in the world.
While the Italian and equally handsome actor Alessandro Borghi plays his prodigy, Head of Trading
Massimo Ruggero – the biggest and deadliest shark at the bank, who may or may not have been responsible for bankrupting Greece.
When we first meet these two, Massimo is flying high and looks dead set to get a promotion to viceceo. Until, that is, a scandal involving his ex-wife, who’s just mysteriously arrived back in London, derails everything.
Massimo is convinced his rival Ed (played by The Crown’s Ben Miles) is out to sabotage him, so with the help of his team Massimo indulges in a little corporate espionage and stitches up Ed first.
We won’t give away any spoilers, but by the end of the episode Massimo finds himself right at the centre of a situation that’s clearly going to become way more complicated than anyone realises, and is rapidly spiralling out of control.