‘The calibre of businesses was higher than we’d ever seen before’
Entrepreneur Sara Davies talks to Danielle de Wolfe about the return of Dragons’ Den
As ridiculous as it sounds, they try and hide the cameras in the walls and everything,” says Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies.
Referencing her first memories of stepping on to the renowned television set, the 36-year-old entrepreneur says there’s more to filming the hit series than first meets the eye.
“What I think a lot of people don’t realise is we can be two hours on a pitch interrogating one of the contestants and everything like that. You see 12 minutes of it.
“I think people don’t believe us when we say to them that we don’t know anything about the businesses until they walk through the lift.
“You’re so caught up in, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to make a big financial decision here’ and part with a lot of money potentially, that you forget about the cameras and you’re really just in the moment.”
However, the entrepreneur is quick to note that there’s no trickery involved when it comes to her reactions in the now famous den.
“I watch myself back and some of the looks I’ve given, I was like, ‘Oh, got to watch for the eye rolls next series!’” she laughs.
“They must have a camera on me all the time just waiting.”
With series 18 marking her second series as a dragon on the hit BBC show, the experience has brought with it a number of important lessons for the Crafter’s Companion founder.
“I’m really conscious of body language,” says Davies.
“I remember going into the edit after the first series and they were putting together the first clips and I met the editors working on it. They were like, ‘We love working on the clips with you in because every feeling you’ve got oozes out of every pore of your body, you don’t hide it’.
“I’d never thought about it before.”
It’s a marked contrast to the stoic approach employed by her fellow dragons.
With the formidable lineup of Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and Touker Suleyman returning to their seats as part of the latest instalment, Tej Lalvani has also announced that series 18 will be his last in the den.
“I think the other dragons can sometimes be a little bit reserved and I’m just there [with a] happy, smiley face just winking at the contestants or whatever it is."
Making the switch from BBC2 to BBC1, the returning show will see budding entrepreneurs once again vie for the dragons’ investment, as they undertake a three-minute pitch that could make or break their business. “Now, it’s easy for me to say because it’s only my second series. But Peter and Deborah who have been there all these years, they said it was ‘the highest calibre of businesses we’d ever seen’.
“We had more investments where we all fought it out
– it was a record-breaking number.
“There was over £2 million pledged in the den in the series; every night we would walk back to the hotel and everyone would say, ‘I can’t believe the calibre of the businesses we’ve seen today’.”
● Dragons’ Den returns on Thursday April 1 on BBC1