BBC2 18th August 2019. Series 17, Episode 2
We were successful to go on Dragons Den. I have been a massive fan of the programme long before I was a Grain Surgeon to The Great British Porridge Co. Can you believe my first thought was ‘what shall I wear’? Typical!
“Remember your numbers” was all I heard from my husband every time I mentioned it. Matt and I had both agreed to try and enjoy it as much as possible and just hope they liked us, as we felt that was half the battle.
Lots and lots emails whizzed back and forth, lots of phone calls and lots of brainstorming trying to come up with ideas to make us memorable…..and we certainly managed that! We decided to go with 3 bears dancing and eating bowls of porridge. This was Matt’s idea - I wanted the Spice Girls lookalikes but got outvoted. We managed to ‘recruit’ three bears from family and friends, and rehearsals began. We decided the bears needed brightening up a bit so I dug out my sewing machine, popped to Hobbycraft and came back with metres of Union Jack fabric. Soon the bears were dressed in a Union Jack nappy, kipper tie and a big oversized hair bow.
Matt and I were living and breathing figures and were determined to remember them, though trying to memorise our pitch was hard enough.
The big day came and we were just packing the car up ready to head off to Manchester for the filming when we received a phonemail to say Touker had been taken ill and the filming was being postponed. The adrenaline had really been working over time in the anticipation of the filming so to get this news was hard to handle but we totally understood as Touker's health was most important.
We were given a new date a few weeks away, which was fine, as it gave us more time to go through everything. We lost one of the people who was going to be a bear as they couldn’t make the new date, so we quickly recruited another, my son! Rehearsals began again, training up our new bear.
The time flew and once again we prepared for our trip to the studios in Manchester. We were booked into a hotel there and Matt and I had dinner with the bears. It was good - we had a few laughs and cracked a few bear jokes. I think it was way better than just staying in the hotel room worrying about the next day and whether we would remember our numbers.
Early start the next morning….though to be honest I don’t think any of us actually slept.
We were there, it was actually happening.....
As soon as the lift doors opened and our bears went out dancing the first thing I could see was the dragons smiling and I just thought…hooray, phew, the Dragons like them, such a relief
Matt and I scooted out behind them quite nervously and delivered our pitch. I made up some porridge for the Dragons to try and I could have cried with happiness when they announced it ‘delicious and the best porridge they had tasted’.
Then it started, all nice at first, lots of compliments and questions about how it all began. Slowly the questions were getting more serious and I started feeling the pressure. The nerves were kicking in and I my mind was going blank, I fought hard to stay focused. Of course the inevitable happened, we got confused and forgot our numbers. It doesn’t matter how much time you take to learn them - it all goes out the window when the cameras roll, the Dragons start their questions, and the lights are shining at you.
Thankfully, we managed to receive an offer from every dragon, a total of FIVE, a rarity known as a ‘full house’
Would I do it again....oh yes bring it on!!!
