I was approached by the production team of Dragons Den and asked to go along to Crystal Palace in London for a film test. They liked the London test and asked me to apply to appear in the Den.
The film set for Dragons Den is in Manchester. After filming the ShowerPowerBooster was shown on BBC TV on the 15th September 2013.
Before The Den
The week before appearing in the Den they invited then uninvited appearance of my business partners at Flowflex. I asked for my wife to help with the presentation but on arrival at the studio in the morning they refused to let my wife help me.
In the Studio – 10.5 hours
In the morning we have a series of takes of walking into and out of the ‘lift (not a lift)’ followed by waiting around in ‘Green Room (not green)’ and the Dragons arrive in the afternoon.They like to have a mixture of presentations so one presentation to the Dragons following the next is not the same. They get you to wait outside the room because they do not know how long a session will take and who is to go in next to go in. I waited outside the room but was sent back to the Green Room twice. On the third occasion, 10.5 hours after arriving at the studio, I went into the Den.
The Den – 1.5 hours
90 of minutes filming were edited down to under 3 minutes of TV so much of the content is lost. The presentation when well but it was clear at an early stage that the Dragons doubted the science despite the evidence of their eyes. Debora Medan was the first weigh in and claimed to have an 8 bar power shower (something that would be illegal if she did as it would remove flesh from her guests bodies rather than soap suds). Duncan Bannatyne then claimed to have a 6 bar power shower.
They have also changed the sequence so the comments are cut and spliced. It looks like I respond to a question from Peter Jones where as in reality I was talking to a totally different Dragon.
Well it is an interesting experience but I can understand now why its so important for an unedited tape to be kept at a police station after they interview a suspect, and just like having 2 teeth out at the Dentist when I was eight -its something I will never forget.
We have now sold 15,000 pumps and we are rated 5 star on trust pilot.
Trying to explain complex scientific principles to the Dragons was never going to be easy. Would you have done better?