A Dragons’ Den star has claimed he was responsible for keeping the smash TV hit on our screens after Peter Jones went ‘AWOL’ during a crucial deal.
Theo Paphitis, who left the Den after series 10 in 2012, has insisted that the BBC programme, which is currently in its 23rd season, would not have made it past the second had it not been for him and Peter.
The Greek-Cypriot businessman claimed that between the pair of them they rescued a company that was owned by Rachel Elnaugh, who was a Dragon on the first two series.
Theo said he saved Red Letter days, an e-commerce company that gifts experience day vouchers instead of traditional physical items, from collapsing after it went into administration in 2005.
‘Rachel Elnaugh had an almighty cock-up and the company went into administration and there was a warded action special on it,’ Theo told the motoring podcast Fuelling Around.
‘On the basis that at the beginning of the show they showed these titans of British business; she was on a motorbike, a powerful lady, we’re all in chauffeur-driven cars, boats and planes and then her business had gone bust. They decided to can it, they wasn’t going to broadcast it.
‘So you might never have seen it if it wasn’t for me and the tall fella buying it; well not so much him because he went AWOL on me during the process of the deal.
‘I won’t go there now but you know exactly where you were Jonesy. He went AWOL, and I’ve got the WhatsApps to prove it if he denies it. It was texts, not WhatsApps, in those days.’
The former chairman of Millwall Football Club also added: ‘We made good all the vouchers that were outstanding. The BBC then felt there’s a story here we can now show it and she was replaced the following season by the brilliant Deborah Meaden and it went from strength to strength.’
Have you heard about this Dragons’ Den success story?
The business guru and Peter sold Red Letter Days for an undisclosed sum to rival SmartBox in September 2017. At the time it was making a turnover of £26million.
Theo lists Robert Dyas, Ryman Stationery and Boux Avenue among his business portfolio.
The multi-millionaire, who was speaking to TV presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson and broadcaster Dave Vitty on the podcast, also discussed his ‘tense’ time in the Den.
‘I didn’t know any of them beforehand,’ he explained. ‘I met Jonesy, the tall fella, once when he came to try and sell me something at my offices but that was it – it was just a one in, one out.
‘It was tense because, don’t forget, that was the beginning. The programme had no catchphrase. The “I’m Out” bit was made up as we went along. Nobody really knew how it was going to work out.
‘They did a pilot, which I wasn’t in, and then they commissioned it. I was in that, they swapped me over for Simon Woodroffe. It was massively competitive, the egos were embarrassing, to be honest with you in that first series.
‘We nearly didn’t even start it because the set was rubbish and the producers and directors didn’t like the set. They sent us all home, then they got us back and sorted out the set, and we finished the series.’
This comes after it was revealed that a Dragons’ Den star’s company that was branded ‘delusional’ is now worth more than £7,500,000.
While the BBC has not yet confirmed a specific return date for the second half of the latest series, a guest Dragon will appear alongside regulars Peter, Deborah Meaden, Steven Bartlett and Touker Suleyman.
Dragons’ Den is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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