Chasing the Dragon

A colleague mentioned that he'd heard Dragon's Den is planning to launch a new spin-off series which sounded astonishingly like the programme idea which I had submitted to the programme, its producer and the BBC Factual Entertainment Treatments department within days about five months ago but regarding which I have never received so much as an acknowledgement from any of them in return (how ill-mannered the BBC have become towards their licence-fee paying viewers these days!).

Trusting that this idea was not the last of my 'adult prodigy' moments, I decided that I may as well publish it in the public domain here so we can all have fun watching any new DD spin-off series like hawks (and I have several hundred witnesses should I need them!)

As I told the Beeb, I have been an avid fan from series one.

However even the most avid fan can start to get restless after eight series. My idea then, was to have a new series, possibly entitled; 'Make Your Own Dragon'; where various Dragons mentor various budding entrepreneurs with bright idea from conception to inception to execution, encompassing all the stages in-between which we are never normally party to such as design, patenting, business plan, prototype, market research, tooling up, production, distribution, marketing, sales - the lot! The entertainment value would of course arise from the fact that like Property Ladder, participants could have the best free expert advice there is, they still wouldn't necessarily take it, cue for some pratfalls!

First I applied to Dragon's Den to be a participant in the current format series, to pitch the next series! Then I wrote to the producer of Dragon's Den and also the BBC Factual Entertainment Treatment Department with similar written pitches to enhance my chances and hopefully circumvent that PA on the make who is bound to lurk in at least one such office.

In return for my series idea, which I was willing to pitch in the current series as a pitch as an added twist, all I asked was that I got to be the first participant in the new series with my educational idea to revolutionise university education, being as the current format was not suitable for my purposes (for individuals with pre-existing products and businesses, rather than for concepts), and I needed a vehicle to put it in the public eye as a good idea and my idea, if nothing else, in order to get me through the doors I need to get through to take it further.

But Dragon's Den open sesame or not, I continue chipping away at other means to my ends in the hope that I can still make something of my educational idea. A decent living would be nice for starters.