{"id":398235,"date":"2026-01-30T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398235\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T06:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T06:20:10","slug":"dragons-den-star-finally-lets-slip-his-secret-tactic-after-21-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/398235\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon’s Den star finally lets slip his secret “tactic” after 21 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

He’s been a mainstay of Dragon’s Den<\/a> since it launched back in January 2005, but now – as it prepares to air its 23rd season – Peter Jones has revealed one of his hidden “tactics”. The businessman was speaking whilst appearing alongside new Dragon, Jenna Meek, on tonight’s The One Show.<\/p>\n

When host Roman Kemp<\/a> asked him about using “some psychology tactics in the Den”, he confirmed: “I’ve never really disclosed them. Genuinely not.”<\/p>\n

He added: “I’ve got twelve. Would you like to know one?”<\/p>\n

After being given the green-light, he explained: “When we’re all lined up, I find an element of the pitch, about the business, that is a little bit flawed. <\/p>\n

“But it’s a bit that I know that I can fix. So if I know I can fix that problem, I will over-accentuate that issue with the business and the pitch.”<\/p>\n

\"peter<\/p>\n

Photographer:\/\/BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a>
<\/p>\n

It’s all a ploy to get his co-stars to drop out, though, as he explained: “All the other Dragons are listening. They go, ‘of course… for that reason, I’m out’. And then I go, ‘however, thanks for going out – I can sort that, because I’ve got this’. That’s number one of twelve! There’s a few more.”<\/p>\n

Alongside Meek, another new addition to the line-up of Dragons this season is none other than musician Tinie Tempah, real name Patrick Okogwu.<\/p>\n

He said in a statement confirming his arrival: “I\u2019ve been a fan of the show and the Dragons for over a decade. I\u2019ve been entrepreneurial from the start of my music career and began angel investing around 2016. <\/p>\n

“When I was asked to be a guest Dragon, I simply couldn\u2019t refuse. Outside of music and entertainment, I\u2019m interested in technology, health, food and beverage and crypto\/Web3.”<\/p>\n

Susan Ma, formerly a third-place finisher on The Apprentice, is also set to appear, as is returning guest Gary Neville.<\/p>\n

“Having been a guest Dragon before I\u2019ve got more of a bite this time and you\u2019ll see that come through,” Neville said.<\/p>\n

\"peter<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: The Traitors’ Stephen wrote Jack a letter after the final<\/a><\/p>\n

Meek, meanwhile, teased of her involvement: “I think I\u2019m quite a funny Dragon! I definitely found myself sticking up for the entrepreneurs and even telling the other Dragons off a few times. <\/p>\n

“I really resonated with the people standing in front of us because I was in their position almost eight years ago.”<\/p>\n

She added: “I was empathetic towards the entrepreneurs and much more competitive with my fellow Dragons. I was still very much a Dragon, just maybe a tougher one on the panel than on the entrepreneurs! It surprised me how protective I felt over them, but it felt very true to who I am.”<\/p>\n

Dragon’s Den airs on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.<\/p>\n


The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Taylor Swift, is here! Buy Taylor in newsagents or online<\/a>, priced at just \u00a38.99.
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Shaun is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, with over a decade of experience reporting on all things pop culture. He has written for outlets including Metro<\/a>, Attitude<\/a>, Huffington Post, The Mirror<\/a>, Yahoo!, Pink News and Express Online<\/a>; specialising in TV, movies, soaps, music and LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning scriptwriter, having written episodes of the soap Hollyoaks, the official Steps musical Here & Now<\/a> and multiple Offie Award-nominated plays. He studied English Literature and Drama at the University of East Anglia, and will happily talk at length about Desperate Housewives to anyone who’ll listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He’s been a mainstay of Dragon’s Den since it launched back in January 2005, but now – as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[147950,379,149219,381,96,1156,149218,149157,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-398235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-8775265c-7c80-430d-9302-e3da8660df7e","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-dragons-den-star-reveals-secret-tactic-after-21-years","tag-subsection-reality-tv","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}