Dragons’ Den star blasts BBC for ‘spinning the narrative’ with sneaky modifying trick and leaving her ‘standing for 3 hours’ throughout ‘blur’ of a pitch

A Dragons’ Den star has blasted the BBC for ‘spinning the narrative’ with a sneaky editing trick and leaving her ‘standing for three hours’ during her pitch. 

The businesswoman, who took to the programme alongside her brother in 2018, hit out about how her time on the show turned out on screens. 

Brother-sister duo Anna and William Brightman asked for a £50,000 investment into their beauty brand UpCircle, in exchange for one of the Dragons to own 2% of their company. 

Anna, 30, and William came up with the idea for the sustainable skincare company, going into business together before launching to huge success. 

She revealed on the show: ‘We take ingredients that would otherwise be discarded and thrown away, and we transform them into sustainable skincare products.’

‘The initial idea came just over two years ago with a lightbulb moment,’ which William added: ‘I was given a cafetière for Christmas, and having brewed my coffee, I was left with all the residual coffee grounds. 

‘With nowhere to put them, I was just throwing them into the bin, and imagine how many people drink coffee every day, there must be a huge amount of waste… 500,000 tones is sent to landfill every year in the UK alone.’

Anna added: ‘We now collect from around 70 small chain and independent coffee shops in London, taking away their used coffee grounds, and transforming them.’

The duo admitted their products were already being stocked by retailers including Whole Foods and Waitrose, with distribution in eight European countries. 

They continued that they sold £13,000 worth of products in their first nine months, before going on to £120,000 the following year, with their third year looking at a mammoth £550,000 in earnings. 

Despite impressing the Dragons, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the pair, with Peter Jones taking up issue with the packaging of their product, calling it ‘poor’. 

Nonetheless, they landed the investment from two Dragons, Touker Suleyman and Tej Lalvani – who took a mammoth 30% share in the business. 

Looking back on her time on the show has left a sour taste for Anna, who admitted she felt the ‘narrative’ was ‘spun’ during her episode. 

She told GB News: ‘It is TV, so you can’t control the narrative that is spun. You are in there for hours, and that is a big fear for me.

‘When we filmed it the whole thing was such a blur. You’re filled with adrenaline, you come out of there and you go I don’t know what happened, what was said.

‘They definitely do mess with the narrative. There were snippets that were put in answers to different questions. Huge portions of what happened are left out it seems very strange looking back on it.’

In a post of the company website, Anna added that they were ‘standing for three hours’ as the Dragons judged and questioning their products – and were given no notice as to when their episode would air. 

The brother and sister duo’s business is still going strong, with a range of zero-waste beauty products using up-cycled materials. 

The success of the business even landed Anna in Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 in 2021 – a group of young businesspeople named as one’s to watch. 

It comes after Dragons’ Den viewers ripped into the ‘most ridiculous pitch ever’ as they blasted the BBC for ‘turning the show into a parody of itself’ and fumed ‘pull the plug!’

The 23rd series of the popular TV show, which sees aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman and Steven Bartlett, returned to our screens last week. 

Founder of maximalist accessories brand Hat and Spicy, Chloe, appeared on the programme to ask for £50,000 in exchange for 15% of her business.

Her business, which she set up in 2022 and runs solo from a studio in London, transforms pre-loved hats into one-of-a-kind handmade headwear. 

She explained that her turnover in the first year was £7,122, then in 2023 it was £25,000, followed by £30,626 in 2024.

Chloe’s hats sell for on average £250 and explained: ‘That’s hopefully the market that I want to be getting into.’ 

She managed to impress Peter Jones teamed up with Touker Suleyman for a joint investment – and went away with £50,000 for 30% of the business. 

However, those watching at home certainly weren’t buying it. 

One brutally said on X: ‘So first one in on new series, absolute c**p, bloody stupid hats, Dragons all sitting there looking ridiculous, Pull the plug on this one now.’

Another chimed in: ‘Is this really the best the UK can invent,’ as a third said: ‘Another show that started good… but now is a parody of itself.’

Dragons Den airs Thursdays on BBC One from 8pm and is available to stream on iPlayer.