The original Dragons' Den investment panel contained five Dragons.
The first British panel consisted of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Rachel Elnaugh, Doug Richard and Simon Woodroffe. Together, they established the visual and dramatic pattern that became familiar to viewers: entrepreneurs stood before the panel, described their businesses and requested investment for an ownership stake.
Later series changed the line-up, so the number of Dragons seen on screen has not always been identical. Some episodes have featured guest or replacement investors, while long-serving Dragons have left and new ones have joined. That changing membership can make the original panel easy to confuse with later versions.
The five-person starting panel is a historical fact about the British programme's launch rather than a rule requiring every later series to use five investors. The individual members also came from varied commercial backgrounds, including retail, manufacturing, technology and business investment.