Five investors were on the original British Dragons' Den panel.
The first panel consisted of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Rachel Elnaugh, Doug Richard and Simon Woodroffe. Together they established the programme's familiar format: entrepreneurs entered the room, presented their businesses and negotiated with a group of wealthy investors.
The number of Dragons has not remained fixed across the programme's entire history. Panel membership changed as original investors left and new figures joined, and some episodes have featured guest or substitute investors. That variation can make later panel line-ups easy to mistake for the original one.
The original five-person arrangement also reflected the international format's central dramatic structure. A pitch could attract one investor, several investors competing together, or no offer at all. Even when an agreement was filmed, the proposed investment still depended on subsequent checks and contracts.