Five original Dragons appeared on the first UK series of BBC's Dragons' Den.
The launch panel consisted of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Rachel Elnaugh, Doug Richard and Simon Woodroffe. Together, they established the basic British format: entrepreneurs present a business, state how much money they want and offer a percentage of their company in return.
The panel was deliberately made up of multiple investors rather than a single judge. That arrangement allowed the Dragons to compete with one another for promising deals, while also giving contestants the possibility of receiving more than one offer.
Later series changed the panel as investors left and new Dragons joined. This is why lists of “the Dragons” can differ depending on the year being discussed. The number five refers specifically to the original panel in series one, not to every later lineup.