Five original Dragons appeared on the panel when the British version of Dragon's Den began in 2005.
The launch panel consisted of Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Rachel Elnaugh, Simon Woodroffe, and Doug Richard. Together, they established the programme's familiar setup: entrepreneurs stand before a panel and seek investment in exchange for part of their company.
The number of Dragons has not always been identical across the programme's history. Some pitches have involved guest Dragons, and later line-ups changed as investors joined or left. That variation can make the original panel easy to confuse with a later cast.
The first panel also included several investors who became strongly associated with the show's early years. Peter Jones is the only member of that original five who remained a long-running Dragon across the programme's subsequent eras.