While awaiting the next series of Dragons’ Den, Duncan Bannatyne talks to Viv Hardwick about selecting Darlington’s panto princess and why he might tread the boards himself this Christmas.

DUNCAN Bannatyne has achieved fame and fortune by being prepared to risk everything he owns in the world of business… starting from an ice cream van in Stockton to become one of the UK’s richest people with a £310m portfolio.

Thanks to BBC’s Dragons’ Den, and the recent spin-off on BBC2, Duncan Bannatyne’s Story, a more emotional side to the Darlington-based entrepreneur has been revealed.

TV viewers watched him reduced to tears during a visit to his humble beginnings in Clydebank and it was easy to see how the 59-year-old, father-of-six would want to become involved as a judge in the family friendly world of Darlington Civic Theatre’s X-Factor-style hunt for a panto princess.

The man who has joked that he’s a tone-deaf technophobe admits he’ll be going with his family to watch Gateshead’s Sarah Wales make her stage debut in Jack And The Beanstalk this Christmas, having marked her as his ten out of ten choice for the role He says: “I think she’ll be terrific and I think it’s great for Darlington that they did the process like that and I think it’s been a great advert for the region’s talent.

“I can still appreciate music and singers, but what I can’t say if they’re wrong for going out of key. Sarah has an amazing smile and those dimples give you something to look at and she’s a great singer and performer. It wasn’t easy because at least half-a-dozen of the entrants could have done the job. It was a big task for us as judges but we all knew if we didn’t try it we’d never know the outcome,” he says, revealing that Sarah was the popular choice among the panel.

“Sarah was the best allrounder in my opinion,”

Bannatyne adds.

And is he a theatre-goer who boos the baddies and cheers for the heroes? “When I’m with my kids I’ve got to,” he jokes.

While the busy businessman awaits news of the almost certain re-commissioning of Dragons’ Den next year and was about to fly out to Ethiopia on charity work, he had to face some unwanted publicity which now seems to be part and parcel of the UK’s celebrity lifestyle.

“Most of the media has been fine, but there was an article in The Sun which I can’t really comment on except to say it was inaccurate and our legal team talked to the newspaper and within four hours it was removed from its website which shows it had accepted there were inaccuracies. It’s amazing that people will ask for my advice and then create this,” he says.

Bannatyne feels that there should be more control over the media in cases like this. “To publish these details at the first opportunity, without contacting me, is ridiculous. The first I knew about it was when I got off the GMTV couch and got back to the car and the driver told me,”

he says.

As a result of what happened, Bannatyne states he’s going to be far more wary about approaches from fans of Dragons’ Den or those seeking his business advice.

“There have been situations where I’ve been approached by people who I consider to be fans, but now it’s going to be disappointing for them because they’ll have to book through my secretary to see me,” Bannatyne explains.

At the moment he’s in Ethopia as a charity fund trustee looking at projects financed by a sixfigure sum from Comic Relief. “I can usually spend about four weeks a year looking at projects abroad and I’m very keen to do it although I’m not keen on a 12- hour flight,” he says, although he feels more will be achieved by education programmes than by the might of business.

Asked about the return of Dragons’ Den, Bannatyne replies: “I’m very confident it will be re-commissioned. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to make them. Every time we get a new series I say this will be probably be the last one, but I’m still there. So we’ll just have to see what happens.”

He also predicts that Peter Moule, who was backed by Bannatyne and fellow Dragon James Caan and became the TV programme’s first millionaire, is destined to be a TV Dragon.

“I think it would be great TV for one of the people who come on Dragons’ Den to end up sitting in a Dragons’ chair,” says the businessman who once considered becoming an actor.

Has his brush with pantomime made him consider pulling on his acting boots again?

“I have had an offer to do a walk-on part in panto this season and I might do that, but I’ll be playing myself,” he says.

■ Jack And The Beanstalk, Darlington Civic Theatre, from Saturday until January 18. Box Office: 01325-486555