Not scorched anymore

Another series of Dragons' Den comes to an end and the ever enthusiastic Evan 'Tigger' Davis can now uncrank his perma-smile to take on his new role as Jeremy Paxman's replacement.  It seems the producers are being more selective in who they allow into the den, picking more bona-fide successes (unless the supplicant walks away from the deal) and more flat-out crazies.  Maybe the contenders have, where possible, been coaxed in more realistic equity proposals or maybe the Dragons are under orders but I can't remember where a deal has been struck where one or more Dragons have taken half the business as used to be the case.  It reached a high point when Duncan Bannatyne took 79% of the business of two callow entrepreneurs (who were never of again).  Possibly the harsh glare of cut-throat business was a turn-off and I can't think of a single successful deal this series that exceeded 40% equity (and those that were offered this upper limit as the price of investment often balked and occasionally turned it down).  I miss the old times though when inventors had to battle for an extra 1% (to make 51%) just to have a controlling interest in the business they had themselves created.  As one pair of investor-hungry entrepreneurs who struck pay dirt said, "They're quite soft, they're not dragons, they're.... fairies," presumably unaware of the pejorative connotations of that latter description.  In their own way, they're right - when a Dragon wants a part of the business, they've lost that fearsome aggressiveness.