I was on Dragons’ Den – there’s a game-changing secret about our pitches that you never see on the show

A MARRIED couple who appeared on Dragons’ Den have revealed a game-changing secret about pitches that viewers don’t get to see.

Fiona and Richard Jones will try and win over the business tycoons during Thursday night’s show.

And the couple – who are coffee enthusiasts – have revealed a nerve-wracking element of the show viewers don’t even know exists.

The entrepreneurs, from Warfield, told The Celeb Report how before hopefuls enter the den they must write out their pitch word-for-word.

Strict rules mean they have to stick to that script when they face the five dragons.

They said: “Your pitch at the beginning has to be word perfect so we had a screen that shows certain words within our pitch that cued the screen to move on.

“So we really had to kind of make sure that we presented our pitch exactly how it was written so that was quite nerve-wracking.”

Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett are all back as the 20th series continues.

While the contestants’ time in front of the dragons is condensed for television, it’s a gruelling two-hour experience in real life.

On the day of filming the hopefuls are expected to turn up at the studios in Manchester for 6am.

However, to add to the suspense they don’t know when they’ll be called to pitch to the BBC panel.

“We were in there nearly six hours,” said Richard, while Fiona added: “It was a very long day.”

Fiona and Richard run Beans Coffee Club, which aims to make it easy for coffee lovers to enjoy freshly roasted coffee at home while discovering the UK’s best roasters.

The unique experience sees their customers find the best tasting beans which have been matched to their personal preferences in just 30 seconds.

Dragons’ Den airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.