Friends of the Earth kills TV Dragon

Marie Reynolds

21 June 2012

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden, Campaign Ambassador for our Clean British Energy campaign.

She'd agreed to be interviewed on camera urging people like you to switch your electricity supplies to Good Energy or Ecotricity - the good guys in the energy world because they use way more renewables than any of the Big Six.

We decided to take her to Brixton Energy, a community solar scheme on a council estate in south London, where rows of solar panels would form the perfect backdrop.

Well. The morning arrived, and off I toddled to Brixton like a small, excitable child. It's not every day you hang out with a celebrity arriving in the back of a blacked-out Ecoigo hybrid.

On went the fluorescent yellow hi-vis vest. On went the white hard hat. An engineer looked down at the flimsy ballet pumps on my feet and sighed: this wasn't going to be easy.

Forget lifts and staircases, apparently we were going to be climbing ladders. Oh yey, I thought, imagining Deborah in her stiletto power shoes, slipping and breaking her neck. 'Friends of the Earth kills TV Dragon' wasn't exactly the coverage I was looking for.

But when Deborah arrived, fresh out of hair and makeup, she was up that ladder like a shot.

You can watch her piece to camera here: the lady is a pro. I'm the one in the background on my knees, mic in one hand and a prompt sheet in the other, nervously conducting the show.

I have to say she's an absolutely lovely lady, very chatty and down to earth. Her passion for renewable energy is obvious.

But make no mistake: I wouldn't take her on. She knows what she wants, and she absolutely goes and gets it. She is a Dragon after all!

To find out more, read my interview with her here.