DESPITE a heated exchange, a Poole entrepreneur with plenty of fire in his belly won the backing of a dragon to develop his fancy dress business.

Managing director of Fun Fancy Dress Ltd Peter Hart, his wife Michelle, five of his seven children and some of his staff braved the heat of hit-TV show the Dragon’s Den in a bid to persuade one of the multi-millionaires to give up £100,000 to develop the business.

The group dressed up to demonstrate the company’s products, including an Indian, a pirate, a hippy and an Army girl, but Mr Hart told how he had to endure a tough cross-examination from two of the shows heavyweights, Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden, before Scotsman Duncan Bannatyne stepped in.

The famously caustic millionaire offered Mr Hart the cash for 60 per cent of his business, but the 39-year-old, from Hamworthy, stood his ground and after some negotiation they shook hands on a deal for £100,000 in exchange for a 50 per cent stake in Fun Fancy Dress Ltd.

“It was the most exhausted I have ever been without physically doing anything,” Mr Hart, whose business, which sells fancy dress costumes, said.

“We’re excited. When we look back at the day it felt like it was all over in 10 or 15 minutes, although we were in the studio for more than an hour. It was such a haze I can’t remember a lot about it. We’re big fans of the show and have watched it since it started. We’ve just received the documents from Duncan’s team and are now going through due diligence before we start working with him.”

Mr Hart, who left school when he was 15, explained how the idea for the business, which now includes a warehouse and two stores, began with his wife who started selling fancy dress costumes on the internet.

Mr Hart’s pitch was shown on BBC 2 last night and will be repeated tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16.