Selling their dreams to the dragons

Dragons' Den (BBC2)

Murder: The Mystery Of Ashkelon (five)

ANDREW the table wobble stopper was told it was "a stupid invention" and Simon refused to reveal the secret of the engines on his personal air vehicle, so his Sinclair C5 of the skies remained grounded.

Dragons' Den, on the other hand, should be a success for its creators. There's nothing we enjoy more than people being brought down to earth with a bump and this series, in which budding entrepreneurs beg for cash to kickstart their projects, does that to perfection.

Reality strikes through the comments of those they have to persuade to part with their cash - five multi-millionaires, including the North-East's Duncan Bannatyne. They didn't get where they are today by throwing money around like confetti. They take some convincing that projects are viable, their creators have drive and a profit will be made.

For some, their performance lets down what they're promoting. After a stuttering, spluttering presentation for a music download website, the panel declared that "one day that will be a big hit but not those lads".

Marketing manager Andrew wanted £87,000 for his Stable Table, eight layers of plastic held together by a pin that can be shoved under wobbly table legs. "You've solved the problem and I don't care that you did," he was told.

Some take rejection better than others. Gillian, with her luxury organic aromatherapy products such as Himalayan mountain bath salts, didn't take kindly to being told she was unprepared and had an inability to listen to anybody. "I don't have arrogance, I have belief," she snapped back.

The only one to go away with any money - a cool £120,000 - was Tracy, who makes dresses for senior women in the workplace. At £600 each, they must be some dresses.

There was concern that she was taking £70,000 a year salary from the fledging business and refused to take a pay cut. But she won the support of Rachel Elnaugh when a fellow panellist made a comment about Tracy not being able to combine being a new mother with getting a business off the ground.

The fine line between entrepreneur and dreamer was noted. Watching people's dreams come crashing down may have something of the gladiatorial contests of old about it, but it makes good TV.

From money to murder. The Mystery Of Ashkelon investigated a 2,000-year-old case and uncovered a tale of sex, murder and infanticide. Archaeologists discovered the skeletons of more than 100 babies in a Roman sewer in the ruined city of Ashkelon. What were taken, at first, to be chicken bones turned out to be babies' bones.

Modern scientific methods were used to date them and DNA tests to find out the sex of the babies. Girls rather than boys were known to be victims of infanticide in Roman times, but the Ashkelon babies were mostly male.

It was fascinating following the clues and the conclusion that the babies were thrown away by prostitutes in the private bath-house where the remains were found because boys weren't as useful as girls, who could be raised as the next generation of prostitutes.

One expert conceded the babies might just have been stillborn. But that would have ruined a good story.