CELEBRITY
INTERVIEW
Friendly
fire
Meet Sara Davies, the Dragon with the tender touch…
WO R D S: J U L I E B U R N I STON .
I M AG E S: C HR I S B OOT H.
E
ven dressed down in her off-duty
jeans and jumper, Sara Davies looks
fantastic.
She greets me with a hug and makes
herself at home in Wynyard Hall’s beautiful
Mirror Room. I compliment her on her
achievements and effortless self-confidence.
“Do you know, I wasn’t confident at all
as a kid,” she admits. “When I started big
school I’d get the bus across the road from
our bungalow and Dad said it broke his
heart every morning when he’d see all these
kids at the bus stop and me standing on my
own. Even though I’d known them for years,
I wasn’t in the in-crowd and never had the
confidence to ask if I could stand with them.”
It’s incredible to think that a lady who is a
TV favourite and whose company, Crafter’s
Companion, has a £44m turnover could be
lacking in self-esteem.
“My husband Simon always used to joke,
‘Which Sara are you being today?’ I wore
so many hats that I never knew which was
the real me. I’d go to business meetings
and power dress because I felt that’s what
I had to do. These last couple of years I’ve
had the confidence to be myself, and it’s so
liberating.”
Even on the hugely successful Dragons’
Den, Sara was determined not to change. “I
remember meeting the producers and they
said ‘You come across really well on camera,
but you’re just a little bit too nice - this is
Dragons’ Den.’ Well, I chewed it over, then
thought, ‘No, I want to be me’.”
Fortunately Sara got the gig and, true to
her word, she hasn’t changed a bit.
“When friends see me on the show they
go ‘Sara! I can’t believe you told someone
they were all fur coat and no knickers!’” she
laughs.
Another element of Sara that’s absolutely
not up for negotiation is her accent. “It’s
who I am,” she states. “When I first started
presenting in America, they suggested I had
elocution lessons and I really took umbrage
to that, but when I got to the bottom of it
they just wanted me to slow the hell down.
“I read on a forum after my first show,
‘I can’t understand a word this girl from
England says, but she was so excited about
that product that I just had to buy it!’”
The higher her profile becomes, the more
Sara is recognised. “People will look at me as
if to say, ‘I know you from somewhere,’ then
as soon as I open my mouth it clicks.
“It doesn’t bother me at all except when
I’m in a restaurant and people try to get
a selfie with me in the background,” she
laughs. “It puts me off my dinner and
results in a dodgy picture with spaghetti
down my top.”
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