First Indian to enter Dragons' Den

• Tej Lalvani is set to become the first Indian to star in the popular BBC television show, Dragons' Den, in which would-be entrepreneurs with good business ideas make a pitch for seed capital to a panel of five wealthy investors in return for a share of the equity.

An entrepreneur might offer an investor a 15 per cent share in exchange for funding of, say, £25,000. If the risk is worth taking, a "Dragon" might start negotiations with: "I will give you £20,000 for a 25 per cent share."

There are many international versions of the show but in Britain, Dragons' Den, which was launched in 2005, is about to start filming the 14th series - with Tej as the newest recruit to the five-member panel.

The BBC will film the 15th series "back to back", said Tej, who is only 42 but already CEO of a global business.

He was groomed by his entrepreneurial 85-year-old father, Kartar Lalvani (socialite Bina Ramani's elder brother), who founded Vitabiotics, now "the UK's number one vitamins company" with a $350 million turnover.

Tej controls the firm's £30 million advertising budget and recruited its two glamorous brand ambassadors - David Gandy, Britain's best-known male model, and Nicole Scherzinger, formerly lead singer with the American pop group Pussy Cat Dolls, thrice X-Factor UK judge and Unicef ambassador (and celebrity guest at Sanjay Hinduja's Udaipur wedding in 2015).

Tej, who was egged on by a friend, tells me the BBC began with a shortlist of 20 hopefuls: "I had screentests and was interviewed several times. The BBC chose Steve Parish (part owner and chairman of Crystal Palace Football Club) but he decided he didn't have the time, so finally the BBC chose me."

Tej will become a national star once the 14th series of Dragons' Den starts transmitting in July.

Tata drama

• Imagine a hard-hitting play about the Tata crisis at Singur, set in Singur and involving local people in Singur.

What Punjabi-origin Kully Thiarai is attempting a year into her job as artistic director of the National Theatre Wales is not so different.

We're Still Here is a play created with the Common Wealth theatre company about the future of workers at the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot. It will premiere in Port Talbot in September.

Kully, who grew up in Smetwick in the West Midlands in a totally non-artistic family, the daughter of a labourer in the local steelworks, says that the play is "about deepening our relationship with the people of Port Talbot. There is talent everywhere, there is creativity everywhere, there are just not the opportunities everywhere. There were no opportunities for people like me growing up in Smethwick, so I'm always going to fight for those opportunities for others."

Remarkable lady.

Royals at war

• The Queen has died, Prince Charles has taken over as King Charles III amid a political and constitutional crisis, there is rioting on the streets and a tank parked in front of Buckingham Palace.

This was the premise of the hit play, King Charles III, which the BBC has turned into a TV drama that will be screened on Wednesday, May 10.

Tim Pigott-Smith, who played Charles in the play, reprised the role for the TV drama and fortunately completed filming before his recent death.

Some say the whole enterprise - especially summoning the ghost of Princess Diana - is tasteless.

But playwright Mike Bartlett said: "I think the ghost is very much part of the Shakespearean form and is very much a dramatic device."

Lara lecture

• Brian Lara, considered the greatest batsman of modern times alongside Sachin Tendulkar, is to deliver the 2017 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's on September 4.

What Lara shares with Sachin is that neither hit a Test ton at Lord's - and hence do not figure in the prestigious honours board at the home of cricket.

On the cricketing front, Cheteshwar Pujara is going to play county cricket for Nottinghamshire - which means he will enjoy the hospitality of local Indian multimillionaire Nat Puri, 77, who has gifted over £1 million to Trent Bridge and is the club's honorary life vice-president.

Tittle tattle

• Firefighters from West Yorkshire made national headlines when they rescued a sheep which had fallen 15 feet down a narrow crevice in the Bridestones Rocks, on moors north of Todmorden - and named the animal Dolly.

The firemen could not resist a witty message on Facebook: "'Barrilliant' rescue by f-fighters @ #Cleckheaton Stn - Dolly is 'alive & wool' after getting stuck bet-ween rocks".

They went on to add, "Firefighters flocked to rescue Dolly after things went 'pear-sheeped' for her."

What Dolly thinks of the puns is not recorded. Now a celebrity, Dolly will reckon she has a good chance of not ending up at a baa-baa-cue.