'I was quite calm on the day of filming,” explains Halliburton. 'I have a working product that the Dragons could invest in; it’s not an idea or a set of products that don’t exist yet. The design, manufacturing tooling, branding, patenting and even the packaging is all finished – I was there to get them interested and to get their help with the retailing side of the business.'

And help they did, with Halliburton walking away with an offer of £200,000, one of the biggest ever awarded in the programme.

'We have been developing plans since the close of filming and we are currently negotiating the best way forward,' said Halliburton. 'The episode itself has caused a wave of interest, website traffic has soared and Waterbuoy is taking an impressive volume of pre-orders through the new on-line chandlery at www.water-buoy.com, the only place on the Internet that you can buy Waterbuoy at the moment.

'However, UK, European and USA distribution deals are now nearing completion and the first big batches of retail product are expected in shops before Christmas.'