FOR a man who professes disdain for the media and, more specifically, its coverage of business, Richard Farleigh is doing pretty well out of it.

The Australian-born investor is emerging as the quiet star of the new series of Dragons’ Den, the BBC2 show that gives would-be entrepreneurs the chance to win financial backing for their ideas from a panel of successful business figures.

Farleigh doesn’t say much, but when he speaks, his four fellow dragons listen; and the floppy-haired multimillionaire is not afraid to risk their fire.

But his patience with contestants has also earned him the nickname “Mr Nice” on set. “That’s what the producers called me because I didn’t have that cutting attitude towards the people who came on,” he said from his home in Monaco.

The friendly exterior masks a steely attitude, though. “Entrepreneurs can’t just come on the show and expect to get money. They have to risk humiliation. The producers did not put pressure on anyone to be nasty. But it’s like Pop Idol — it would be boring without Simon Cowell.”

Farleigh’s background is anything but boring. He was born in a small town in Victoria, the son of a violent and alcoholic sheep shearer. At the age of three, he was put into care with his ten brothers and sisters.

Farleigh was described as “backward” by one teacher but went on to win a scholarship to the University of New South Wales, where he gained a first-class degree in economics.

He quickly forged a successful banking career in Australia and Bermuda and had made enough money by the age of 34 to “retire” to Monte Carlo.

As an angel investor on Dragons’ Den, he said he had simply applied his successful investment principles to TV. Farleigh’s rule of thumb is that about one in ten ideas is worth investing in. “We did about 100 pitches for the series,” he said.

“We put money into close to one in ten. That’s not bad at all. I think the quality of the ideas was pretty typical. The show’s pretty realistic.”

Outside the TV studio, Farleigh has built up an enviable track record with about 60 start-up firms. They include successes such as Wolfson Micro-electronics and the computer- processor maker Clearspeed, as well as Home House, the private members’ club in London’s West End. He has had his share of failures as well. The most high-profile was an attempt to launch a website selling tennis rackets that bombed despite being endorsed by fellow Australian and former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash.

Some of his picks on Dragons’ Den have been quirky, such as the device that boils an egg without water. But Farleigh hopes they will be just as successful as some of the other ideas he has backed.

The thing about start-ups, Farleigh said, was that the chances of making money were higher than by buying shares in larger firms. “There is an opportunity for investors with smaller companies,” he said. “The chances of them being mispriced is higher than with a bigger company. IBM may be a good investment but it’s much less likely that its (share) price is radically wrong.

“I don’t think I could help IBM much, but at a smaller company I might be able to make a difference — and it’s enjoyable, too.”

A few months ago Farleigh published his first book, Taming The Lion. In it he takes pot-shots at newspapers that routinely quote so-called experts who, he said, were anything but.

He sees no contradiction in taking the media shilling himself, as the dragons are all publicly putting their own money at risk. “The media can make (investing) look easy. We’re not doing that. We’re showing how difficult it is to sort the good from the bad.

“The dragons are successful people and have more credibility than a lot of people in the press. We’re not saying you should do it this way or that, we are doing what we do in real life and people can draw their own conclusions.”

Now 45, with a fortune estimated at £120m, Farleigh said he enjoys doing different things, “like going on the TV show”.

“Life’s more enriching that way,” he said. If he can enrich a few more people along the way, then so much the better.