Day 12 of the 🏺 13 Days of Recommended Holiday Reality TV ✨
12. The Great Pottery Throw Down
The holiday magic
BBC said ► “Ten home potters from around the country head to Stoke-on-Trent, the home of pottery, in their quest to become Top Potter”
why I recommend it ► a supportive competition between talented artists that doesn’t involve food!
where to watch â–ş
free: The Roku Channel (seasons 6 and 7)
subscription: HBO Max (seasons 1 to 5)
Why you should watch
Because The Great Pottery Throw Down is produced by Love Productions for the BBC, just like The Great British Bake-Off, I was ready to be instantly charmed—swept away to a countryside to watch amateur potters throw clay and sculpt masterpieces.
Instead of a tent perched in the middle of a sun-dappled, verdant countryside, the drone drifts over the peaked roofs of a massive, industrial brick buildings in the middle of a city. Instead of sunlight streaming through, the contestants were crowded into an indoor room. And instead of three challenges in two days, there would be one challenge that took days upon days to complete.
I was skeptical that this could come close to the heart of my beloved Great British Bake-Off. But I should have known to trust Love Productions and the BBC, because The Great Pottery Throw Down quickly pulled me in, the warmth of its kiln and its contestants radiating off the screen, demonstrating their shared love and talent for a craft.
Each episode basically begins with its version of the showstopper challenge—create a sink, or nesting bowls, or a sculpture, for example. The contestants have a limited amount of time for each stage of the competition. The most time-consuming part, firing in the kiln, is handled by a non-contestant, Richard Miller, who quickly becomes a character alongside the judges and host, with his onesie jumpsuit, and the way he cares for the contestants’ work.
In the meantime, there are two shorter challenges: a technical challenge, which is judged blind, and the “Throw Down” challenge, which has the contestants all sit at pottery wheels and attempt some kind of speed-based throwing challenge. (Throwing, I learned, just means manipulating clay on the pottery wheel.)
Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones, both ceramic artists and potters themselves, are perfect judges. If a bowl is cracked, they don’t smash it onto the floor like Gordon Ramsay might, but make sympathetic noises like you’d make to a baby that’s tipped over its water. They understand the difficulties, and also can explain why something has gone wrong.
What I like best about them is that they’re not searching for perfection, but for creativity.
There are no soggy bottom innuendos here: instead, just a room full of contestants yanking away on wet phalluses, or a contestant observing how vaginal another contestant’s piece looks—and then being gently mocked by several women for his lack of understanding of what vaginas actually look like.
So, yes, everyone is having a lot of fun, including the contestants, who are amateur potters, though some of their day jobs (painter, artist, art teacher) are certainly adjacent. They’re supportive and kind to each other, although not always to themselves as time pressures and missteps complicate their creations.
Whether you’re making a gift for someone and want to be inspired, or just want a gift of a warm competition that everyone can watch together, The Great Pottery Throw Down has a lot to offer.
✨ 13 Days of Holiday Reality TV ✨
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