Cracks start to show in fight to win the pottery crown
THE GREAT POTTERY THROWDOWN BBC2, 8pm
ORIGINALLY billed as Bake Off’s muckier cousin, this amateur pottery competition has always been rife with innuendo. We thought they meant mucky clay, not language.
Sara Cox has been giddy with naughty puns, but even she is reduced to a quivering mess in tonight’s final when it all gets a bit much.
In walks a buff French guy, who promptly whips off his T-shirt to reveal a ripping torso. Clover nearly passes out there and then, while fellow finalists Richard and Ryan exchange smirks and eye rolls.
It’s the Spot Test, and the three potters must sculpt the “so ridiculous it looks like a cartoon” body of special guest, ice dancer Sylvain Longchambon.
He even does a few press-ups before the task begins, just to pump up his pecs a bit more. Then Sara morphs into a giggling teenager while practising her schoolgirl French.
“How are you approaching the nipples?” Richard asks Ryan, in a sentence he probably never thought he’d say.
But enough childish behaviour, there is also some serious potting to get on with. And there’s a final throw down – to make as many Japanese lanterns as they can in 10 minutes.
It’s not as simple as it looks as they have to throw them the Japanese way, with the wheel turning the other way.
And for their Main Make, judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones give the potters their hardest task yet. They want them to make a pair of identical, fully-functioning light features out of porcelain, which is a nightmare to work with. It’s so tricky that for one finalist, cracks start to show. I’m talking about actual great big cracks. There will be tears – and perhaps not just from Keith.