The BEST episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down
Every episode of The Great Pottery Throw Down ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down!
Twelve of Britain's best home potters compete to be crowned best at the wheel.
#1 - The Final: Garden Totem Sculpture & a Devil's Work Challenge
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/6/2022
Ellie Taylor and Siobhán McSweeney host the conclusion of the contest. In the first round, the finalists must create a garden totem sculpture that tells their life story. Rich Miller then sets them a regal devil's work challenge before he and fellow judge Keith Brymer Jones decide which of the three potters will be crowned this year's champion
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#2 - The Final: Quirky Tea Set and a Throwing Challenge
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/11/2020
The three finalists go head-to-head as they face their toughest challenges so far, including making a tea set inspired by the Mad Hatter's tea party. Finally, the amateur potters embark on a throwing challenge not for the faint-hearted, before one of them is crowned the winner.
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#3 - Self-Sculpture, Sawdust Kilns and Candlesticks
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/20/2022
Siobhan McSweeney returns to host the quarter-final, in which the contestants are challenged to create a self-sculpture and build their own sawdust kilns. For the second task, they must create candlesticks under pressure, before judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller decide who has secured the final places in the next round
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#9 - Episode 7
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/16/2017
It is semi-final week in Stoke-on-Trent and just four potters remain, determined to take their place in the final. In a very special throw down, one of the UK's most loved comedians Johnny Vegas replaces Keith Brymer Jones at the wheel. Johnny, a former pupil of Kate Malone, demonstrates how to throw a fully functioning teapot in just one minute. The potters are given five minutes to throw five. In a spot test with a difference, the potters can make anything they like. But whatever they choose, it must be a signature piece to wow the judges. For their main make, the potters face their biggest and most complicated challenge so far - to hand build and decorate a fully functioning toilet over four gruelling days. Who will survive and make it to the final? Whose toilet will be exhibited in the Pot of the Week gallery? And who will be flushed out of the pottery?
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#10 - Episode 1
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/3/2015
The search for a top home potter begins with a four-day assignment to make stackable kitchen bowls from lumps of earthenware clay. Throwing, trimming and decorating are just some of the stages of the make. The potters' every move is watched over by judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones, while Sara Cox makes them feel right at home in the heart of the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent. While they wait for their bowls to dry and fire, the potters face two more challenges of their potting skill. The spot test is a chance to show off their technical ability against the clock. This week, they must make and attach handles onto twenty mugs using a technique called pulling - with mixed and amusing results. And in the throw down, the judges test the potters' skill at the wheel. This week, they must throw as many egg cups as they can in twenty minutes. They must throw 'off the hump' - a technique which helped to bring about modern-day mass production of small pots. But which potter will make the most? On the last day, the potters' bowls finally come out of the kiln and they see whether all their hard work has paid off. Who will be this week's top potter? And who will be the first to leave the pottery?
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#11 - Episode 6
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/9/2017
It is the quarter-final and two potters will be sent home. In the throw down, the potters have just ten minutes at the wheel to throw the widest bowl they can while blindfolded. For their spot test, they must carve a pattern onto the surface of a Greek urn using the centuries-old technique of sgraffito. Derived from the Italian word for scratched, sgraffito involves etching through a layer of coloured clay to reveal a contrasting colour beneath. In the main make, the potters must hand coil and decorate four Russian nesting dolls. The top and bottom of each doll must slot together using a flange and gallery connection and the four must stack inside each other seamlessly. Who will clinch their place in the semi-final and which two potters will be walking the cobbles home?
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#13 - The Final: 1920s Art Deco Punch Bowl & Decanters
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/14/2021
Siobhán McSweeney hosts the grand final of the pottery contest, which turns the clock back to the 1920s with a series of art deco-themed challenges. The contenders must make a punch bowl and decanters and face the tiniest throwing challenge the show has ever set. Judges Rich Miller and Keith Brymer Jones are on board to assess the efforts and crown this year's winner.
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#14 - Naked Raku & a Floral Challenge
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/31/2021
It's naked raku week in the pottery, as the potters throw, burnish and fire a pair of vases to impress judges Rich Miller and Keith Brymer Jones. In the spot test, guest judge and flower-making expert Rita Floyd sets a floral challenge, but who will be named potter of the week, and who will leave the pottery?
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#16 - Episode 3
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/17/2015
It is week three and the home potters are back in Stoke-on-Trent for more tough tests of their ceramic skills, each hoping to be named top potter. They are playing with fire in their main make, when judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones ask them to make ten identical long-necked vases using the raku technique. This Japanese method of decorating and firing dates back to the 16th century and requires the potters to take their red-hot vases straight out of the kiln and plunge them into a bin full of combustible materials. For their spot test, the potters must produce the finest decoration on three jugs using slip - watered-down clay. It is an ancient method which first enabled potters to colour and pattern their work. And for the throw down, the potters have just 15 minutes at the wheel to produce exact copies of two ornate candlesticks thrown by master potter Keith.
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#17 - Episode 5
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/1/2015
It's semi-final week in Stoke-on-Trent and just five potters remain, determined to secure their place in the final. For their main make, the potters face their most technically demanding challenge yet - creating a decorative chandelier in bone china. This delicate and translucent clay was first produced in Britain at the end of the 18th century as a cheap alternative to Chinese porcelain. The potters must pour liquid clay into plaster moulds to make the pieces for their chandeliers in a process called slip casting. For their spot test, steady hands are required when judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones test the potters' banding skills. They must paint consistent and fine lines onto plates which are revolving on the wheel. And for the throw down, they have just 15 minutes on the wheel to make the largest closed sphere they can, a hollow ball of clay which could collapse at any moment.
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#20 - Episode 2
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/10/2015
Nine passionate potters return to Stoke-on-Trent for more tests of their skills and creativity, all aiming to be named top potter. This week they face a big main make for the smallest room in the house - a decorative hand basin. The potters are using a technique which is over 15,000 years old, coiling ropes of clay, one on top of the other. But the slightest mistake and their lovingly crafted basins could explode in the heat of the kiln. The basins will take seven days to make, so in the meantime judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones set more tests of the potters' skills. In the spot test the potters must add a surface design to nine plain tiles, a technique which flourished in Stoke-on-Trent's heyday. And in a fiendish throw down, the potters are challenged to throw the tallest cylinder they can while blindfolded.
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#22 - A Pedestal Sink & a Chamber Pot
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/7/2021
Siobhán McSweeney hosts the semi-final of the pottery contest, in which the four remaining contestants face their biggest challenge to date. They must make a decorative chamber pot and a fully functional pedestal sink, before judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller decide which three potters will be going through to the final.
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#23 - Episode 4
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/24/2015
It is week four in Stoke-on-Trent and just six potters remain, all striving to be named top potter. For their main make, judges Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones set the potters a monumental task - hand-building a five-foot garden sculpture out of slabs of clay. At stake is a place in the semi-final and their designs this week are more ambitious than ever before. But building big is fraught with danger and even the slightest technical error could cause their sculptures to shatter in the heat of the kiln. For their spot test, the potters must transform an ordinary chimney pot into a decorative strawberry pot by cutting holes in the original and adding pouches to the side. And for the throw down, the potters have just ten minutes on the wheel to throw the widest plate they can. Judge Keith makes plate-throwing look easy, but who can match him for size?
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