Melanie Sykes joins Channel 4 for inspiring pottery programme

The BT Sport personality is heading to the potters wheel.

Melanie Sykes, centre, with  James Toseland and Neil Hodgson at BT Sport.

“I am so pleased to have been asked to present The Great Pottery Throw Down. I am a huge fan of art in all its forms and love being around creative people. It’s such a feel good, inspiring show and it is an honour and a thrill to be working on it.” – Melanie Sykes

Channel 4 has commissioned a new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down from the purveyors of television poverty porn such as Benefits Street – Love Productions. Melanie Sykes joins the latest series as host, alongside returning judge and master potter Keith Brymer Jones and new judge and award-winning ceramicist Sue Pryke.

The ten-part series follows tweleve passionate, home potters as they strive to create their most intricate and imaginative work, before their pieces are judged by the expert judging duo and a variety of well-known faces and experts from the world of pottery.

Bruce gave the potters wheel a new celebrity status in the 1970s on the Generation Game.

Throughout the series, Keith, Sue and guest judges will demonstrate specialist techniques and offer advice, ultimately deciding which potter becomes Potter of the Week – and which potter must be sent home.

Pottery and the potters wheel became famous on television in the 1950s and 60s when it featured as ‘Interlude’ footage on BBC Television. The Beeb later took both the wheel and pottery creation to a new audience as a game feature during Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game in the 1970s and 1990s.

“We all need more joyous escapism in our lives, so we’re thrilled to welcome The Great Pottery Throw Down to the channel. Sue’s stellar ceramic skills make her the perfect judge to join pottery don Keith and with the delightful Melanie Sykes at the helm we hope to get the viewer’s love of pottery all fired up.” – Sarah Lazenby, Head of Features and Formats, Channel 4