‘It’s a really lovely mix of people, but all brought together through their love of clay’: Sara’s potty for TV show return

THE Great British Bake Off may have left the BBC, but viewers can take heart in the fact its sister show, The Great Pottery Throw Down, is returning to the Beeb, with Sara Cox once again on hosting duties.

The series is made by Love Productions, the company behind Bake Off, but Sara admits she didn’t know what kind of reaction to expect when it first aired in 2015.

“I knew it had a good pedigree behind it, but it’s quite overwhelming just how much people have taken to it,” says the Bolton-born radio and TV presenter.

“It’s so exciting. It’s nice to be up in Stoke-on-Trent at Middleport Pottery — I absolutely love it there.

“You see the gas kilns in the distance as you get off the train, it’s lovely.

Series two will see another 10 plucky amateur potters, ready to take to the wheel and compete to become the champion of clay.

“We’ve got such a wonderful mix of different people,” says 42-year-old Sara.

“We’ve got a mortgage advisor, cage fighter, male model, housewife, and somebody who works at the Quaker House.

“It’s a really lovely mix of people, but all brought together through their love of clay.”

The success, of course, lies in the casting, and Sara admits it takes “a long time” to find the right mix of people.

“You want all the different personalities in there, and the different backgrounds as well,” she says.

“Obviously, we want people to think of pottery as being something anybody can take up, no matter what your age or your background.”

Overseeing their progress are two judges, master potter Keith Brymer Jones and ceramic artist Kate Malone, who task the potters with three creative challenges each episode, designed to test skills and showcase craftmanship.

“We have guest judges this time as well,” adds Sara. These include ceramic designer Emma Bridgewater, Paul Cummins, who created the breathtaking display of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London in 2014 and, perhaps surprisingly, comedian Johnny Vegas.

“Johnny was Kate’s pupil when she was tutoring at a polytechnic,” explains Sara.

“He came and judged the throw down and he threw for us, and then the guys had to repeat what he did and he was absolutely fantastic.”

On paper, the show might not sound emotionally wrought, but just as The Great British Bake Off is edited to induce heart-stopping moments, so too is this — and it usually involves the “bloomin’ kiln”.

“We’re slaves to it!” says former model Sara, who’s also a mum of three, to Lola, 12, Isaac, eight, and six-year-old Renee.

“People have their plans, but when the nerves are thrown in there and they’re up against the clock, it all goes out the window sometimes.

“We have disasters, but equally we did have moments where someone had a completely disastrous start and then they really rose from the flames, so there’s some really uplifting bits as well.”

Sara, who started out on TV in The Girlie Show and The Big Breakfast in the 90s, is always on hand to lighten the mood if necessary.

“I sometimes try to make them laugh because we’re not saving lives here, we’re making something out of clay,” she says.

“It can get incredibly intense, but I try to loosen it up a little bit, and remind them to breathe.”

While promoting series one, Sara said the programme had inspired her to try pottery herself.

So has she embraced it?

“No!” she laughs. “Though I’d still love to.”

With so much to manage, Cox is the first to credit her “very nice husband” for his support.

“In a marriage, that’s what you do, isn’t it?” she says. “One’s got to step up when the other one’s working.

“The kids do miss me, though.”

They might miss their mum, but she insists the kids aren’t impressed by her day job.

“I’m just Mum. I’m the one who makes them brush their teeth,” says Sara.

“I wish I did get star treatment at home, but it’s quite the opposite!”

The Great Pottery Throw Down is on BBC2 on Thursdays at 8pm.