LONDON — When the potter Keith Brymer Jones was approached to entrance a brand new TV present about making ceramics, he was skeptical. “Pottery, on tv? Actually? It might be like watching paint dry,” he recalled pondering.
Greater than seven years later, he’s proved himself incorrect: That present, “The Nice Pottery Throw Down,” is mild actuality TV, however it’s definitely not boring. It has constructed a loyal viewership that tunes in week after week to observe novice potters remodel lumps of clay into tea units, chimneys, clocks and bathrooms. The present is at present airing its fifth season in Britain, with 4 seasons out there to stream in the USA on HBO Max.
Brymer Jones was operating a big ceramics firm, Make International, when the provide got here via from Love Productions, the corporate that additionally made “The Nice British Bake Off” (which screens in the USA as “The Nice British Baking Present”). He was adamant, he mentioned, that he didn’t need to make “automotive crash TV” that “set individuals as much as fail.”
Every week on “The Nice Pottery Throw Down,” one of many present’s contestants is eradicated primarily based on their work in two challenges, and one of the best work earns one other the title “Potter of the Week.” However the present is as a lot about sharing as it’s about competitors. The potters typically swap tools and recommendation, and when Brymer Jones is introduced with a clay creation that particularly strikes him, he cries.
In a latest video interview from his studio within the coastal city of Whitstable, England, tears additionally sprung to Brymer Jones’s eyes when he remembered discovering clay as a baby and mentioned the contestants’ private progress. These are edited excerpts from that dialog.
How did you come to be on the present? I perceive an Adele music could have been concerned.
My enterprise accomplice got here throughout the Adele video for “Rolling in the Deep,” with all this damaged pottery in it. Now, he’s a little bit of a numbers man, and this Adele video was probably the most watched music video on the time on-line. So he says, “You’re a singer, you could possibly gown in an Adele costume and we may do a spoof.” So we did this video, and it goes a bit viral.
After which Richard McKerrow, who made “The Nice British Bake Off,” noticed it. He phoned me up and mentioned, “Do you need to be a decide on this new program?” It actually had nothing to do with my technical capacity as a potter and every thing to do with being in an Adele gown, singing actually badly.
Once I did the primary of many check screens, they requested me to make one thing on the wheel. So I made just a little pot, and it took a couple of minute and a half. And clearly, for TV, that’s actually good: It’s fast. And so they mentioned, “Are you able to make a bowl,” and so I made a bowl, and it took two minutes. A girl mentioned, “Blimey, what do you name that?” And I mentioned, “It’s throwing.” She mentioned, “How about ‘Throw Down’?” And that’s the way it all happened.
What do you suppose makes “The Nice Pottery Throw Down” such pleasing TV?
What they’ve managed to seize with the images is the tactile nature and sensuality that you just get with clay. And on the backside of our each day name sheet is written in large pink capital letters: “They mustn’t be known as contestants, they’re potters.” We actually respect all of the potters that come on the present as a result of it’s an extremely courageous factor to do, to come back onto nationwide tv and be judged.
The entire potters on the present are very expert, however they’re gaining access to tools and assets that almost all dwelling potters would by no means see.
These potters have gone on a journey of self-discovery, studying new methods. As judges, it’s simply so fascinating to see. They actually do shock themselves — they don’t know they’ve it in them. And just a bit little bit of stress, just a little little bit of creativeness, and so they come up trumps. It’s sensible.
It was so humorous, within the final season, once we filmed underneath Covid rules, everybody needed to isolate and the potters had been put up in a deluxe searching lodge out in the midst of nowhere. That they had their very own chef, their very own housekeeper, and so they even constructed their very own studio, to follow, as a result of they couldn’t go dwelling. And midway via the filming, they had been allowed for a few days to return and see their household, and half of them mentioned, “You realize what? I believe we’d reasonably keep right here.”
I perceive you probably did your first apprenticeship in pottery at 18. Going proper again, what was your very first expertise with clay like?
Properly, I’ll begin crying now. All of us bear in mind an influential and inspirational trainer. Mine was Mr. Mortman. Once I was 11, he plunked a lump of clay down and mentioned, “Go do one thing with that.” And the second I touched the clay, I had an epiphany. I suffered from dyslexia — really, I’ve bought to have a look at a special manner of claiming it, as a result of if I hadn’t had dyslexia, I doubt if I’d be doing what I’m doing now. Dyslexic individuals have a significantly better affinity with form, type and quantity.
I bear in mind making this pottery owl, and Mr. Mortman mentioned, “That appears actually good, Keith.” And fairly frankly, it was the primary time any trainer had ever paid a praise for something I’d finished. I assumed, “Properly, I’ll persist with this.”
A life-changing second. Has being on TV has additionally modified issues?
I get plenty of individuals coming as much as me, from varied walks of life, speaking about my emotional state on the present. I get quite a lot of messages from ex-servicemen, consider it or not, and I bought lots in lockdown saying, “Carry on doing what you’re doing, there’s no disgrace in exposing your emotional state.” And it’s true: It’s one other dimension to speaking. And that’s what it’s all about.
How has doing the present influenced your personal pottery follow?
I’m the director of a ceramics firm, and that may imply taking a look at a display screen too many hours a day; “Throw Down” helped me to get again in contact with the clay itself. And you realize, it’s all concerning the clay. It actually helped me to get again in contact with not only one specific kind of clay however all differing types. They’re all particular person. All of them have totally different personalities, and you utilize them to do various things. That’s what we attempt to do on the present.
In reality, I’m turning a load of mugs on the wheel in the meanwhile, placing the handles on, and I got here off the wheel for this name. My accomplice, Marge, typically says that if I don’t contact clay for 3 or 4 days, I do get a bit tetchy.
