The U.K.’s best home potters are throwing down once again in the return of the hit reality competition series, The Great Pottery Throw Down. ET has the exclusive first look at season 4, which is now hosted by Derry Girls star Siobhan McSweeney and premieres in April on HBO Max. 

From the production team behind The Great British Bake Off, the competition to determine top potter continues to be both soothing and surprisingly sensual -- with plenty of tears and drama over making ceramics in the mix.

This season, 12 contests are put through weekly challenges, including the popular Raku test, as judges, master potter Keith Brymer Jones and ceramics expert Rich Miller, determine whose work is worthy of making it to the end. 

“All the potters this year are wonderful and there is something quite heartening about people doing something they love and watching them grow through the weeks,” Jones tells ET. “It’s quite magical to watch someone start with a lump of clay and turn it into an object of beauty, and boy there is some great work this year!!”

And like in seasons’ past, these competitors’ final products will certainly bring Jones to tears. (For the inexperienced, his tears are like Paul Hollywood’s handshakes.)  

“I think I was more emotional because of the circumstances,” the judge says, revealing that filming amid the coronavirus pandemic added to the intensity of the competition. “The potters, and Siobhan, Rich and I had to all isolate through the duration of filming. It made the bond between the potters even stronger and made me realize how we were all invested in promoting creativity, and in some ways made their work more personal.” 

The Great Pottery Throw Down season 4 premieres April 1 on HBO Max.

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