Channel 4 Casts On 'Game of Wool' for 2025

First, there was The Great British Baking Show, then The Great British Sewing Bee, followed by The Great Pottery Throwdown. Now, Channel 4 has commissioned another reality competition series based on the arts of homemaking: The Game of Wool. (The series is technically set in Scotland, hence the eschewing of The Great British moniker.) Grab your favorite circular needles and a couple of skeins of self-changing colorways, and don’t forget the stitch markers. It’s time for a host to come on down and call “On Your Mark, Get Set, KNIT.” Because when you play the game of wool you either bind off or get carded.

Channel 4 initially announced the series was being commissioned in the summer of 2024 when the audition age first launched to find the best home knitters in the UK. The audition process has not yet closed (it ends Friday, January 5, 2025), so the show has not yet finished casting on its knitters. However, they do have one cast member who will help encourage the shyer ones to gather up their stashes and bring their knitting bags: The show’s host, Olympic champion diver and knitting enthusiast Tom Daley. Daley only recently made the career change to presenting on Channel 4; this series will mark his first significant hosting role. However, as anyone who has ever sighed over the Chris Evans sweater in Knives Out can tell you, some men look great in sheep fluff.

The series’ first season will consist of eight one-hour installments. Ten ambitious knitters will face a series of complex and sometimes knotty challenges as they yarn over to compete to become the UK’s first TV Knitting Champion. 

Here's the series synopsis:

Set against the picturesque countryside of rural Scotland, which is steeped in knitting and wool heritage, each episode sees the knitters tackle two challenges: a group knit where they’ll be working together in teams on a highly complex project, as well as an individual knit where they’ll take on individual briefs that will test their capabilities and skill level. Each week, the competitors must create a whole host of unique makes and larger-than-life sculptural pieces – all made from wool. These include clothing, jewellery, home accessories, furniture, sculptures and they may even try their hands at ‘yarn bombing’. 

But the knitters should be truly stitching themselves, as they’ll be under the watchful eye of two established and respected creatives from the world of wool known for their work knitting for fashion juggernauts who will be sure to put the knitters through their paces, judging their creative approaches, whilst inspecting their technique. At the end of the competition, only one will win the glory of being the first winner of Game of Wool. 

Tom Daley will be joined by two judges: Di Gilpin, one of Scotland's rather more famous knitters who runs the Scottish Yarn Company and Handknitting Design Studio, and Sheila Greenwell, whose day job is production managing Gilpin's empire. The two of them have been involved with creating knitwear for several high-end fashion lines, and their work has walked the runway in New York. London, Paris, and Milan are part of ready-to-wear lines from fashion houses such as Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, and NIKE.

The Game of Wool will film in Scotland in early 2025, and the first season will almost certainly debut the week after The Great British Baking Show Season 16 concludes in the U.K. in November 2025. (Mark my words!) As for an American distributor, Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown also need new homes. Could PBS or BritBox please do us a favor and provide one for all three?