'The Great Pottery Throw Down' Finally Lands A Holiday Special

There are many ways to measure a show's success on TV. There are Neilsen ratings and streaming rankings, social media stats, and how many articles are written about it. In the U.K., there's one more measurement of success: The Holiday Special. From the Classic Doctor Who episode "The Feast of Steven" in 1965 to Call The Midwife's decade worth of Christmas Day episodes, it's become a cultural staple, a sign that your show is so beloved by the British public they want to spend an hour with you in front of the telly over the holidays. In recent years, those specials have also included reality TV, and now The Great Pottery Throw Down will get to count itself among them.

The Great British Baking Show has had Christmas episodes since 2012's Season 3, with the Christmas-themed Masterclass featuring Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. Since moving to Channel 4, the series has expanded to two specials, one at Christmas and one on New Year's Day, which is repackaged by Netflix and streamed as a unit the following November. Love Production's other hit, The Great British Sewing Bee, which sadly does not stream over here (someone, please fix that!), had a Christmas Special in 2013 to coincide with its first season but did not earn the honor again until 2020, and has had one every year since.

The Great Pottery Throw Down was never a significant hit for BBC Two when it aired there for the first two seasons. However, since moving to Channel 4 (and being picked up by HBO Max), the series has improved by leaps and bounds, both in format (allowing the craft to dictate the show's structure, rather than the other way round) and in casting with Richard Miller joining Keith Brymer Jones as judge and bringing aboard host Siobhán McSweeney. Season 5 was the show's best to date, and it seems Channel 4 agrees, as Brymer Jones has officially announced The Great Festive Pottery Throw Down to air on Christmas Day 2022.