An Oxfordshire art teacher competing on Channel 4's The Great Pottery Throw Down said he'd love to see his colleagues' faces when he pops up on their TV.

Steven Broughton, 33, an art and design teacher at Abingdon and Witney College, is through to week three of the reality TV contest which sees the surviving 11 home potters competing to become Britain's next champion.

Last Sunday Steven wowed the judges of with a matching set of iconic gluggle jugs. He also performed well in the technical challenge, creating three identical bud vases blindfolded.

But, as he told the Oxford Mail, he thinks his work friends will be surprised simply to see him on television.

"So surprised, I cannot wait to see their faces," he said. "It was so hard to keep it secret, I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops as soon as I heard the news I would be on series 7."

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Steven took up pottery aged 27 after studying art at university.

He said: "I fell out of love with the art world so decided that pottery was the perfect creative outlet but could also serve a function in the lives of everybody. 

"I work in a shed / outhouse that’s attached to my house. Me and my now wife Zoe ‘did up’ the house and it was always my dream to make my own pottery space.

"It took a while, but I eventually got it up and running a few years ago, just after Covid hit."

Of the pottery techniques – hand built or thrown – he prefers the latter.

"I love throwing. I find it to be such a mindful activity," he said. "When throwing clay on a wheel you can’t think of anything else apart from what your hands are doing.

"My mind immediately clears and I’m able to focus on the squidgy bit of muddy earth that’s in front of me, it’s very special.

"But the first week was like a whirlwind, the combination of the time limit,  the lights, the being asked questions. It was a lot."

Steven's favourite piece of pottery to make is a mug.

"Everybody loves a mug", he said, and he would love to make one for comedian Bob Mortimer.

"I would love to make Bob Mortimer whatever he would like. I love him, he seems like a very lovely, open and funny man."

The cosy favourite is one of the most wholesome shows on TV but is there really camaraderie between the potters or as with the pots when they go into the kiln do the cracks sometimes start to show?

"We all really bonded as a group," said Steven. "Whenever you watch the show you think, ‘ah no way they are actually that close because they can’t have known each other for very long’.

"But when you go through that sort of experience you grab ahold of the people around you for dear life because of how emotionally and physically intense it can be.

Encouragement is always on hand from Derry Girls star Siobhán McSweeney, who hosts the show, and judges Rich Miller and Keith Brymer Jones, well-known for being moved to tears by the potters' creations.

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"I really wanted to impress both judges," he said. "Siobhán was such an incredible guide throughout the whole process, I just wished that I wasn’t so faffed out all the time so was able to give more to our conversations.

"Everyone is great at keeping in touch, apart from me lol.

"I am useless at messaging people back but have kept in contact with everyone. It’s so hard when you are thrown back into everyday life, I almost forgot how much time a full-time job and a threenager take up.

"But yes, definitely keeping in touch, me and Donna are constantly sharing stupid memes with each other on social media and me and Dan chat a lot about what we are making and how much we like each other. "  

The Great Pottery Throw Down is on Sundays at 7.45pm on Channel 4.