DJ Sara Cox is to present a new show that hopes to do for pottery what The Great British Bake Off did for cakes.

The Great British Pottery Throw Down, described as “Bake Off’s messier cousin”, will see amateur potters get to grips with their wheels and fire up their kilns before creating a “main make” which will transform a humble slab of clay into a work of art.

The six-part BBC Two show is made by Love Productions, the team behind Bake Off.

Contestants will get their hands dirty in The Great British Pottery Throw Down (Scott Keeler/AP)
Contestants will get their hands dirty in The Great British Pottery Throw Down (Scott Keeler/AP)

Sara said: “Clay, mess, passionate potters and the team behind Bake Off. What’s not to love. There’s something really raw and exciting about grabbing a lump of clay and creating something unique out of it.”

Bake Off’s co-host Sue Perkins will follow her series exploring the Mekong River with another that will see her travel through the Himalayas.

Other new shows announced for the channel include The Hairy Bikers attempting to cross the generation gap by taking a group of retirees into a secondary school to see what difference they can make to the lives of the students.

Choirmaster Gareth Malone is back with The Naked Choir, in which he will encourage groups to test themselves by singing without backing tracks or music.

Gareth Malone
Gareth Malone (PA)

He said: “Singing a cappella is the ultimate test of any choir. Only once you’ve stripped away all those musical crutches that a backing track offers, it’s possible to truly see, and test, the group’s quality.”

Other shows include a four-part documentary about Britain’s success in popular culture since the end of the Second World War and a science panel show presented by Professor Brian Cox.

There will also be a behind the scenes series about the work of detectives in Manchester, three shows revealing life beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and a natural history series about the islands of Japan.