Former Ulster Star journalist Derek Harbinson shares his creative passion as he competes on Channel 4’s The Great Pottery Throw Down

Derek Harbinson worked as a reporter with the Star for seven years before continuing his career in England.

Now he is on our screens every Sunday evening competing with the best potters in the country and hoping to be crowned champion at the end of the series.

Derek is relatively new to pottery, although he did have some experience as a child. “I did a little bit of pottery as part of my A-levels a very long time ago but always had a love of ceramics, buying handmade bowls and things,” he revealed.

"Then about seven years ago my wife bought me a pottery course for a Christmas present and I completely fell in love with it. The next thing you know I’ve got a wheel and a kiln.

"I have a set-up in my garage with a wheel, kiln, all the ingredients for glazes, bags of clay everywhere. There’s no running water so I’m surrounded by buckets and in winter it’s incredibly cold – the glamour of pottery!

"But I also still go to the same studio that I started learning at once a week to hang out with pottery friends and learn from a succession of fantastic ceramics teachers.

"I’m a thrower almost exclusively,” Derek continued. “I love the fact that you can take a lump of clay and throw a bowl or a vase or whatever in minutes.

"Handbuilding takes a lot of patience, which is not something I have in abundance. Although I do often make things that are made from different thrown pieces that are then assembled together.

“I sometimes make vases that look like tree stumps and last year my wife turned them into candles so those always go down very well. They’re fun to make and I like the fact that it’s something both of us have had a hand in.”

Derek kept the news that he had been accepted onto the show a closely guarded secret until the programme started to air in January.

"As a journalist I’m pretty good at keeping secrets but this was one of the hardest,” he said. “You just want to tell everyone but you can’t.

"I told very few people I was on the show so it’s definitely going to come as a surprise to a lot of my friends and workmates. Most people I know well know I do pottery but they’ll still get a shock when they see me on TV."

Derek admitted he was both excited and nervous to be joining the show but the judges and other contestants quickly became close friends.

“Making pottery at home isn’t quite the same as making it on a television set, in a competition, with lots of cameras and people asking questions as you’re doing it,” he continued.

"It was really odd being in a place you’ve watched on telly, as a part of the show. Of course what no one sees are all the cameras, wires and people who are there at the same time. But the first time we walked into the set it was such a thrill for all of us.

"Gladstone is amazing. I’d never been before and it really is stepping back in time. It was incredibly inspiring to be on those cobbles, surrounded by the bottle kilns, feeling the history of the place. It really does make you want to up your game.

"It’s such a strange and compressed experience for everyone, you’re all thrown in together and you immediately create incredibly strong bonds. And there were a lot of laughs.

"There’s something about that shared experience, that only we can understand, that makes very different people, from incredibly varied backgrounds and all over the country come together and form really strong bonds of friendship very quickly.

“Both Keith and Rich are fantastic potters as well as being lovely people, and both are usually looking for slightly different things in judging. But it wasn’t really about impressing them as such, it was more about learning from them. And obviously everyone wants to make Keith cry. Did I? You’ll have to watch!

"Siobhan was amazing, putting us all at ease at the very start, being encouraging and most of all being funny. She’s a total ball of mischief. You can’t be stressed when she’s around. I couldn’t look at Siobhan without laughing.”

The judges have been very impressed with Derek and the other competitors this year. Keith Brymer Jones said: “They’re an amazing bunch – there are really good makers. What's been interesting and fortunate is you really do see their journey as a maker, but also as people.

"My God do the potters go for it in the series. We really put them through it and they always deliver. It's quite inspirational. Not only in terms of what they make, but also their attitude. It makes our job harder as judges, but that's always a good thing because the viewer doesn't know who's going to go.”

Fellow judge RIch Miller added: “We've had absolutely spectacular makers with specialisms quite different to previous years and the lovely thing was they brought things to the pottery Keith and I hadn't seen. Seeing them progress was fascinating. There was real passion. We've got a cross section of life from engineers, people in the medical profession to beekeepers, a real mix."

The Great Pottery Throw Down airs on Sunday evenings on Channel 4 at 7.45pm. Previous episodes are also available to stream on All4. Tune in to find out how Derek gets on.