Great pottery catch up

TV judge Keith Brymer Jones on turning a derelict Welsh chapel into a ceramics school to help struggling youngsters. And yes, there will be tears!

- Fran Goodman

REVELATION came to Keith Brymer Jones in the art room of his secondary modern. For a dyslexic 11-year-old, schoolwork had been a bit of a struggle until the day he walked up to that bench and found a ball of clay sitting in front of him.

"The moment I touched it, I realised that this material was going to be in my life forever," he says. "It was like a religious calling." His careers teacher suggested he join British Telecom or sign up at Hendon Police College. When he said he wanted to be a potter, she told him: "You're on your own." That was an experience that left its mark, and for a long time Keith, 58, has been looking for a way to ensure other youngsters could get the chance so nearly denied to him.

Only now, with the celebrity clout that comes with his fame as a judge on Channel 4's The Great Pottery Throw Down, has he found a way to make that work.

In many ways, Keith cried his way to the top in TV, endearing himself to viewers with his passion, supportive attitude and tendency to be moved to tears by a beautiful piece of pottery. But as series seven of the show that made him a star launched earlier this month, Keith has been filming a very different sort of programme.

It will document his move from Kent to north Wales, where he plans to change the lives of people who want to become professional potters, one apprentice at a time.

Last year he and his wife Marj Hogarth bought a semi-derelict chapel in Pwllheli which they are turning into not just a home and studio, but a pottery school and a community space. At the heart of it is Keith's plan to give kids who struggled with school a second chance, the opportunity to weaponise their untapped talents and maybe even help them start a successful business of their own.