DANIEL Pratap, director of West Street Potters in Wrecclesham will be gracing our screens tonight for the second series of The Great Pottery Throw Down on BBC2.

The show, presented by Sara Cox and judged by Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones, will see potters go head-to-head as they fight for the title of top potter.

During the day Daniel, 56, (pictured) is a self-employed mortgage broker based in Farnborough, having been in the mortgage industry for more than 30 years.

Father of three Daniel said: “Being self-employed enables me the time to pursue my passion of pottery which I normally do in the evenings and weekends.

“I have a small studio in my garage at home where I have a wheel and gas kiln, but no running water or heating, I share the space with my daughters two rabbits. You can see my work and studio on Facebook at DanielPratappottery.”

Daniel was exposed to pottery at an early age while at school in Southampton. At an early age he found it fascinating that he was able to transform a lump of inert clay into a thing of “beauty” and function.

“I applied for the programme last spring, and was invited to attend an initial audition with other hopeful contestants, which I must say was a bit scary as I didn’t know what to expect, I needn’t have been as the production team were friendly and willing everyone on,” added Daniel.

“Eventually after six weeks I was invited to be a contestant on the second series, as you can imagine I was over the moon that I had been chosen, I think my daughters were more excited than me as they had seen the first series in 2015 and thought I could do just as well.

“We met Keith, Kate and Sara on the first day of filming, no time to be awestruck as it was straight into making mode, I now can multi-task, I am able to speak and throw at the same time. While we were filming we had a bets to see how many times Keith would cry on camera, not sure who won the bet.”

Daniel has came away with fond memories of the programme and his fellow contestants - with whom he speaks with on a daily basis.

He concluded: “I am a director at West Street Potters in Wrecclesham for the past seven years, and I feel my pottery experience together with the other directors have made the classes at the pottery a success, I expect there will be awaiting list of people wanting to attend classes off the back of the programme.

“We were fortunate to have one of our students Sally-Jo on the first series, so to have another member on the second series was great. Finally, I hope the exposure will enable me to do this on a full-time basis being teaching or demonstrating.”

Follow Daniel’s journey by tuning in from 8pm tonight (Thursday, February 2), on BBC2.