​The popular reality competition returned to Channel 4 for its ninth series last month, presenting viewers with 12 skilled potters who are competing for the title of Britain’s Best Home Potter. Herefordshire welcomed their own contestant, Bill, who has wowed judges throughout each episode. During each episode, the amateur potters tackle two pottery challenges. In the “main make” challenge, the participants undertake a significant multi-stage creative task. They must conceive a ceramic piece, construct it from clay, embellish it and fire it in the kiln, before submitting it to the judges for assessment. Between the stages of the main make, the potters are also set a smaller task that examines a particular skill, with the judges ranking them from worst to best. In the quarter final, Bill took on the ‘main make’ – Body in motion self sculptures. He chose to create a masterpiece that highlighted his struggles in going from primary to secondary school. When asked what his art meant, he said: “This is, sort of, me in my, 12, 13 year old state of just tyring to get through life. “Going from primary school to secondary school, I was very autistic and trying to connect to people was really hard.” The sculpture is of a person sat on the floor with their head in their hands. View this post on Instagram Bill said: “Also I could barely read and write, if I couldn’t do the work I used to put ‘I can’t do it’ in the textbooks.” The 33-year-old, who owns a business called ‘Bill Rolls Ceramics’ in Herefordshire, also volunteers as a teaching assistant. When he presented his sculpture he explained it was titled ‘I can’t do it’. One of the judges, Keith Brymer Jones, held the piece and told Bill: “It looks really tortured and I like that because it makes me think of the way I felt at school. “I think it’s really quite extraordinary, actually.”