Pottery make off is the new Bake Off

Sara Cox will head the search for a new pottery star

Making is set to be the new baking on BBC Two as Sara Cox presents the search for the UK's "best budding potter".

The Great British Pottery Throw Down is part of a new season of BBC Two season programmes announced on Tuesday.

Made by the team behind The Great British Bake Off, the six-part series aims to find pottery's hottest stars.

The season will also see Nigella Lawson make her return to the channel, and Daniel Radcliffe star in a film about the video game series Grand Theft Auto.

Announcing the new season, which also includes major new series from the Hairy Bikers, and Gareth Malone, BBC Two controller Kim Shillinglaw said the channel was in "great shape".

Cult comedy Family Guy will move from BBC Three to be shown on the channel for its 13th UK season.

And the channel hopes The Great British Pottery Throw Down will repeat the success of The Great British Bake Off, which migrated to BBC One.

Cox will be joined by Keith Brymer-Jones and Kate Malone - two of the UK's pottery scene's most renowned potters.

Each week, the 10 contestants will create a "Main Make", wherein the potters hope to translate a slab of clay into glazed glory, culminating in the reveal straight from the kiln.

Nigella Lawson was previously seen on BBC Two in Nigellissima

Those whose clay creations fail to impress will leave the studio until the final, when one person proves themselves to be master of the wheel.

Cox 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."

Simply Nigella - Lawson's first TV series since her split from Charles Saatchi and courtroom drug revelations - is billed as a "pared-down approach to cooking and eating".

She said: "It's about food that makes our life easier, that makes us feel better, more alive, and less stressed."

Harry Potter actor Radcliffe will star as Grand Theft Auto's "creative mastermind" Sam Houser in the drama Game Changer, which explores the controversy around the hugely popular gaming franchise.

Bill Paxton will play campaigning lawyer Jack Thompson, a man determined to stop the relentless rise of the game, which sees players immerse themselves in an underworld of violent criminal gangs.

Other season highlights includes The Hairy Biker's mission to support elderly people in the community in Old School.

And choirmaster Gareth Malone will launch a nationwide search for the best a cappella choir in The Naked Choir.

Malone, who rose to fame with his reality TV show The Choir in 2007, 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."