Handmade - C4 - Britain's Best Woodworker

[TheMadGardener]

Haven't seen a thread about this yet. Did anyone else watch it?
Mel Giedroyc playing same role she did in Bake Off - sympathetic to competitors and encouraging them.
Interesting mix of contestants.
Very wide skills range. Think the beds they made would have been better if they'd been given a bit longer and hadn't had to rush and bodge some of the woodworking.
Is there any limit to the skills which can be turned into a reality show? - baking, sewing, pottery, jewellery-making and now woodworking!

The biggest weakness is the two judges. Normally, part of the "formula" is good cop, bad cop - one stern and demanding, one soft and fluffy. But these two are both bad cop. I'm not going to rush to judgement after the first episode though.

I did & really enjoyed it. It's kind of a remake of the one Jason Manford presented but got pulled because one of the guys was a neoNazi. Loved some of the beds they made but, yes, longer would have allowed more finesse.

We love Glow Up as well - up & coming young make up artists. It's not all 'get Heather ready for her hen night' type challenges either. Very interesting mix.

I really enjoyed it too.

I could almost smell the fresh wood shavings

I enjoyed it. They did get two days for (most of) a challenge which is longer than any of the other shows.

Interesting having the mini challenge in the middle of the main one - I wonder if they knew ahead of time how long they would get out of their two days for that.

Cringed a bit for Mel when she broke that bit off, but really a bed has to be fit for purpose and that includes rough treatment. If a bit breaks off that easily...

It's a beautiful setting.

I agree about the time thing. It doesn't matter if a cake gets spoilt because it's rushed, it seems a real shame when beautiful piece of wood is.

Was anyone else wondering about the practicalities? There were some lovely beds there but you'd never actually be able to get many of them into a house.

Provided the headboards come off, I think pretty much all of them would fit through a door as they were all doubles. Possibly not the one with the bent wood canopy made by young guy - I didn't see how he joined the canopy to the bed.

I think most would unscrew at strategic points.

Guy whose bed won did specifically mention that his came apart.

I do think the judges are considering practicalities - queries over whether you could actually get into the bulrush bed, and jumping on another ;)

Interesting that judge Alex is very into simplicity - most of the other shows the more fancy you go the better ;)

I really enjoyed it.
Like Bake Off, Sewing Bee, Glow Up ( Ireland), the Jewellery one I fast forward the filler stuff chat and look at the creations.
So many talented people.

I enjoyed it. Wish the judges were a bit more engaging and less miserable though. The guy in particular just seemed unpleasant. I didn’t expect the first challenge to be such a massive one. Was thinking a letter rack or something to warm up. I liked the contestants. Im looking forward to the next episode. I loved glow up too.

@Spockynocky

I enjoyed it. Wish the judges were a bit more engaging and less miserable though. The guy in particular just seemed unpleasant. I didn’t expect the first challenge to be such a massive one. Was thinking a letter rack or something to warm up. I liked the contestants. Im looking forward to the next episode. I loved glow up too.

Now that's weird - I thought the judges were great! I really liked the guy. 😂

With the jewellery one, it seemed to take a few episodes for the judges to settle into their roles and to get used to them - I disliked them at the start but had warmed to them by the end. You might find the same with this one.

SoupDragon. I didn’t mind the woman judge but I took against the bloke . He reminded me of a sneery teacher. But I’ll carry on with it because I loved to see what the contestants made. I didn’t get into the jewellery one which I was surprised about because I love jewellery design. It was hard to see what the contestants were doing as their work is on such a small scale and they have to be so close to it. And the judges again. I just didn’t warm them. Paul Hollywood is a miserable git in bake off but he’s tempered by Prue and also I think he is aware of his reputation as mean and plays up to it . I can’t get upset about how he treats contestants for some reason even though I’m not keen on him.

I don't have a problem with the judges, but I think the whole thing is a missed opportunity to draft in Will from The Repair Shop as a judge.

Repair Shop Will would be perfect for this. And definitely more suited to tv show judge then the present two .

Enjoyed this again tonight. Some lovely work (not that I know anything about woodworking). Felt they got rid of the right one.

I liked the judges more this week and really loved some of the dolls houses. I agreed with star woodworker and the person who went home. There are some incredibly talented people. I loved Misti’s and the one who’s house was a bit like the Sydney opera house (can’t remember her name). The challenge looked so hard.

I like Helen, the woman judge. She stands no nonsense and seems to really know her stuff.

I loved Misti's castle, and also liked the rustic farmhouse.

The Bond supervillain's den looked a mess.

The den was dreadful - great idea poorly executed. His laser table was great though!

The Sydney Opera House one looked good but more as a model than a dolls' house - it wasn't a house and I couldn't realistically see any child playing with it.

platax. That's true it wasn't an actual house.

I thought they were all pretty amazing but it's the finish, the finesse that wins you the best woodworker title.

I was wholly with the judge who was commented on the sacrilege of using nice wood and then painting it blue.

The results of skills immunity challenge were pretty dreadful, except for Billy and his ninja joinery skills! I think lots of people could make a better dovetail joint, although I appreciate they don't get much time to do it.