If the terms ‘beautiful cracks’, ‘jugs’ and the technical process known as ‘pulling’ are up your alley, then you’ll probably be interested in going to see ceramicist Kate Malone in conversation at the Ashmolean Museum.

Malone, as co-judge on BBC’s Great Pottery Throw Down goes one step further in explicitness with her maxim that “Pottery is almost as good as sex. It’s so physical and fantastic.”

The BBC show aired late last year and pulled in more than two million viewers per episode.

Pottery on TV isn’t known for its high viewer ratings so maybe sex does sell.

That steaminess, which promises to get bums-on-seats at Malone’s talk, is also underpinned by sincere humanitarianism, experience and a life-long career.

Malone is an educational advocate for pottery and craft, anachronisms perhaps in an ever more virtual world.

It’s the very physicality of pottery, however, that Malone sees worth in, and she’s clearly not afraid to tell it like it is.

There are, of course, a few other craftsmen and woman currently in the limelight, and Malone counts fellow potter and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry as one of her friends.

Malone is unequivocal, however, that pottery is counted as craft rather than as art, and equally adamant that one isn’t a lesser form than the other. This is a timely outlook given the vogue for everything from craft beer to handmade bicycles and knitting, as Malone explains: “Whereas before it was almost a dirty word, in danger of being dropped completely, now craft is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Though Malone has enjoyed a successful ceramics career for a number of years, the BBC show catapulted her into the media spotlight almost overnight.

Typically down-to-earth in an expansive kind of way, Malone says of pottery’s resurgence: “I’d like to think it’s not just a trend, but the deep and sincere appreciation of something ever present in life.

“Clay is, after all, in everything from our roofs to our toothpaste.”

When pressed about the BBC show, which inspired reams of tabloid coverage, Malone does acknowledge some of the programme’s bawdy appeal: “It had an ever present physicality and sensuality. That was the reason for its success and why a second series has been filmed. It will air this autumn and will be bigger and better with lots of surprises. You know, I wasn’t looking for innuendos. The process of clay-making has been sensuous since the dawn of time.”

Like so many impassioned educators, Malone credits her own teachers for installing ardour for her subject matter as well its benefits. “I went to a rough yet progressive comprehensive school in Bristol,” she says. “We were taught the usual subjects but also crafts like metalwork and ceramics. The teachers were brilliant, conveying a sense of optimism and joy to actually enable a sense of achievement.”

Looking at her achievements and her career, it’s clear that she can afford to be generous. Featured in more than 40 collections, including the Ashmolean, her work can be seen from Hackney Marshes to Saville Row.

To fulfil demand, meanwhile, she has five apprentices and divides her time between three studios, including one in hip Dalston and one in a cave in the south of France. And in accordance with her idealism, she still sells work that’s affordable. A Kate Malone hand-made teacup for example, costs just £20. And there’s nothing crafty about that.