A CHAGFORD silversmith is to feature in the BBC's International Millennium Broadcast which has been billed as the biggest ever television production.

Patrick Hawksley, who has worked as a silversmith for 20 years in Moretonhampstead and Chagford, will be shown making a silver teapot in a film about the British national drink — tea.

The film will serve as an introduction to the UK for the broadcast which will link 60 countries and potentially be seen by one billion viewers during the 26 hours it is shown.

The British drink more tea than anyone else in the world, except the Irish, but Mr Hawksley himself is not a fan: 'I prefer coffee,' he said.

The silversmith, who creates a vast range of silverware and jewellery, makes one or two teapots a year costing between £1,000 and £5,000.

'Making a teapot is a huge amount of work that usually takes about two weeks,' said Mr Hawksley.

'It involves working with hammers on a flat sheet of silver over steel forms to create a hollow form.'

The TV crew spent a day with Mr Hawksley in his workshop filming the first stage of making a silver teapot and talking to him about his work and his dislike of tea!

He said his work had appeared on the television before — but not his face.

'It's quite exciting to be part of this film and to think that some aspect of my work will be going right around the world and seen by millions of people,' he said.

The tea film has been shot all over the country and includes dock workers receiving crates of imported tea and farmers milking cows.

Mr Hawksley said a year or so ago he was talking to someone at a party who happened to be a producer for the BBC.

'She turned out to be one of the producers of this film and remembered I made silver teapots,' he said.

Mr Hawksley is following in the footsteps of his father, Anthony, who was also a silversmith and taught him the trade.

'Dad used to make lots of teapots when they cost about £50 each — that was a lot of money to people years ago but they were used more then,' he said.

'Dad's teapots, which he made in the 1950s, are now fetching £2,000 - £3,000. They have become collectors' items so I like to think I am making the antiques of the future.'