It is the final, and the four remaining artists travel to the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, to battle it out for the title. The first task requires them to take a good, hard look at themselves as they take on self-portraits. As always, Diana Ali and Pascal Anson are on hand with moral support and tips, advice and useful critiques to continue to improve the painters' work. They want their artists' paintings to really take on personality and character, not just to create a likeness. To bolster the finalists, a little added support is provided with the surprise arrival of family members to help critique their portraits. Following the task the painters are given individual masterclasses to help them work on areas the mentors think could make a difference in the final challenge. They involve painting with decorator rollers, eating and then painting cake, painting blindfolded and painting with dance movements. Each of these makes the artists think about new ways of connecting with their canvas. The final day dawns and the artists face the ultimate challenge. For the first time they are allowed to choose any subject they want. They have three hours to use everything they have been taught over the last six weeks to create a painting that will decide the winner of the Big Painting Challenge 2018.

• Mariella Frostrup
• Richard Coles
• Daphne Todd