PJ Gallagher
Comic, actor and radio DJ PJ Gallagher can turn his hands to most things – except DIY! He explains to Darragh McManus just how little help he was to the contestants in his new show, The Big DIY Challenge
The funnyman is hosting a brand-new TV series this week looking at the joys and perils of DIY. Darragh McManus caught up with him to find out more
It could be the cheery, likeable personality, the sense of humour or the fact that he always seems up for a challenge and game for a laugh. But if you were choosing a presenter for a TV show about DIY enthusiasts competing to win a €10,000 prize, PJ Gallagher is probably the rst person you’d call.
e Dubliner hits our screens on Tuesday with the rst of six episodes in e Big DIY Challenge, RTÉ’s new reality show which sees people from around the country tackling projects across ten days over Easter. Whether room restorations or larger outdoor constructions, the DIY enthusiasts are guided, helped and ultimately judged by TU Dublin lecturer Jennifer Byrne and power-tool expert Michal Dachowski.
e top prize is €10,000, with additional awards for Best Small Job, Best Inside Job, Best Outside Job, Best Upcycle and – you feel this will appeal to PJ’s sense of fun – Best DIY Fail. And Mr Gallagher is there throughout as “MC of the whole thing, essentially.”
at 10-day shoot, he says, was “really intense – you’re on the road the whole time. But it was great craic as well. Everyone I met was so di erent, and had such di erent approaches. And di erent personality-types: some people were kind of have-a-go heroes, whereas others were out to win it right from the start. It was lovely to hang out in their houses and watch what they were at.”
PJ enjoys making this kind of television. As anyone who knows his Classic Hits radio show will attest, he “just likes being with people.
Actually it’s amazing how like the radio show this was. You’re having conversations with people, trying to communicate, going with the ow. And it’s a two-way thing, like on the radio. With stand-up comedy I’m doing all the talking – this is a much nicer way of going about it. It’s nice to hear a voice coming back at you for a change.”
He’s also “into hobbies and things like that – they could have been doing anything and I’d be interested.” People “start to reveal themselves” a bit, PJ says; you see what makes them tick; what sort of passions they have.
He adds: “Ireland is a great place for these sorts of hobbyists, and I’m fascinated by anything like that. is show was a real eyeopener for me, because I’d no idea the cult of DIY was such a strong thing in Ireland. It’s almost like its own underground religion. People were staying up all night, all over the country, watching YouTube videos on DIY! e best tools to use, all that sort of stu .”
Is he a DIY man himself? Eh, yes and no. “I like it,” PJ laughs, “but I’m absolutely poisonously bad at it! I thought I was going to be useful to people when doing this; calling up to them, trying to help out. I think I held most of them back though, I was so bad at times. I didn’t think I was that bad at DIY, but it turns out, I’m atrocious! I thought I might even learn something myself, but I did more damage than anything.”
He does work on his motorbikes and declares himself “alright on electrics and things like that. But you suddenly see your own limitations when you see what some of these people can do. ere was one lad on the show, from Lusk (in Dublin), who did this gazebo kind of thing. It sounds normal enough, but the sheer scale of it – and the fact he managed to do everything himself – blew my mind. “I remember thinking, ‘Not if you gave me 15 lifetimes would I be able to do this.’ And he was only a young lad, doing it in his spare time. e mystery of him doing that in his back garden is up there for me with how they built the pyramids. He explained it six times and I still don’t know how he did it. ese are really gifted people.”
He’s pretty gifted himself, though disarmingly modest with it, a success in several elds: stand-up, TV comedy, radio, presenting. PJ only got into comedy, he says, “because I couldn’t do anything else. People think I’m messing when I say that, but it’s the truth.” Be that as it may, he performed at all the big comedy festivals and parlayed that into some seminal TV shows: Naked Camera, Meet the Neighbours, is Week’s News. And while he points out that “the hidden camera stu has probably had its day now – it feels a bit dated and old-fashioned”, people still come up to him, waving a newspaper and whistling in an annoying way, a reminder of his most iconic creation, Jake Stevens.
“Yeah, that still happens, he says. Every day! Although it’s people over 30 who know me from Naked Camera; for younger people it’s Young Offenders.”
ey’ve just started lming the second, sixpart series of the rudely hilarious Cork comedy, and PJ says, “It’s ying. We’ll be working on it over the summer. I’m really enjoying it, it’s great craic. It’s turned out to be the e Little Movie at Could, and is a big part of all our lives now.”
His character, uptight schoolmaster Barry Walsh, is one the fans love to hate. PJ laughs again: “He’s so different to who I am. e school principal! For someone who never even did his Leaving Cert. e hardest part is having to have a moustache until October. But shaving it o is something to look forward to.” Meanwhile there’s also that radio work: Classic Hits’ award-winning and hugely popular breakfast show. PJ says, “My partnerin-crime Jim (McCabe) keeps the reins on me. He’s a long-time radio professional: someone who can whip a bit of shape into me. He’s a radio man, he’s been there a long time and is really good at what he does.
“And we have good chemistry together. I think at the start, it was a case of taking a chance. I used to be on with Damien (Farrelly) and the mornings didn’t suit him anymore, so me and Jim just ended up together. I came along and didn’t know the rules. ey threw me in the deep end a bit! But it’s worked out really well, and we’ve become great mates o -air.”
This is, PJ says, “the best part” of his career so far: doing radio, making TV shows such as Big DIY Challenge. “I love what I’m doing at the moment, I really do,” he says. “I always struggled with comedy a bit, as far as the nerves are concerned. And being in stand-up is like being a van-driver, you’re driving all day. is is so much more rewarding. I think this is what I’ve been working towards, all these years.
“I don’t really have any specific ambitions for my career. I tend to go with the ow. I just want to keep doing as much of what I love as I can. ings are going well at the moment, so why change them?”
I’d no idea the cult of DIY was such a strong thing in Ireland. It’s almost like its own underground religion I don’t really have any specific ambitions for my career. I tend to go with the flow