PJ Gallagher has been springing surprise driving tests on people. Here's how he got on

IF YOU HAD to redo your driving test right now, would you pass? 

That’s the question comedian and presenter PJ Gallagher is asking drivers across the country in the new RTÉ show Random Driving Test.

The show visits 12 different driving test routes around Ireland, and sees experienced drivers get into a car with Brian Harnett, a former tester, to see if they can pass the test.

You might be asking yourself why anyone would voluntarily put themselves through the anxiety of a driving test again. Gallagher told The Journal that he was surprised people wanted to do it too.

“Nobody looks forward to doing their driving test, you literally dread it, you want to do it because you want to get your licence, but it’s one of the most nerve-wrecking hours of your life,” he said.

“To think that people would volunteer themselves to go and do it again just to see if they could was kind of surprising, but I guess some people just have that competitive edge.”

There’s also the added bonus that if participants on the show pass and keep their faults below nine, they win €1,000. But for every fault they rack up, they lose €100, and if they manage to get nine faults, they get nothing.

This isn’t Gallagher’s first time appearing in a car on television. In the 2000s, he starred in the hidden camera comedy show Naked Camera as an incompetent taxi driver who wound up his passengers, including well-known public figures. 

Gallagher said it took him three attempts to pass his driving test 30 years ago, and if he was a participant on the show right now, he’s not sure if he’d pass.

At least not in a car – if he was on a motorbike, he thinks it would be a different story.

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Not everyone is so humble about their driving skills. Gallagher said that when it came to taking the test, some people were “fierce cocky”.

“Then you get people who come in and the second they arrive they go, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing to myself? Why did I do this? I hated it the first time. Why am I doing it again?’”

The radio host believes filming the show has taught him who Ireland’s best drivers are.

“I do think the standard is actually not as bad as people think it is, but there’s definitely one half of the public that are a lot more competent at passing tests than another half,” he said.

“I think that will come as a shock to all the lads out there,” he laughed, adding: “I’m not saying it’s the men, but the lads won’t like it”.

Drivers in the show faced many of the test features that learners dread, including hill starts, turnabouts and reversing around corners.

But according to Gallagher, observation, or lack thereof, was the main downfall for most.

“You have to kind of [look] so much you feel ridiculous doing it,” he explained. 

“We all have bad habits, and we all get sort of confident, especially when we drive on the same roads that we know all the time.”

Theories about which test centres are ‘easiest’ to pass in are also very common amongst learner drivers – but according to Gallagher, they’re all pretty much the same when it comes to difficulty.

But he does think the attitude of the testers varies. He said: “There’s definitely testers who’ll make an effort to be smiley, and then there’s the real by-the-book lad with the clipboard on his lap, not smiling, giving directions,” he said.

The first episode of the show sees Pilates instructor Prajakta get behind the wheel in Wicklow Town and hairdresser Jason in Naas.

Random Driving Test airs on RTÉ One tonight at 7pm.