Designer and TV personality Deirdre Whelan talks about her dream job

Have you ever wondered how television presenters get their jobs? For designer Deirdre Whelan, now a familiar face on RTÉ’s Home of the Year, it was a phone call last year from Shinawil, the production company behind the programme.

“They asked if I was interested in doing a screen test, which I did, and two weeks later I did another one with the two guys, and that was it,” she says.

The two guys in question are fellow judges Hugh Wallace and Declan O’Donnell who were joined in series one by Helen James, but she bowed out because of other work commitments, leaving a vacancy for series two which Deirdre filled.