This was the moment that Cherie Blair, in front of the 10 or 12 people watching her on television, had to applaud Gordon Brown. Hubby Tony Blair had just said that Gordon Brown was an 'extra-ordinary man', then the cameras cut to his wife and caught this death stare, above.

"If she could have popped her eyes and tongue out at the chancellor I am sure she would have done," said a television researcher who was one of those watching her on the telly.

Nobody cried.