Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA"I stand with people like Margaret Thatcher" might not be a phrase you hear from Gordon Brown too often - certainly not within earshot of the parliamentary Labour party.
So it was to the credit of Kay Burley - the queen of Sky TV - that she got the soundbite out of Gordon Brown's lips in an otherwise unbearably saccharine interview. (In fact, he was talking about being proud to be both a Scot and a Brit - in line with Maggie's defence of the union.)
With Sky News's customary understatement this was repeatedly billed as an "exclusive". But viewers with longer memories than an average goldfish might remember that the chancellor did a similar, indeed somewhat longer, interview with Andrew Marr barely 72 hours ago.
Unsurprisingly to anyone except La Burley, the death of Mr Brown's first baby, Jennifer, was not apparently one of the highlights of his life.
"She was unblemished by her illness ... she died in my hands," he just about managed to stammer out when pressed by the doyenne of daytime news. "There's nothing worse than having a young and precious baby taken from you."
Perhaps more worrying, was to hear from the man in charge of the nation's finances babbling that "one plus one is more than two".
Fortunately, he was talking this time about what a handful his two young sons can be.
Of the meltdown in NHS PFIs, his backing for Trident, his real thoughts on Iraq, Afghanistan or even the unions was there not a squeak, however.
This was very much "an audience with Kay Burley..." and the man who would be our next prime minister seemed to know his place.
Perhaps Ms Burley's haughty housewife act was all a disingenuous way to get under the chancellor's skin, though.
Her best question was the seemingly innocuous query about whether he "resented" the fact that a PM in the 21st century had to be media-savvy.
There's no good answer to this, when you think about it. Mr Brown was already on the backfoot, but conceeded that if he was to inherit the top job "people want to see what makes you tick, what your moral compass is ... it's right people should ask this."
Charles Clarke called you psychologically flawed, butted in Ms Burley.
No he didn't, actually, but it was good to watch the chancellor squirm.
Mr Clarke "deserved to be considered for high office" in the future, deadbatted Mr Brown.
Fortunately, he and the PM are friends. "Always will be", he added. Twenty three years - the time they've known each other since becoming MPs in 1983 - is "longer than most relationships".
Hmmm. Let's see how often Gordon pops into Connaught Square to see Mr Blair in his retirement first.
