The first Prime Minister's questions of a new opposition leader are usually similar to the opening night of a theatre production.
There will be nerves, worries about the audience reaction and bounteous tributes from the rest of the cast.
For obvious reasons Keir Starmer's debut was almost completely without theatrics.
It was not just the sombre subject matter that required him to temper his delivery.
Social distancing requirements meant he was almost alone on the frontbench and talking to a sparsely-populated chamber.
There were no banks of MPs to cheer his arrival, nor helpful backbench colleagues to sledge the opposition.
The Labour leader navigated these constraints with lawyerly ease.
He stood by his promise to offer constructive criticism and, when he did pick up the government on his shortcomings, he did so without causing offence.
This was never going to be a moment for parliamentary knockabout, not least because Mr Starmer was putting his questions to Dominic Raab who was standing in for Boris Johnson.
Mr Raab has a vampiric ability to drain every sentence he utters of anything resembling life.
Listening to him speak is like eating a Thai curry made without a single herb or spice.
You suspect that Starmer's thoughtful style of questioning will come into its own against Johnson who is not known for his fondness for detail.
Against Raab, another lawyer, the proceedings felt rather flat.
What Starmer did show was a barrister's ability to think on his feet.
He was quick to pick up Raab when the Foreign Secretary sneakily tried to conflate the numbers being tested for Covid-19 with the number which the government has the capacity to test.
If Raab faltered it was from being too bland to be able to offer reassurance and too hasty perhaps in claiming the Government would meet its target to test 100,000 people a day by the end of this month.
This PMQs will be best remembered for the being first conducted remotely.
But they also showed that Starmer has the forensic skills which could make life uncomfortable for the Tories
