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Welcoming the guests for last night's debate...

Hanging loose, David Campbell Bannerman for the , was first to arrive.

"We could come through in the last week," he gurgled, "there's an appetite for change. If they've seen Nick Clegg, when they look at the policies, that will put them off. We are the true change, they're all the same."

But they weren't. Next in the Green Room, which was actually a purple room but we press on, was an excited Shailesh Vara, who was the Conservatives' Shadow Deputy Leader of the House.

He insists: "the reception's very postitive. It reminds me of 1997 when people were so against the administration but now it's the other way round".

I remind him how the Conservatives seem to be struggling to unseat a party that's already served three terms, with an unpopular leader, and is in the middle of the deepest recession for 60 years.

"There are people out there who are undecided but if people are minded to vote
we tell them what their policies really are".

There's a theme developing here but at that moment Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Health spokesman, turns up.

"It's amazing," he announces,"we thought Nick would perform well; as a result of the debates, we thought we'd get a lift. I think there's a pent up frustration and anger and that's what's sustaining it."

Competing for the frustration vote are the , whose deputy leader, Adrian Ramsay, arrives brandishing his bike helmet.

"The best thing about elections is being on the doorstep. It's the most important thing that we do. People approve of our record and they are looking for an alternative".

A rather subdued former Home Secretary with an actual record in government prepared for the fray.

Charles Clarke is fed up with the Prime Ministerial debates sucking all the oxygen out of this campaign and he wants to refocus on policy.

"It's the economy dominating on the doorsteps. It's going very well. I'm feeling very confident. I don't believe the polls and I'm not seeing the national Lib Dem surge locally."

So, we're back to them again.

Off from the dark of the wings they set, to face a fired up audience in these heady days before next week's vote.

Watch the whole programme on iPlayer.

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