Gordon Brown was cool, calm and collected in front of the Leveson Inquiry.

Calmness was indeed the order of the day.

At one point the former prime minister even lent back in his chair, put one foot up on the opposite leg, and said that, after a grilling lasting more than two and a half hours, he had no objections to taking more questions. His stoicism even impressed that most stoic of characters, Lord Justice Leveson.

At one point the inquiry's head told the former Labour leader that he would not have been as cool as him in similar circumstances.

The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP's voice did appear to crack, however, as he denied allegations he had given his permission for a paper to print details of his child's medical condition, and told how painful it would be if his son grew up to believe that was the case.

He was back to his usual coolness, however, when it came to worthy tomes produced by his former Cabinet colleagues.

Although he offered to read from his own book on the financial crisis, Mr Brown revealed he was at a loss when asked questions about memoirs produced by both Alistair Darling and Peter Mandelson in recent months. Before he had leafed through them in the run up to this inquiry, he said, he had never read them.

George Osborne's appearance at Leveson initially looked as if it might prove to be the opposite of Mr Brown's.

To begin with his voice sounded tight and strained, as if he might lose it altogether.

But he settled into it – job at hand, sitting up with a rigid straight back, talking slowly and assuredly.

At one point he was questioned rather obliquely over his decision to recommend Andy Coulson as the Tories top spin doctor because he could provide something lacking at the top of the Conservative Party. Recognising he was being asked if public school educated politicians needed someone who understood working class newspaper readers, Mr Osborne batted not an eyelid.

Yes, he said.

His inquisitor must be asking about Mr Coulson's early career at a local newspaper in Basildon, he added.

And he could offer reassurance that Basildon was very much close to the heart of the Conservative Party.