Welcome back Jeremy Paxman.
Except if you were David Cameron that is. The Prime Minister's face fell within seconds of the start of his grilling by the former Newsnight supremo.
The Tory leader had looked very confident as he arrived for the event, batting away accusations he had ducked a head to head with Ed Miliband. By 9.15pm last night, he could be forgiven for thinking that was the wrong choice. Paxman clearly enjoyed himself immensely - always a bad sign for a politician.
Mr Cameron had attempted to ingratiate himself with the journalist by calling him 'Jeremy'. That elicited what can only be described as a deeply impressive eye roll from Paxo. Immediately he hit him with the tough questions - starting with 'how many foodbanks are there in the UK'? It got worse from there.
Could he live on a zero-hours contract? Mr Cameron replied "that's not the question". This to a man who once famously asked the same question 18 times.
So Mr Cameron changed tack. No, he said, he could not live on such a contract, before swiftly adding he meant exclusive contracts that banned staff working for others.
But across an absurdly large desk in a dark studio that increasingly resembled Mastermind he struggled to cope worse with Paxman's wit.
"What do you have in common with all these rich people?" Jeremy asked at one point, channelling his best Mrs Merton. David Cameron, rather noticeably, did not laugh. There was also no flicker of a smile when he was asked what his biggest foreign policy mistake had been.
Earlier Mr Miliband had declined to take a tour of the studio where the event would take place. Mr Cameron by contrast popped in to have a look around first thing.
Strangely, despite not taking part the LibDems and Ukip's Nigel Farage were out in force in the 'spin room' with the press. Neither party was in front of the camera - that will happen next week at the 7-way TV debate that also includes Nicola Sturgeon. But, on a different broadcaster, how that event cope without Jeremy Paxman?
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