Question Time Special: Cameron is up to speed now, while Miliband hit a bump

The Prime Minister's answers were practised but still fresh on tonight's programme, but the Labour leader ran into unexpected turbulence

The campaign is starting to go David Cameron's way, but it may be too late and it may not be enough.

The Prime Minister is up to speed now. Compare tonight's fluent performance with the nervous look in his eyes, glancing to his sides, when Jeremy Paxman asked him that first question about food banks right at the start of the election campaign.

Cameron now has the answer off smooth to all the hard questions. Food banks hold no terror for him any more. And when he is prepped, pumped up and ready to go he is the best there is among the current crop of politicians. He doesn't deploy humour or change of mood and change of pace in the way that Tony Blair could. But it was impressive. Not only were his answers practised, polished and still seeming fresh, but many of them were more persuasive than anyone in the audience expected.

Early on, they thought they'd got him when one of their number asked why he wouldn't debate Ed Miliband face to face. "This is more informative," said Cameron sweetly: "You asking me the questions."

Even on the most difficult subjects, such as immigration, where he doesn't even pretend not to have broken his promise, he turns around on a euro cent into his plan to make EU immigrants wait four years for their tax credits – and then to his promise of a referendum on it all.

The audience gave him a tough time, so much so that no one noticed the Tory secret agent who wanted to abolish the NHS, giving Cameron the chance to pose as its most ardent defender.

But, I thought, good though Cameron's effort was, "the other guy" as Cameron called him is going to come on and do almost as well – after all, audience Q & As are Ed "Speaks Human" Miliband's strongest point – but he won't have a tricky record of five years in government to defend.

It didn't work out like that. The audience, which I thought the BBC had packed with truculent northern lefties who gave Cameron the blunt end of the stick, turned out to be even more hostile to Miliband. They asked heavy-duty Tory questions about how they could be expected to make any money out of their businesses under a Labour government and were cheered and hooted on.

You could tell Miliband felt up against it after the third anti-patsy question, because he pulled out all the glottal stops (thanks, Joanne Lake).

Just as with the Anti-Democrat of Hoxton, Miliband clung to Blairite mannerisms and the New Labour verities for dear life. "Righ'?" he said. "I've go' a manifesto." And he ran for the cover of Blairite pro-Europeanism, even posing as the conviction politician who wouldn't be driven by opinion polls into giving the people what they wanted, namely to be consulted in a referendum. It was almost admirable.

And he did well with that old Blairite line about wanting to "under-promise and over-deliver". Like as if; but the audience clapped happily. It was a BBC Question Time audience, after all.

Miliband's main prepared line was to say that he would rather not be in government than have to do a deal with the SNP. It was an effective bit of signalling, but disingenuous: Nicola Sturgeon cannot make him do a deal with her because she has already said she will do nothing to prop up a Tory government, so her MPs have to support a Labour one.

Then Nick Clegg came on and the audience applauded. Which only goes to prove that a BBC Question Time audience will clap anything.

No election catch-up tomorrow morning: normal service resumes on Tuesday