DAVE 'n' NICK 2

There's an important thing to know about working with comedy double acts and it goes like this: one of them is quirkier, more eye-catching or just plain funnier than the other. As a producer your initial contact with the Double is via the other one - the pretty/straighter/more accommodating and approachable one. But beware - let them know this is how you see it and the relationship can quickly sour. They can decide this is how it is - you can't. So don't give all of the funny stuff to one half of the pair cos in this day and age NOBODY WANTS TO BE THE ERNIE.

Which brings us to the Clegg. Did this hapless patsy really want John Prescott's job? The eternal shadow, the man with the ever-lengthening job title and the ever-shrinking job? The man whose dissident political army is being led by a Corporal Jones with his "permission to speak" catchphrase.

Like I say - nobody wants to be the Ernie - nobody, it would seem, except this compliant Muppet.