And so, in a private ceremony on Tuesday night Flashman was encased in fifteen foot of concrete, bound tightly in lead and buried deep under Steve Hilton’s patio. The Combative Cameron had been decommissioned. On Wednesday the Polite PM would return.

Ignore everything else you’ve read on the subject, forget your preconceptions and admit the dirty truth. Yesterday’s PMQs was more boring than it’s been for weeks. I hated Flash intensely but I miss him now he’s gone – in small doses an angry, shouty Cameron was a devastating debating weapon and the stuff sketch writers’ dreams are made of: waspish, haughty, indiscreet and brash. He brought twice as much life to the chamber as the previous PM ever managed. He was funny. And admit it: who here hasn’t woken clammy from that dream where you are standing at the dispatch box, leaning menacingly forward onto your elbow and with the full might of HM Government cheering you on, you fix an enemy MP with a cool stare before quoting Michael Winner adverts to universal media opprobrium?

Ed Balls should take most credit for the death of Flashman, but the fact that it’s him and not Mr Miliband who so haunts the PM serves as a reminder of both men’s strengths and weaknesses. Mr Balls inspires extraordinary loyalty from those who are close to him, balanced by real hatred from some of those who aren’t. He doesn’t care – every time the prime minister was provoked into unappealing irritability the shadow chancellor would think of the evening bulletins, realise he achieved a little victory and wriggle with delight, grinning, growling and gesticulating all at once.

Yesterday the other Ed won well against a man who seemed to have one hand tied behind his back – but the Labour benches should beware the prime ministerial relaunch. Those of us old enough to remember the 1990s recall a likeable guy, who one day tired of the PMQs parlour game, remembered the great prestige and power of his office and finally started talking like the man at the top should do.

He dominated the chamber for a decade. Four Tory leaders barely laid a glove on him. And there was hardly a grumpy moment. Let’s hope Cameron isn’t about to do the same and give the public what they like: a PM who sounds like a prime minister.