BIFF! Bang! Pow! Three leaders limped away from the TV studio after a bruising encounter with a pumped-up Leeds audience and their toughest tests of the campaign.

Ouch, those were some aggressive questions – wounding David Cameron for his record on poverty, Ed Miliband for Labour’s failures on the economy and Nick Clegg for his student fees broken promise.

First up, Mr Cameron got it in the neck for his refusal to say where most of £12bn of welfare cuts will fall and to rule out cutting child benefit – something he again pointedly failed to do.

Mr Cameron was a bit sweaty and red-faced, and the fringe flopped down his forehead…but he kept his composure impressively.

It wasn’t any easier for Mr Miliband, pounded repeatedly over the same weakness: “How can we trust the Labour party with the UK economy?”

So what did we learn? That, love or loathe them, our party leaders are cool under fire. Mr Miliband’s only stumble came as he walked off – he almost fell the stage, which would have been disaster.

What we also saw was why we are heading for a hung parliament.

Those weaknesses (poverty for the Tories, the economic crash for Labour) are too damaging for either to overcome.

It’s a shame the rest of the campaign hasn’t been like that.

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett wasn’t so interested, describing the show as the “poor cousin” to the previous debates because all the leaders were offering “business as usual” politics committed to “vicious austerity”, and no women were involved.

She said: “What we’ve seen tonight is a clear example of why we urgently need a real alternative in British politics.”

Meanwhile UKIP leader Nigel Farage told a BBC audience that his party could emulate the SNP’s rise to popularity and said he would “accept the result” if the UK voted to stay in the EU in any referendum.