Voters last night saw a fly-on-the wall portrait of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, in Labour's latest election broadcast - and then had a chance to tell him what they think afterwards.
The Prime Minister and his ministers fielded calls from the public at Labour's headquarters following each screening of the broadcast, with Mr Blair speaking to 500 people at once on a two-hour conference call.
The 41/2-minute film, made by young film-maker Jake Price, followed Mr Blair going about his daily business over the last few weeks.
Much of it was shot in his constituency, Sedgefield in Co Durham.
With a classroom backdrop of schoolchildren's brightly-coloured pictures, Mr Blair said: "I'm still an optimist.
"I'm still basically someone who believes in the power of politicians to change things, that with all the cynicism and the rubbish that you get in politics and all the personality nonsense, in the end you come to a school like this and it's changed."
It also showed him drinking a pint and talking to regulars in a local pub and preparing for a speech at a hotel in Inverness.
The first 500 callers after each of the six transmissions tabled questions to Mr Blair at Labour's Millbank HQ.
Not all of the callers had their questions chosen, but all can listen in on the call.
Viewers who do not get to speak to Mr Blair put questions to cabinet ministers, Mr Chris Smith, Mr John Reid and Baroness Jay, and 23 other junior ministers and MPs.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said of the broadcast: "Leadership is a big issue for any election. People are conscious of the fact that they are electing parties to form governments but also picking a Prime Minister.
"We take no shame at all for drawing attention to the importance of leadership as an issue.
"We will be doing that more and more as the days go on.
"Tony Blair has shown in opposition and in government that he has got leadership qualities that it would be foolish of us not to make a party election broadcast about him.
"Especially in contrast with the weak leadership of William Hague who in this campaign has highlighted what we have been drawing attention to for the past four years.
"Not least the fact that he is unable to escape the shadow of Margaret Thatcher and is unable to provide any real direction for his party or heal divisions within his party."
Mr Blair's official spokesman said private polling had shown Baroness Thatcher's Europe speech in Plymouth last week was a "complete disaster".
"Whatever people felt about Margaret Thatcher, good or bad, they cannot really see any relevance she is to this election campaign," he added.
"It simply underlines [William Hague's] weakness that she had to be wheeled out to support him and then ended up in fact undermining him.
"To those who think good of her reminds them that the Conservative Party had a strong leader, to those who think bad of her reminds them of what she was like.
"It was a real no-brainer for him."
The first transmission of the broadcast was at 5.50 p.m. last night on BBC1. It was screened later on BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky.
Following each transmission of the broadcast, Mr Blair, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, and 26 ministers and MPs wearing headsets took questions from viewers in a call centre room at Millbank.
They took calls for 20-minute blocks after each broadcast, for two hours in total.
Viewers called in to tell Mr Blair what they thought about issues such as asylum and investment in public services.
Also fielding calls were the Trade and Industry Secretary, Mr Stephen Byers, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, and the Home Office Minister, Mr Paul Boateng. The Trade and Industry Minister, Ms Patricia Hewitt took e-mails from viewers.
Mr Blair, ministers and MPs sat at desks in their shirtsleeves as they fielded calls.