Sarah is Sharona to Gordon's Monk

It's getting really weird now.

Sharona Brown is always within touching distance of Gordon Monk. While walking, her hand is on his back. Every time he addresses a crowd, she is at his shoulder, staring at him stone-faced. On the tv sofa this morning, she almost had him on her lap. I have never seen a couple sit that close to each other. Well, not in public.

Her face is a study. An unblinking stare at his face. A worried frown. Sometimes her neck twists round like an owl's, so determined is she to make sure she never takes her eyes off him, not for a second.

This is not the expression of a woman gazing adoringly at her hero. It's more like the professional solicitousness of a psychiatric nurse watching her patient's every breath, facial tic and tremble of the hand, anticipating the final destructive break-out of suppressed psychosis.

But look! He has been transformed in the last 36 hours. Gone are the grey-faced moroseness and voter-hating depression. Instead, an amazing spurt of energy and animation. I suppose Sharona has upped the happy pills. Maybe her increasingly anxious expression means he's now on the maximum legal dose and there's nothing more she can do short of total sedation.

Hang in there, Sharona. You've only got to keep him going for another 48 hours.