It was the final election push for Labour's Frank Dobson. Ahead of near certain defeat in today's election for London mayor, Frank's smile never faltered. Even on a day when a heckler in the Labour stronghold of Islington shouted at him, "You'll never get in anyway", Frank just kept on smiling.
Outside the Angel tube station a group of Labour councillors and Labour candidates for the Greater London Assembly were doing a pretty good job drumming up support among the Islingtonians. And there were a few comradely slaps on the back from bleary-eyed commuters despite the monotonous "Vote Labour tomorrow, you have three votes tomorrow, vote Labour", ringing out from the loudhailer of Derek Sawyer, a local councillor
It was a simple message, Derek admitted. But you got the feeling that it had run out of steam. Ken Livingstone streaked ahead of Frank in the opinion polls a long time ago and Labour senses he can't catch up.
Just after 9 a.m. Frank arrived in Islington on the tube from Morden - and he wasn't late. That was surprising, since Morden is on the famously unreliable Northern Line, which is a daily nightmare for Londoners struggling to get into the office.
One of the first jobs for the new London mayor will be to sort out better funding for the Tube. The voters probably won't be calling upon Frank to carry out that job, but at least it was running on time for him yesterday, so that was a small piece of comfort.
When he talked about Ken Livingstone, Frank admitted that had the issue of the May Day violence and Red Ken's previous comments in support of direct action (but not violence) come earlier in the campaign, then it might have marked a turning point in the mayoral race. As it was, Frank shrugged his shoulders and said nobody really knew how the voters would turn out.
He was putting a brave face on it. But even if he wanted (or Millbank demanded) to present a cunning side to the public, Frank just couldn't do it. On the final day of campaigning, when it might have been more political to insist he was still in the running, honest Frank shone through.
Was he confident about the vote? "Well, I wouldn't put it like that," was the reply.
The next stop was the north London borough of Camden, where Frank was once leader of the council. Walking up Camden High Street at breakneck speed with local supporters running behind him with a bunch of yellow and red Labour balloons, Frank grabbed the outstretched hands.
"Hello love, how you doing?" and then it was on to the next person. There didn't seem to be much time for electioneering, which was a bit odd, when the purpose was to get the voters on-side.
But Camden obviously agreed with Frank, because by the time he had worked the High Street he was sounding much more confident.
"I'm as confident as I was on day one," he told a television crew. "I believe Ken Livingstone is proving unfit to do the job."