By Henry Deedes For The Daily Mail
Published: 23:03 GMT, 20 March 2019 | Updated: 23:03 GMT, 20 March 2019
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The Prime Minister gazed into the television camera, her hooded eyes tinged with a fleck of sorrowfulness.
Her voice, only just restored after succumbing last week to Jean-Claude Juncker's incessant cigarette puffing, crackled unevenly like a well-oiled chip pan.
There was an endearing distress to her manner, a polite fretfulness which said: 'Please folks, it's been a long old day. Just let me get something off my chest.'
At first, had it been anyone else speaking, it could have been a woman pleading with guerrilla fighters for the release of a loved one taken hostage.
Mrs May was, in fact, addressing the nation live about the next state of (what else!) Brexit, which she will now not be able to deliver on time.
Humiliatingly, she has been forced to ask Brussels for Article 50 be extended until the day before Wimbledon starts.
Theresa May looked directly into the TV cameras as she made a statement inside number 10 Downing Street
At first, had it been anyone else speaking, it could have been a woman pleading with guerrilla fighters for the release of a loved one taken hostage, Henry Deedes says
Her setting was inside Downing Street. She emerged, shortly after 8.35pm, alone, stranded as a runtish petty officer manning the crow's nest.
The delay to leaving the EU, she said, was of 'great personal regret'. You, the poor public, she added
