Being "good with people" is, you might think, a basic requirement for any politician. You would be wrong.
But, sitting in Esther Rantzen's campaign HQ in the centre of the market hall in Luton's shopping mall, I was to witness a master class in how to do it.
An elderly local woman had been nursing a cup of tea in the little cafe opposite the would-be MP's office on the off-chance she would be able to grab a "quick" word with Esther (more a brand than a name) when she turned up.
Her opening line was not meant as a challenge, but in an election campaign, the sentence: "I wanted to talk to you because I know you help people" certainly sounded like one.
For the next ten minutes or so, the troubled "constituent" laid out the problem she was having with her new neighbours and which had already seen the police and fire services involved.
Rantzen hung on every word, leaning close-in, to touching distance. And she didn't flinch when the woman finally revealed the central problem was - a smell.
It isn't there all the time, it's not gas and some people don't notice it at all, she said. But she wanted to know what to do about it. Could Esther help?
Get out of that one.
How many others would have either come up with, or got away with suggesting a few air fresheners from the local chemists.
"You can even buy them in cans to spray around," suggested Rantzen without a hint of sarcasm or blink of exasperation.
For the lady involved, it came as a revelation. "Oh, then I wouldn't be able to smell it."
Then, as she rose to leave, delighted that Esther had indeed helped her, she added: "I have always watched you on television and I wanted to meet you and I know you help people........."
Ah, so there we had it. The television effect.
It is an effect that has clearly helped Rantzen win the sort of media coverage other independent candidates would struggle to get. And it is on display whenever Rantzen goes out on the campaign trail.
But it is unlikely it will be enough to win Rantzen the seat - although only the foolhardy would predict the outcome of any local result in this historic election.
One factor working against her is the fact she is not only up against the three big parties but five independents as well as BNP, UKIP, Green and Workers' Revolutionary Party candidates.
"It is a very strange situation here with so many independent candidates. It does at least offer the voters a real choice.
"I think it is good. The more choice we have in our democracy the better, but we have to listen with real attention to all the candidates," she said.
So, should she fail this time around, would she have another go at a future election?
"Never say never, but it seems unlikely. I was impelled to do this by the expenses scandal.
"Here, when you mention the name of the sitting MP (Margaret Moran - a byword for expenses fiddling) people can't bring themselves to talk about her, people are so furious.
"The fact she is still drawing a salary, going to have a golden handshake, the fact she is telling her constituents she is too ill to work but she told Channel 4 cameras she was available for work now makes them feel so betrayed and let down and what people say to me is if she was in any other job, this would be regarded as fraudulent."
All this might indeed have been enough to give Rantzen a chance of winning this seat had Moran refused to stand down and had the field of independents not been so vast.
Now, though, talk to voters going about their shopping in the Mall and market and, while the fury at Moran's antics is obvious, the way that will be expressed in the ballot box is far less clear.
In 2005 the gap between Labour and the Tories was under 6,000 and between the Conservative candidate and the Liberal Democrat, just over 2,000.
And the Clegg effect appears to be working here, as elsewhere.
Luton South is one of the most reliable "bellwether" constituencies in the land, electing a candidate from the party that wins the election every poll since 1951.
At the start of the campaign that led most in the constituency to believe it would be a straight Lab-Tory fight. Not any more.
