Michael Gove mucks in but was he preaching to the converted?

The former Education Secretary, now Tory Chief Whip, was doing a little bit of a good deed while out canvassing in Wolverhampton.

Bright, glorious sunshine one minute, rain lashing down the next and topped off with gusts of wind threatening to drag the leaflets from his hands before he could stuff them through anyone's letterbox.

Wolverhampton South West's Conservatives called in the big guns for the first week of the General Election campaign.

And with good reason. Paul Uppal's majority is a threadbare 691 votes.

The following day we would get a visit from both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to Banks's Brewery, where the Marston's boss Ralph Findlay had just backed them in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.

They would arrive by helicopter and get picked up in a Jaguar before being driven to their appointment in style.

But on the street in Tettenhall the Chief Whip was putting in the leg work.

Most of the knocks on the door went unanswered.

Perhaps this was a good sign for the Tories. Maybe it was evidence that their long term economic plan was working and that everyone was out at a job.

One man announced he was going to vote for the Scottish National Party.

To be honest, they're probably going to be the biggest winners after the vote on May 7 anyway so it wasn't a bad shout.

A woman came out of her house and gave Mr Gove what for about the pressure that headteachers are under.

She was especially concerned about the targets they have to meet.

The former education secretary listened and the woman apologised for having a 'whinge'.

Mr Gove said she was doing no such thing and offered to raise her concerns with the Prime Minister.

After all, education is no longer his brief. It's now in the hands of Nicky Morgan.

Something did occur to me that should probably have occurred to the Conservatives too.

We were in Tettenhall Wightwick, the most rock solidly Conservative-leaning part of Wolverhampton.

The party will have to hope that everyone who was not at home had already made up their mind to support them.

Because if the Tories cannot win in lovely, leafy Tettenhall, then they are never going to have a majority government again.

Was Eddie the star attraction or a major distraction?

Eddie Izzard brought a bit of star quality to Labour's election campaign in the key marginal seat of Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

The comedian visited in support of candidate Stephanie Peacock.

He's been all over the West Midlands and beyond backing Labour.

It's certainly useful for any political party to have a star backer. And it made headlines when Martin Freeman, Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit films, made a video supporting Labour.

The problem for the spinners, however, is that attention always turns to the star rather than to the party's message.

So for Miss Peacock it's a useful way of getting her name out there.

But will anyone who met Eddie Izzard yesterday remember he was there to tell them to vote Labour?

Or will they just tell all their friends they spent part of the day with a comedian?

And how does he manage to canvass in those heels?