It was a case of Gordon "Blackadder" Brown going forth yesterday with the hapless Captain Darling and Private Baldrick, aka Jack Straw, giving vocal support to their embattled, baggy-eyed leader.

After two days of heavy fire on Northern Rock and the mother of all data security blunders, no-one was expecting the Cameroon to show sympathy and keep his powder dry.

In a tactical manoeuvre to get government retaliation in first, up popped Ann McKechin, the loyal lieutenant from Glasgow North, to ask if the PM was doing everything he possibly could to ensure the protection of people's personal data. Of course, the word "no" was not anticipated.

As gleeful Tory stormtroopers pointed at their miserable-looking opponents, Blackadder Brown issued what could well be his first ever apology from the dispatch box.

He told MPs earnestly: "I profoundly regret and apologise for the inconvenience and worry caused to millions of families who receive child benefit."

Conservative voices cracked at the word "apologise", not something MPs hear every day from the nation's leader.

After the PM tried to reassure people about there being no evidence of fraud and about the ordered security "deep clean" of Whitehall departments and agencies, up stood the Tory champion to a roar from his supporters, anticipating he would once again duff up his surly opposite number.

DC's attack centred on claims of a systemic failure in government security, insisting that Gordy's first duty was to protect the public.

Blackadder Brown, shaking his head and looking more lugubrious as PMQs progressed, again insisted there had been no evidence of fraud. To which, the Tories shouted: "Yet."

The PM insisted the whole mess was not because there were not proper security procedures in place like encryption, but because a lowly official had simply not observed them.

Of course, this might, when all the probes are over, prove to be the case but, in the meantime, this does not prohibit Dave from putting on his large hob-nailed boots and giving Gordy a kicking.

The Cameroon pointed to earlier security breaches which the government at the time assured people had resulted in a review that had put things right. Tory eyes opened wide in a "gotcha" moment.

He also sought to pin the blame on Gordy himself, saying that he had been in charge of revenue matters during 10 years at the Treasury and asked if he felt "at all responsible" for the failures. The hope was obvious: fling enough mud and hope some of it sticks.

However, in response, the PM pointed out how the Tories had supported changes at HM Revenue and Customs and before the last General Election proposed £660m cuts in the agency's "rationalisation of data processing". Now it was Labour MPs to sit up, point fingers and shout "a-ha".

Mr C responded by slamming as "frankly pathetic" Gordy's attempt to blame the opposition and claimed voters wanted their Prime Minister to "stand up, show some broad shoulders, be the big man and show some responsibility".

The Blackadder reference was actually raised by Elfyn Llwyd, the mustachioed wily leader of the Welsh Nationalists, who quipped: "Is it time for Blackadder to say goodbye to Darling?"

As opposition MPs laughed, the PM insisted his snow-capped colleague had done an "excellent job" as Chancellor. Perhaps it was not quite a moment to compare with that in 1989 when Margaret Thatcher called Nigel Lawson, her then Chancellor, "unassailable" but had to watch as, within days, he had gone.

Whether Blackadder Brown can look to Baldrick for a "cunning plan" that is as cunning as a fox who was professor of cunning at Oxford University will be seen in time. But he certainly needs some strategy to get him out of the deep animal trap he has fallen into.