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- Win likely for PM David Cameron
- Minority wars in Britain's election
- UK election 2015: What you need to know
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David Cameron, Conservative
Mr Cameron's initial detached, robot-like repetition of his "long term economic plan" mantra failed to translate to new votes, so his HQ (run by Aussie Lynton Crosby) ordered a change of gear.
Suddenly, two weeks ago, Cameron took his tie off, started sweating and shouting, telling people he felt "bloody lively" and Labour to "stick it where the sun don't shine". Whether it worked or not, it was startling.
Ed Miliband, Labour
The campaign as a whole was a turning point for Mr Miliband, who came in as (in Charlie Brooker's words) a "Play-Dough IT manager". The emergence of his teenage fan club, the "Milifandom", was particularly unexpected, as was his pilgrimage to the home of celebrity shagger Russell Brand and his decision to carve some vague pledges into a 3-metre-high stone monument, which the tabloids gleefully dubbed his "Edstone".
A more significant low point was the stark evidence, during a TV debate, that the public still blames his party for the recession.
Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrats
Arguably the defining moment for Mr Clegg was five years ago, when he joined Mr Cameron in the Downing Street rose garden and fed his pledge not to raise student tuition fees into the composter. Since then he's been non-stop apologising.
At the final leaders' debate an angry member of the public asked him "any plans for next week when you become an irrelevance?". But Mr Clegg may yet be kingmaker for the next government.
Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party
The personable, grinning face of genteel British xenophobia, Mr Farage is his party's best asset, despite his underperformance in the debates blamed (in the first one) on a pre-debate gin and tonic, then (in the second) on the lack of a pre-debate gin and tonic.
Some of his worst assets during the campaign included UKIP councillor Rozanne Duncan, who was expelled for saying she had a problem with black people, and candidate Robert Blay, who threatened to shoot his Conservative rival if he ever became prime minister.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish National Party
Appearing at the first debate, to again quote Charlie Brooker, like a "nice mum from a biscuit commercial", Ms Sturgeon's humour, feisty attitude and velvet-gloved socialism made her the talk of the campaign, and the only party leader with a net approval rating. You suspect that when a tabloid furiously dubbed her "The most dangerous woman in Britain", she had it framed and put on the wall.
The British media
Labour faced a relentless bucketing in most of the press, some of it undeserved. The Independent, almost exclusively read by Cameron-haters, may have shot itself in the foot by editorialising for another five years of the Coalition. Conspiracy theorists speculated on the motivation of its owner, a Russian oligarch's son. The tabloids were predictably rabid, with predictable biases. The Daily Telegraph was exposed for copying and pasting a line-up of supposed business leaders backing the Tories from a flawed list sent in from Conservative HQ. However The Times was particularly shamed by a tiny correction admitting that its "Labour's £1000 tax on families" front-page splash was a concocted miscalculation.
