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Boris Johnson had survived an interview with Talk Radio, concentrating mainly on Brexit largely unscathed, when the reporter threw in one of those inconsequential, throwaway questions at the end: “What do you do to relax?”

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Now Boris could have said cycling or jogging – both of which we know he regularly indulges in. Or he could have played ultra safe and said reading and listening to music. All of these are nice, dull choices that would be instantly forgotten.

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Instead he launched into a description of a pastime so bizarre I had to check the transcript to make sure I had heard it correctly. Apparently he gets old wine boxes and paints them to make model buses complete with images of happy passengers.

This is so weird I initially thought it was some kind of wind-up, with Boris mischievously taking the mick out of his interviewer. But no, apparently he has said something similar before – only last time he said he painted cheese boxes.

I suppose we have to cut him some slack, as politicians seem to make a habit of taking up the most outlandish hobbies. Jeremy Corbyn, for example, is passionate about old manhole covers, while Ken Livingstone, when he is not rabbiting on about Hitler, is a keen newt fancier.

Winston Churchill liked to do a bit of bricklaying at Chartwell and David Cameron professed a passion for football – although his man of the people act fell apart when he couldn’t remember which team he was supposed to support.

Strangest of all perhaps was that upstanding Victorian William Gladstone who liked to while away the hours when not running the country by reading pornography and rescuing “fallen women” from the streets of London. Imagine what today’s tabloids would do with that juicy bit of information!

Boris has come over not just weird, but curiously flat, devoid of his normal fizz and pizzazz. Perhaps the controversy over his screaming argument with his girlfriend, recorded by a neighbour and passed onto a newspaper, has taken some of the wind out of his sails?

He has steadfastly refused to comment on what he sees as a personal matter, and for me that is fair enough. Arguments between a couple in their own home are nobody’s business other than the two people involved.

But he quickly needs to rediscover the vim and vigour that made him such a hot favourite with the Conservative party grassroots.

At his best Johnson is a barnstorming performer and he still seems the most likely candidate to reinvigorate the party and hold off the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

But for me, at least so far, the winner of the campaign to be our next PM has been Jeremy Hunt. He may be a little bit dull, but he comes over as competent and very well briefed.

His business background – he built up a multi-million pound publishing business from scratch – is impressive and he continually emphasises his negotiating skills, which will be vital if we are to leave the EU with a decent deal.

He can also point to his record as Secretary of State for Health and as Foreign Secretary – both high profile roles that he has carried out with some success.

Hunt’s main problem is that he was during the 2016 referendum a Remainer and we all know what happened the last time a Remainer tried to take us out of the EU. He is “Theresa May in a grey suit”, as one wag put it.

He also flirted with the idea of holding a second referendum – a completely toxic notion to many Conservative party members.

Hunt has to do more to convince the overwhelmingly Leave-leaning membership that his heart really is in Brexit.

It may be a crude comparison, but the choice seems to be between a managerial figure with a firm grasp of detail versus a broad-brush, charismatic character who can “cut through” to ordinary voters with no interest in politics.

It is still early days – postal ballots don’t go out to the Conservative party members who will make the decision until the end of next week. But unless Johnson ups his game he may find he has plenty of time on his hands to paint his model buses.