Will TV Showcases Decide Battle For Number 10?

It is just 300 metres from parliament to Downing Street. A short distance but a long way stretching over the next six weeks for David Cameron and Ed Miliband.

The first leg tonight, 10 miles up river at Sky Studios where the opening television showcase of the General Election is co-hosted by Sky News and Channel 4, the two men battling for the keys to number 10 will face the nation.

And what better way to see the challenge for them both than on the banks of the Thames, which meanders through many battlegrounds where the Conservatives and Labour are pitched directly against each other.

An extraordinary two dozen cranes tower over Battersea - the first bellwether seat. A Conservative majority, but Labour territory under Blair and Brown.

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The cranes are the physical embodiment of Mr Cameron's argument about a long-term economic plan.

The Government has helped lever in investment from around the world to fund the long-stalled power station redevelopment.

A new tube station was supported by a government guarantee.

Indeed Chrysa, who lives by the developments, says she will be voting for Mr Cameron as she sees "not just recovery but growth". Mr Miliband would have to copy what Mr Cameron has done, she says.

Harry, a property developer, also marvels at the change seen on the banks of the Thames. But he questions how far the tide of recovery here reaches. The flats start at £800,000 if you aren't eligible for social housing.

He could never dream of living in housing developments that seem principally designed as investments for wealthy foreigners. But he also says he would rather live in the country.

Back in the boat, you float past the river-facing mansions that Mr Miliband hopes to tax in Kensington and Chelsea to plug a hole in NHS funding, and then you arrive in Hammersmith.

If Mr Cameron was to win a majority, Hammersmith is just the sort of place that he should be winning from Labour.

But at last year's local elections the council went the other way. And you don't even have to reach dry land to hear concerns about the future of the health service.

A young man sculling past our boat says he will be waiting to hear from the two leaders about the NHS - "protecting it, investing in it, and not taking it private".

He is a medical student. There is a strong local campaign against hospital closures here, but some relief for Mr Cameron, with a former Lib Dem voter now choosing Conservative.

In the race for Number 10, Mr Cameron's personal polling is lengths ahead of his fellow Oxford graduate, but their parties are neck and neck.

Today's Sky News poll of polls for national vote share is a dead heat at 34% each.

The Sky News projection for the House of Commons: 279 for Labour and 278 for the Conservatives. If repeated at an election that would mean a very hung parliament with the SNP holding the balance of power.