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The First Minister has tidied away the washing from the kitchen pulley in his Wishaw home, and now, as we sip coffee at the pine table, looking out on to the garden's spring shimmer, he remembers the curious incident of the picture show in the night. It was one of those rare occasions when Jack McConnell and his wife Bridget managed to snatch time to go to the movies. "We'd decided on Pride and Prejudice at the Barrbridge Leisure Centre in Coatbridge, but first we went for a meal at an Italian restaurant nearby."

As the couple tucked into their pasta they couldn't help noticing the unusual number of men dining together or mooching about the complex itself. "By the time we'd finished, Pride and Prejudice had just begun so the cinema was in absolute darkness and the only available seats were right at the front. Anyway, at the end of the film, which we both enjoyed very much, I was conscious - as ever - that there might be one or two people who'd like to say hello. So, the lights came up and as we turned around I discovered that every single person in the audience was female except me."

Amid laughter, McConnell did indeed shake a few hands, and suddenly the reason for the Coatbridge gender division became clear. The women had left their men outside to avoid any conspicuous yawning over Jane Austen. Clearly West-of-Scotland-Man has yet to cop on to the pulling power of Mr D'Arcy.

McConnell is often criticised for his " wooden demeanour" on public occasions yet those who know him well explain this as a natural shyness, not the handiest attribute in a politician. But freed from the Scottish Executive's coalition straitjacket, he now feels more at ease with himself, traversing the country on the trail of May 3 votes.

That's not to say the Labour leader hasn't enjoyed being First Minister. But the constraints required of him in the Holyrood chamber have, he feels, sometimes presented "a very boring representation of me, which isn't me at all". This, he acknowledges, is partly a consequence of his responsibility to the office he holds, to respect the Parliament rather than indulge in punchbag politics. If nothing else, such restraint drives home the actual limitations of power; something any successor - should there be one - will quickly discover.

Is he thinking of Alex Salmond? "Well, I enjoy having an opponent who is taken seriously because - put it this way - it makes the contest more meaningful, but I passionately believe I am a better First Minister than he would ever be." McConnell has always been convinced that, of his generation, he was the person best equipped to hold the role. "And I still believe that."

But set aside the school examinations fiasco of 2000, and, as education minister, he had no real knowledge of the unremitting pressures which crowd into the top job. "Donald (Dewar), was an iconic figure with an idiosyncratic style and vast experience, which benefited us all. But it's fair to say that for the first year and a half that I was in the job, I found it incredibly tough."

That particular period, he reflects, coincided with health service waiting lists deteriorating and no demonstrable improvement in schools. "We'd also gone through a mini recession in electronics, and the Scottish economy was stuttering. The drug rehabilitation programme was only just coming on, so I felt frustrated at the lack of progress and change." McConnell muses that he shouldn't have taken things so personally. "But I did, and it dented my confidence for a while. On reflection, though, I've kind of gone on a personal journey in this job, and I feel I'm now a very different person from the one during those first 18 months."

Certainly the hair is greyer and the suits are better cut, but in what other ways does McConnell believe he has altered? "Well, my confidence in my own abilities has grown because of a clarity of direction. As soon as I was able to break out and set my own agenda at the 2003 election, and then get to work on that, I became like a liberated person. And I've been able to deal with the day-to-day abuse that comes with the job by looking at the results."

McConnell had decided that there were things that could no longer be swept under the carpet. Chief among then were sectarianism, smoking and Scotland's need for immigrants to redress a declining population. But each of those subjects was risky, and he recalls that there were many people, both inside and outside the Parliament, who counselled against the initiatives he intended.

Was Bridget among them? McConnell shakes his head. His wife, an admired high-flyer, is executive director of Glasgow City Council's cultural and leisure services, the original mover and shaker behind the triumphant restoration of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and now involved in Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games. "You know, Bridget in her work takes brave decisions and actually we've got quite similar personalities, so we're complementary in that sense. We feed off each other and we learn from each other. In fact we're much more a team than a couple in competition."

But in a small country their relationship has had to survive an unprecedented level of scrutiny, some of it fuelled by malice. The first occasion was five years ago when McConnell became Labour leader, and whispers of an adulterous past swirled around him. As a result he was persuaded - some claim by Bridget - to admit publicly to an affair seven years previously that then threatened to ruin his chances of becoming Scotland's third First Minister. Anyone who witnessed that televised moment of skeletons being laid to rest, can't have failed to observe Bridget McConnell's unwavering dignity in facing down that ravenous press conference. She expressed no bitterness, but hurt was there, not the old, inevitable hurt of infidelity - the couple, she said, had rebuilt their marriage with the support of trusted others. Instead, the hurt that haunted that occasion was more the spite and innuendo that always seem to lurk in any corridor of power.

"We have this huge extended family of 57 relatives," says McConnell, "and they at times have felt every blow. But not one of them has ever said to me: I wish you weren't First Minister.' Yet I know for a fact that the ups and downs of this job affect almost every one of them." That was certainly true on the second occasion of media outrage when the McConnells spent New Year at the Majorcan villa of Kirsty Wark and her husband in 2005.

Given the nature of Wark's Newsnight job as a political interrogator, that festive break was perceived as an error of judgment by both sides. But it also raised the testy question of whether public figures are wise to have any friends at all. "At the time I got quite angry about that whole episode because it was so destructive to people other than us. We've been close friends of Alan Clements and Kirsty for 20 years. They are among the kindest and strongest people I know, and we're very fond of them." But since all that livid coverage the couples haven't holidayed together, a decision they took jointly.

"So we've had to pull back from that friendship and initially the thing that was worst was the sheer hypocrisy of some of those who were criticising us but who themselves holiday with politicians.

The impact on the kids, though, was harshest. I mean, Hannah and Mark are much older than Caitlin and James, Kirsty and Alan's children. The four of them have always got on really, really well but now we are in the ridiculous situation where the four of them haven't been on holiday together for three years."

But if anything convinced McConnell that the slings and arrows of high office were a universal affliction, it was a late-night session in the bar at Gleneagles during the G8 summit. "There were about 10 of us including Bush and Chirac, and Bridget with some of the wives." Tony Blair had gone upstairs to deal with the horrific aftermath of the London bombs, and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi was also elsewhere, "But it was just a group with similar heavy levels of responsibility, having a chat in probably one of the few places where they could relax. I was very struck by that because I rarely relax when I'm out, maybe in a restaurant, as there have been incidents where people have tried to pick an argument or whatever."

McConnell was determined that there should be some lasting result of Scotland's hosting of the summit, and the re-invigorating of infrastructure expertise for impoverished Malawi continues as the goal. But that night, when banter was flying over the nightcaps of the powerful, the First Minister introduced a little mischief. Before arriving in Scotland the French president had derided British food, anticipating the worst, only to swallow his prejudice on sampling the Gleneagles fare. So, McConnell went to the hotel kitchens and brought Chef Andrew Fairlie into the gathering.

"Chirac took the encounter in great spirit, and congratulated Andrew with warmth and style. But, you know, when you see these guys behind the scenes, they are the same as the rest of us."

Yet, off the official circuit, how do the McConnells chill out?

"At heart Bridget and I are both country people, and we chose this house because of the peacefulness of the back garden. Look out of the window, and you could be in Balfron.

"So, when I manage to get back here in the evening we just talk and go for a wander in that garden, listening to the birds. And the security lights help when you decide to do a bit of moonlight weeding."

If, on May 3, the fates decree that McConnell will no longer be First Minister, he would like to resume a career working with children. "I wouldn't go back to teaching, but something focused on improving young people's opportunities." But such thoughts are premature, he says. While some politicians have recently been described as "attack dogs", Jack McConnell may be more of a border terrier - tenacious and quick with that burrowing determination to see things through.

12:01am Saturday 21st April 2007

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