Compared to what's come before it was almost a lovefest in London when Julia Gillard was quizzed about her role in the 2010 "coup" which toppled Kevin Rudd.
Australia's first female prime minister participated in a wide-ranging interview at Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women summit in central London on Monday night (Tuesday morning AEST).
Ms Gillard was speaking just hours before the second part of the ABC television series The Killing Season goes to air detailing how she seized the Labor leadership five hears ago.
"Kevin Rudd is a man of tremendous strengths, amazing strengths, and they came to the fore during the global financial crisis," Ms Gillard said when asked about the leadership change.
"He's someone who is very focused on a kind of crisis management, command-and-control style of leadership, and when the global economy was truly melting down it worked.
"Australia did not go into recession and that's a great credit to Kevin and also to (former treasurer) Wayne Swan."
But, Ms Gillard added, Mr Rudd's leadership style didn't work day to day in more "ordinary times".
"It meant not only that political baggage accumulated for the government but it actually meant that the government wasn't functioning as it needed to in the interests of the Australian people.
"So I did ask Kevin for a leadership ballot and overwhelmingly my colleagues decided they would cast a vote for me."
That's as critical as it got.
Ms Gillard told the international audience that Australia's three-year government terms added "turbulence" to Canberra's political machinations.
"It makes it very, very fast," she said.
"And I think in some ways adds to some of the turbulence in Australian politics."
The ex-PM is in London for a series of events over the next 10 days.
She'll participate in a question and answer session with United States First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday before addressing the Overseas Development Institute on Wednesday.
Ms Gillard will deliver an Institute of Directors lecture on Thursday before appearing at the London School of Economics and Political Science early next week.
In Tuesday's episode of The Killing Season, Ms Gillard admits giving Mr Rudd "false hope" that she'd allow him more time as leader in mid-2010.
Mr Rudd tells the ABC her subsequent "complete transformation in five or 10 minutes" was "something which tears open your heart".
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