RUTH Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, will take on Boris Johnson in the BBC's final EU debate, grandly entitled The Great Debate, which will be broadcast at 8pm tonight.

How great it will be remains to be seen. But it's certainly a big production.

Ms Davidson will be part of a three-strong team, also including London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Frances O’Grady, the General Secretary of the TUC, putting the case for Remain.

Mr Johnson's allies on the Leave side will be fellow Conservative Andrea Leadsom and Labour's Gisela Stuart, the same trio that made the case for Brexit on ITV's big live debate earlier in the campaign.

The BBC's top names will be out in force.

David Dimbleby will host the programme, helped by Mishal Husain and Emily Maitlis. Economics Editor Kamal Ahmad and Europe Editor Katya Adler will head-up a "reality check" team testing the claims and assertions of the two sides.

There will be a second stage where 10 more campaigners - including the SNP's Humza Yousaf on the Remain side - will continue the debate.

And how about this? The whole two-hour spectacular is being staged in front a live audience of 6000 people at the SSE Arena, Wembley.

Now, there isn't a politician in the world who would turn down a platform like that.

But it is probably fair to say it wasn't part of Ms Davidson's plan at the start of the EU referendum.

She has made no secret of her support for Remain but, equally, she was perfectly candid before the Holyrood election in May about her intention to play a low profile role in the EU debate, understandably wary of stirring divisions within her own party on the question at hand.

With Thursday's result on a knife edge, Ms Davidson is not the only Remain supporter who has found herself campaigning with greater urgency than she expected.

At the weekend, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon penned a frank article in The Herald's sister paper, the Sunday Herald, urging independence supporters not to vote Leave in a bid to trigger a re-run of the 2014 referendum.

She spent much of the day in television studios making the same point.

This wasn't part of her plan, either. The First Minister had hoped to secure am overwhelming Remain vote in Scotland by talking about the 300,000 jobs that rely on EU trade.

Instead, she is pleading with her own supporters and issuing terrifying warnings about the impact of Brexit on the Scottish NHS.

Jeremy Corbyn is in a similar boat.

The Labour leader swallowed his aversion to live TV and put the Remain case first on Channel 4's satirical The Last Leg show and again last night on Sky, when he faced questions for young voters.

The narrowing of the polls has focused minds. But so has the prospect of a brutal blame game if the UK votes to leave the EU.

If that happens, David Cameron and his allies will be in the firing line for staging the referendum in the first place, Mr Corbyn for doing too little to persuade Labour voters in the North of England and Ms Sturgeon for sending mixed messages to 2014's Yes voters.

Those hoping for a Remain vote will be praying their latest efforts have not come too late.