Media mogul Rupert Murdoch proved himself to be "out of touch", banging his hand on the desk and being "monosyllabic" and "cantankerous", relying on his son James who proved to be an expert in the art of vague PR.

That was the British pundits' damning assessment of the media mogul's performance during a grilling from British MPs at a parliamentary hearing into the phone hacking scandal engulfing Britain.

Most critics said they could see straight through Rupert Murdoch when he interrupted his son's apology to hacking victims to say "This is the most humble day of my life".

"We understood the message: show contrition – yet it was so artlessly done, it showed nothing of the sort," The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh wrote.

The London Daily Telegraph's Allison Pearson said the statement was simply: "Lesson Two of Crisis PR: show a pleasing humility so they can't claim you're an arrogant bastard."

Sabbagh wrote that the older Mr Murdoch seemed "out of touch" in the early stages of the questioning.

"There were the marathon pauses; the one-word answers; the look, again and again of mystification.

"He tried, several times, to defer to James, who clearly had plenty of answers at his fingertips.

"His hand beat the desk several times to emphasise the occasional long answer.

"But above all, Rupert Murdoch knew nothing about phone hacking – and he didn't look like he was acting either."

The Telegraph's US editor Toby Harnden said Mr Murdoch, 80, should have brought along his ear trumpet, having continually to ask for the MPs' questions to be repeated.

"One minute monosyllabic, the next minute sarcastic and dismissive, banging the table and cantankerous throughout – it's hard to imagine an approach that could elicit less sympathy," Harnden wrote.

Pearson wrote that Mr Murdoch appeared "shockingly old. I mean, Galapagos tortoise old".

"Despite the sharp pinstripe suit and fashionably strobing, chunky tie, the octogenarian Murdoch looked less like a master of the universe than one of those Ukrainian pensioners who is dragged from obscurity to testify about a suspected past as a war criminal."

A lot of the British journalists emphasised the fact that Mr Murdoch continually referred to his son James for answers.

"Where Rupert began as a well of uncertainty, James had facts, information, and answers so long you couldn't remember [or care] what the question was. Not much emerged mind, though, other than the essential point," Mr Sabbagh wrote.

"None of his underlings told him the truth about phone hacking."

Pearson wrote that James Murdoch appeared to be an "eager scholar" in crisis PR.

"With his buzzcut and steel-rimmed specs, he has the manner of a keen MBA student.

"If the plan was to say the same vague, helpfully unhelpful thing over and over again in that midatlantic drone of his until viewers gave up the will to live, he succeeded admirably."

For once, former News of the World editor and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was out of the spotlight in much of the coverage of the hearings.

The Daily Mail asked body language expert Judi James to assess the behaviour of the Murdochs and Ms Brooks.

Looking tired and "low-key", Mrs Brooks outperformed the Murdochs, apparently sincere in her remorse, Ms James said.

"After the show from the Murdochs, this was a calm performance," Ms James said.

"There is no accelerated blink rate or raised shoulders - not revealing particular stress or suppressed anger.

"She is quietly firm but there is no show-boating and the regret seems genuine."

Sabbagh concluded one thing was clear from the dramatic hearings.

"What we did learn is that according to the Murdochs, neither had much idea what was going on at the News of the World.

"Perhaps, then, News Corp has become ungovernable, too big for management to keep an eye on what's going on around the business."