Hamiltons: Victims or opportunists?

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Police drop Hamiltons investigation

A fantasist, a publicist and the couple who refused to keep their counsel

Another epic libel battle now looms

It is fitting that when Neil and Christine Hamilton suddenly found themselves in the latest and most extraordinary drama of their colourful lives, Louis Theroux was there to record it all for television and posterity.

Mr Theroux specialises in the freakish end of humanity and he had chosen his subjects with care. The Hamiltons, he knew, would be a rich seam of entertainment. They would have the world believe that they are a latterday Mr and Mrs Dreyfus, and the false rape claim against them would add to the sense of victimhood.

But it is also true that they had deliberately and repeatedly found means to project themselves into the spotlight and, over time, have become highly proficient media performers.

Mrs Hamilton had been credited, if that is the word, with propelling her husband into politics, and when it came to establishing their new public life, it was she who took the lead.

Soon after Mr Hamilton lost his job as Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mrs Hamilton wroteThe Bumper Book of Battleaxes. Journalists who attended the launch party found the star was Cynthia Payne, the former brothel-keeper who was one of the book's subjects.

From then on, photo opportunities were seldom missed: confronting Martin Bell at Tatton during the 1997 election in front of ranks of television cameras and photographers; appearing on Have I Got News For You and accepting payment in brown envelopes; Mrs Hamilton smooching with a very young Young Conservative; Mrs Hamilton announcing that that she was to host her own satellite television show.

Following the High Court defeat, Mrs Hamilton was portrayed as the main breadwinner. She is also the legal owner of the couple's £350,000 flat in Battersea, south-west London.

Mrs Hamilton now charges £3,000 an appearance for daytime television shows and about £1,000 for after-dinner speeches. She has developed a keen eye for news stories. During the trial of Jeffrey Archer, she approached the Tory peer at an evening reception and loudly demanded whether it was true that other people actually wrote his books. "You are a remarkably silly woman," said Archer, walking away. The story duly appeared in newspaper diaries.

Mr Hamilton, too, has shown business aspirations. He has just received what he believes is the big break, the offer of appearing in advertisements to endorse a car immobiliser called Easylock. He was much taken with the way Charles Dance played him in a television adaptation of the libel trial and, according to friends, would like to get more involved in drama.