"I've left Westminster for the real world of Showbiz!"

By Alice Wright - 07/12/2011

Preparing to interview someone who has legally changed their name to Mrs British Battleaxe is a little daunting.

 

Christine Hamilton (as Mrs Battleaxe prefers to be known) has quite a formidable reputation, not least for her fierce support of her husband, former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, during the cash for questions parliamentary scandal in the 1990s.

 

So I ready myself for a rather fiery interviewee, while wondering whether it’s really wise to begin by asking whether the Liam Fox/Adam Werrity furore, which is still rumbling on when we speak, has raised unpleasant memories.

 

But Christine, 62, tackles the subject with equanimity, although she says she takes a very “detached view of politics” these days.

 

“I’ve still got chums in the House of Commons,” she says. “But I always say I’ve left the artificial world of Westminster for the real world of showbiz - and it’s much more fun.”

 

However, she admits that seeing the media scrum around former defence secretary Fox did remind her of those weeks when she and Neil were in the political spotlight. And although she thinks Fox behaved in “a bizarre, stupid fashion” she found it impossible not to feel some sympathy for him.

 

“Knowing what it’s like to be at the centre of a media feeding frenzy, they’re like a pack of piranhas, they really are, and if they can’t bite you they’ll bite each other sort of thing.

 

“I have sympathy for anybody who’s in the middle, whoever they are. Because the pressure is intense, and I think unless you’ve experience it, it’s difficult to know.”

 

No doubt having the press camped on their doorstep was distressing, but it seemed to give the Hamiltons a taste for the limelight – and a reputation for publicity seeking.

 

The cash for questions scandal ended Neil Hamilton’s parliamentary career but the couple turned their notoriety to their advantage, launching themselves into the world of celebrity with appearances on chat shows and an unforgettable Louis Theroux fly on the wall documentary.

 

Christine even appeared on the first series of reality programme I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, where she endured various gruesome “Bushtucker Trials” to come third.

 

She is now a regular on the after-dinner speech circuit, appearing at events as diverse as the British Parking Association Annual Dinner and a League of Jewish Women luncheon.

 

She published The Book of British Battleaxes and in 2009 changed her name by deed poll to British Battleaxe to promote The Legal Deed Poll Service.

 

And earlier this year the Hamilton’s hit the headlines again when they recreated the raunchy potter’s wheel scene from the film Ghost for a charity campaign.

 

As Christine herself admits, there’s a popular conception that the Hamiltons are so publicity-hungry “there’s nothing they won’t do”.

 

“People only know what we do,” she points out. “They don’t know what we turn down.”

 

“People are so sort of pompous about life,” she goes on. “Life’s for enjoying and having fun and we laugh at ourselves and why not? If other people don’t see the joke then who cares?”

 

Despite dismissing those who criticise her, she admits that she’s not completely impervious to “the nasty things that are said and written”.

 

“I’m much too thin-skinned in a way,” she says. “Neil’s always saying, come on get a grip it doesn’t matter but it does hurt me, of course it does. But you can’t live your life in the public eye and then complain about it. If you don’t like it, get out, basically.”

 

And Christine obviously loves the spotlight. This month she’s preparing to appear as the Fairy Godmother in the pantomime of Cinderalla in Kettering, with Neil as Baron Hardup.

 

“I’m currently trying to jam the fairy lines into my head,” she says. “I have great big long monologues, which are fun, all sorts of rhyming couplets and things. It’s a scream.

 

“Neil finds me wondering round the house exclaiming about Buttons and Dandino and all this. But it’s fun and we’re actually really looking forward to doing it.”

 

I ask if she ever gets tired of performing, particularly with some of the less glamorous sounding functions she appears at.

“Well, it’s part of what I do, it’s part of how I earn a living,” she says.

 

“Unfortunately I’m not Lady Muck sitting back with a houseful of servants. I have to work.”

 

But although it may be a job, she insists it’s a job she loves – and if the odd function is not such great fun she holds herself responsible.

 

“That’s my fault because I’m there to entertain,” she says. 

 

And I expect she rarely disappoints, because Christine Hamilton is serious about the business of entertaining people. And, although the couple may be mocked by some, as long as they’re enjoying themselves they don’t care very much – and why should they?

 

“We enjoy what we do, it’s so much fun,” Christine says. “We’re not thinking, gosh, what are we going to do next, the phone just rings or an email arrives and we think, oh well, why not? Let’s do that.”

 

Christine and Neil Hamilton are in Cinderella at The Lighthouse Theatre, Kettering, from December 13th – 31st.