RAWTENSTALL'S newly refurbished St Mary's Chambers has welcomed some interesting speakers over the past 12 months, including shamed stockbroker Nick Leeson and Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell.

But nothing could have prepared the town's old court building for the arrival of larger than life couple Neil and Christine Hamilton, as Shelley Wright found out...

Christine Hamilton bursts into the room in her trademark red dress, with her trademark husband Neil sheepishly in tow, and starts chattering non-stop like machine gun fire.

The self-styled battleaxe, famous for her encounters with arch enemy Martin Bell on Tatton Common, takes no prisoners as the more well-heeled Rossendale residents line up to say 'hello' as part of a plush £45 a head event.

Imagine the Queen meeting and greeting the stars following the Royal Variety Performance and you're half-way there as the Valley's beautiful people in ballgowns and black ties practically curtsey in the face of such celebrity.

"St Mary's Chambers is splendid," she proclaims. "Not quite the Ritz, but surely the Ritz of Rossendale!"

It is difficult to tell what people make of the Hamiltons as they take their turn to hob-nob with the couple who have led such a public life in the wake of the Cash for Questions scandal involving Harrod's boss Mohammed Al Fayed, whom the couple refer to as "the Egyptian grocer."

"People ask me what we do and who we are and I tell them we are professional objects of curiosity." laughs Neil. "We have had to recast our lives and make something from the image the media saddled us with. We have had to turn what was a liability into an asset.

"But we are happy. We have a bumpy life which has undoubtedly been very public but you have to put your problems in prospective. There are people who are and have suffered much worse things than us, it is just that you don't know about it."

It is perhaps this pragmatism which has seen the Hamiltons rise from the ashes of a public perception which had written them off as a "pantomime" to become figures of interest to people across the UK.

Neil and Christine believe the recent fly-on-the-wall documentary with Louis Theroux helped turn the tide of public opinion in their favour.

Christine said: "We have noticed that people have become much warmer towards us since that programme was aired.

"It was a bit of a risk for us but it seems to have paid off. It followed a very difficult period in our lives but I hope it showed a true picture of who we are.

"I think the news about the sex allegations also helped our cause.

"When they were revealed to be untrue people realised how awful things can be for us. We really have been to hell and back in the past few years."

Those in the audience at Friday's gala dinner certainly supported the image that the Hamiltons are no longer figures of hate, but loved celebrities, if a little on the eccentric side. But the couple are no strangers to East Lancashire hospitality. They spend much time in the Ribble Valley visiting friends who own Gisburn's Stirk House and had enjoyed a famous "Fat Rascal" just over the Yorkshire border in Ilkley that afternoon.

"I actually consider myself a Lancashire lass," says Christine. "My father was born in Bury and my mother from Ormskirk. Then there is a famous story about Neil and I which involves the Dixieland Palace in Morecambe, where I unceremoniously dumped him one night. It was like kicking a dog but I didn't care at the time."

The couple go on to regale stories of other MPs, Westminster and battleaxes such as Margaret Thatcher and Edwina Currie.

But are there any regrets?

Neil gives the penguin-suit in the corner a frank reply.

"Life is what happens while you are busy making plans. Sometimes everything seems bleak, like you have been dealt a series of bum cards but they are the only cards you have you play them as well as you can."