Christine Hamilton's flirty film capers graduate to 'my Mrs Robinson moment'

Christine Hamilton is seen draped around the broadcaster Louis Theroux as she explains the mystery of her love for her disgraced husband, Neil, in a documentary tonight. Mrs Hamilton, who had been drinking wine much of the day at the height of the couple's sex case ordeal, cuddled up to Mr Theroux as she described the "tender loving care" of her romantic husband.

But in scenes she now finds embarrassing, she put her hand on the broadcaster's knee as she told him how she also loved to flirt. "One of the most wonderful things about being happily married is that you can flirt outrageously and no one takes you very seriously," she said. With her husband, the former Tory MP caught in the cash-for-questions affair, watching from across the room, she added: "Neil knows my penchant for attractive men. Why shouldn't I sit here holding your knee? It doesn't mean anything. It's just friendship. I just kind of like you. There's nothing wrong with that."

She has since dubbed this encounter her "Mrs Robinson moment" in reference to the middle-aged seductress in the film The Graduate. Will Yapp, the documentary producer, said yesterday: "I think she was being over-friendly because it is good to have someone on your side."

Louis Theroux became close to the couple. He had started making the documentary just before they were arrested over sex allegations which proved to be baseless. At one point in the 100-minute BBC2 film he describes himself as their friend, not a journalist.

And he revealed Christine Hamilton to be more than the simple battleaxe she often seems, although her husband remains a curiously distant figure. Mrs Hamilton was filmed in tears of despair after they were questioned at a police station over a woman's allegation that she had been raped and sexually assaulted.

"The whole thing is an absolute nightmare," she said, before phoning her mother to break the news of their arrest. "We've had enough to put up with in our lives without all these lies."

The allegations proved a dramatic turnabout in the documentary, which Theroux had begun to fear might not be interesting. The strange development even prompted Christine Hamilton to query whether he had invented the sex story for the purposes of his film.

Ironically, at the outset, Neil Hamilton, who appeared to cope by making inappropriate quips, was recorded expressing regret that he had never been involved in a sex scandal.