The bald and the beautiful

To the fans watching them stroll hand in hand up the red carpet at the royal film premiere, they could have been father and daughter.

Star Trek's Patrick Stewart is 64 while actress Lisa Dillon, who joined him to watch Ladies In Lavender in the presence of the Queen, is 25.

Despite the 39-year difference in their ages, however, they are a couple - and live together in a large apartment in London.

They have been inseparable since Stewart announced the end of his second marriage, to television producer Wendy Neuss, just over a year ago.

But their relationship has been kept largely under wraps for fear some might frown on the age gap. Stewart has two children older than Miss Dillon, from his first marriage.

On Monday night, however, they posed together in front of the cameras for the first time. They

met when Miss Dillon, then 23 and fresh out of Rada, auditioned for the part of Hilde in a production of Ibsen's The Master Builder, a sexually- charged tale of a man who falls passionately in love with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. Stewart played the older man.

The chemistry between them was as electric as it was unexpected and Stewart chose her to appear as his co-star last summer in her first West End role. Critics and audiences commented on the sexual frisson between the two characters.

But when the run ended late last summer, Stewart returned to California and his wife, while Miss Dillon was reunited with the boyfriend she met at drama school.

In October last year, however, Stewart announced his three-year marriage was over and Miss Dillon left her boyfriend to move in with him.

The actress spoke recently of their love, saying: 'You can't act that sort of chemistry. I don't think it was immediately apparent but it definitely did develop on stage in the West End.

'Patrick is a brilliant, wonderful, gorgeous man. Some people think the difference in our ages says something about him, or us, or me.

'But to us, it's never been an obstacle.'

Stewart sold his £3.5million house in Los Angeles and the pair are living together in a £1.2million apartment overlooking Tower Bridge.

Since The Master Builder, Miss Dillon's career has taken off. Stewart, a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company, encouraged her to go for her most recent role, Desdemona in the RSC's Othello, and he has supported her throughout an exhausting tour of Japan.

Stewart himself is in rehearsal for a play opening in the West End in January.