A row over rape claims against Roman Polanski deepened on Wednesday after a well-known female director cast doubt over the allegations because the controversial French-Polish filmmaker had a “beautiful wife”.

Mr Polanski, 86, has been under fire since last Friday when a French photographer claimed that he raped her in 1975 when she was 18 after beating her "into submission" at his Swiss chalet.

His lawyers say he vociferously denies allegations he tried to make Valentine Monnier swallow a pill when he pounced on her after they had gone skiing in Gstaad. "I thought I was going to die," she said in an open letter published by Le Parisien newspaper.

However, French TV director Nadine Trintignant leapt to Mr Polanski’s defence on Wednesday, telling BFM TV: “I tend to believe him over a woman who took 44 years to denounce him. People should leave him alone after all this time.”