Simone Lahbib is keeping her clothes on for her latest role as a tough female detective, she tells Anna Burnside.

The internet is a scary thing. Thanks to my ability to type the words Simone Lahbib into a box and press return, I know that her full name is Simone Nicole Jean Lahbib Ould Cheikl, that she is ambidextrous, allergic to chocolate and, as a child, had a pet albino ferret.
A couple more clicks and I’m sure I could come up with its name.

It raises important questions of etiquette. Do I say, hey, Simone, tell me about the ferret? If she knows I have been snooping around the sites that detail her date of birth (which she likes to keep vague), murky musical past (lead singer in Svelte Seduction, according to simonelahbib.net) and feature endless snapshots taken by adoring fans, will she think I am a thorough researcher or a tragic anorak?

Lahbib’s slavering internet fan presence is based on her role as Helen Stewart, the bisexual governor in Bad Girls. Despite leaving the series in 2001, it is not the kind of role that is easy to leave behind. She was last seen on our screens as a modern-day gangster’s moll in Family, the ill-fated crime family drama that was supposed to be the British Sopranos but ended up the victim of scheduling changes and audience indifference.

She has survived both unscarred and is currently filming Monarch of the Glen. Tomorrow she also returns to the small screen in Fallen, an ITV police drama with high production values, as enigmatic detective DCI Gunning. It would be a desirable part for any actress: a strong, mysterious character with splendid lines and some heavy firepower to back them up. She also keeps her clothes on.

“She’s very mysterious, she keeps her cards close to her chest,” says Lahbib. “It allowed me to be very subtle and not reveal anything.” She’s referring to Gunning’s character here but Lahbib was delighted to be offered a role in which she kept her businesslike blouse firmly buttoned up. In many ways, DCI Gunning could just as easily have been a man. “I knew there was no kit-offery when I was offered the part,” she says with the smile that inspired a thousand fan sites. “I love roles like that, female characters that have got a lot of male in them. She’s a woman in a man’s world and to get that high up, she’s had to be really tough and really clever about how she approaches everything.”

There is also a gratifying amount of semi-automatic weaponry and dramatic explosions. “I enjoyed all the running around, doing the Nikita bit. All girls do.” The eye candy in Fallen is the male star, the extremely presentable Jonathan Cake, and Lahbib is quite happy to let him do the sit-ups for a change.

“If you get offered something where you have to be very glamorous it’s, oh, God, I’m going have to go to the gym and get a facial and look after myself . . . ” She is relishing the role reversal. “Jonathan’s a splendid young man. He’s doing another show (Empire, for American network ABC) where he has to do that glam thing, work out and all that. These days, when you’re a leading man, you’re babe material. And I can go, ‘ha ha, I’m doing a part in Monarch of the Glen, wearing wellington boots and shovelling s***’.”

This is just a little disingenuous: Lahbib looks fabulous in a pin-striped trouser suit and plunging pink T-shirt designed to display caramel-coloured skin, the legacy of an Algerian father and Scottish mother. She is clearly swishing into Glenbogle to add a little glamour and love itching powder to life on the estate.

Her character, Isobel Anderson, gives up the big job to take over her late grandmother’s farm. “She’s a city girl and she’s taken on more than she can chew but she does not walk around in Gucci, swinging her Chloe handbag,” says Lahbib. “She causes quite a stir in Glenbogle. She’s another outspoken, fairly witty character, who causes a lot of grief for the new laird. Which is all good fun to play.”

Appearing in Monarch of the Glen brings its own special challenges: competing with the mountains, finding things to do in Glenmore once you have watched the eight films in the video shop, coping with the midges. Midges are one of the main topics of conversation on the set.

“They haven’t appeared yet,” she says, a little apprehensively. “Apparently there are three weeks when it’s absolute hell. Everyone has to wear head nets, the ones beekeepers wear. I keep getting very unusual suggestions for keeping them away. These Bounce strips that you put in your tumble dryer,” — she pulls a face of incredulity — “I’ve heard you rub them over your arms and face and that works a treat.”

A part in Monarch also involves spending huge chunks of time away from home. For some actors, such as former laird Alastair Mackenzie, this was too much to endure. For Lahbib, it’s part of the appeal. She is staying in a luxury apartment:

“It’s basically a house — two floors, two bedrooms — I’ve invited all my friends and family, and their families, to come up. I’ve never been so popular.” Her folks — she is the eldest of five children, with a troop of nephews and nieces — are just two hours’ drive away, in Stirling. And her husband, Raffaello Degruttola, who is also an actor, will be in residence when his schedule allows.

The more she talks about it, the more it sounds like a part in an internationally popular television series with an attractive holiday home attached. Having signed up for two series of Monarch, Lahbib can be allowed to feel a little smug. Not only is it a sizzly role with international profile — Monarch is huge in America, Australia and China as well as at home — but it is a guaranteed 12 months of work over the next two years. And that’s just for starters.

The series Lahbib is currently filming, which will be broadcast in September, is the sixth, and plenty of characters have been there from day one. If the tumble dryer strips work, this could be a job for life. “It’s great for me, knowing that I’m working for six months. Then, for the rest of the time, I can do other things. If they come along, that would be great. If they don’t,” she grins, “six months’ holiday.

"It helps that Lahbib and Degruttola are used to spending long periods apart. Since they married last year he has been filming in Cape Town, Romania, New York and Liverpool. He is just back from Los Angeles: since his role as Private Goldman in Saving Private Ryan he has had more of a film career than his wife.

“It’s part and parcel of how careers go,” she says with a shrug. “We haven’t seen an awful lot of one another but when we do it’s great. It’s honeymoon time again.”

None of which is great news for her legions of lesbian fans. The fact that she is keen to start a family is less well-documented on her many websites than her pierced bellybutton. “I would love to do that. If we’re blessed with children, that would be great.” She pauses. “Of course, we need to spend some time together first.”

She sees no other practical reasons why two actors can’t be parents. “It can be easier because we do get so much time off. There’s ways and means of me bringing mum on set with me. We have a lot more flexibility than other people.”

It helps that, as Kate Winslet, Liz Hurley et al have shown, you can still be a babe once you have a baby. “Before, if there was a leading lady in a goddess-type role, people didn’t want to think of them as having children. That’s all changed. Mothers are the goddesses.” She breaks into a huge grin. “Thank God.”

 

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