Simone’s Story:
· She was born Simone Nicole Jean Lahbib Ould Cheikl in 1965, daughter of a Scottish mother and Algerian father.
· Simone trained in drama and dance at Edinburgh’s Manor school of Ballet, and worked primarily in theatre in productions such as lady Chatterley, Oh! What a lovely war, A Clockwork Orange, Wuthering Heights and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
· Early TV work in Taggart and Dangerfield built her profile, while a part in Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star cemented her reputation as one of Scotland’s most talented actresses.
· She came into her own after landing the role of bisexual warden Helen Stewart in Bad Girls.
· She used to play in a band – Svelte Seduction – and has worked with Davis Scott (The Pearlfishers) and Bobby Bluebell.
General article:
Life is imitating art for sexy Scot’s actress Simone Lahbib. The pretty Stirling girl, who shot to fame playing bisexual prison warden Helen Stewart in Bad Girl’s, is on the right side of the law again in a new, two part ITV drama – as a detective chief inspector who’s determined to foil terrorism in the capital city.And in the wake of the heightened security measures in the UK, with police swooping on foiled attacks in recent weeks, Simone knows her latest project’s subject matter isn’t so far removed from reality.“Part of the storyline in Fallen centres around the fact that we discover this huge terrorist threat in the UK, which builds and builds all the way through it.” Explains the 38 year old.“And when something like Madrid happens, it sort of emphasis’s the way things are. It just brings the whole notion very close to home, and living in London, you’re aware that you have to live with that threat constantly.
You see roads being blockaded, and then you hear it’s another one of these things that are being set up to try and keep the terrorism threat under control as far as possible.”Simone stars with Jonathon Cake in the drama, as a chief who’s sympathetic to the plight of a rogue copper who has just emerged from a coma.He’s Jason Shepherd, an amnesiac who wakes up in hospital to discover he is a detective with an estranged wife and family. As Shepherd tried to solve the mystery of how he came to lose his memory, he is forced to confront some shocking and uncomfortable truths.He’s implicated in a series of brutal murders, and also a grave security threat to national security.Various people want him dead, and he doesn’t know who he can trust. His motivation is staying alive long enough to prove his innocence.Simone explains: “He’s just got out of a coma, and goes from a newborn baby like state through an accelerated journey finding out more about himself – who he was and the dark side of himself, and all that kind of stuff. What he does discover is that he’s a renegade cop with an offbeat knack for coming up with the goods.
Despite the fact that Shepherd has not been doing his job the official way, my character knows he’s very good and can get results, and that he was very close to solving a murder before his accident.”Her decision to keep him on the team arouses suspicion amongst many of her colleagues – but Simone’s not giving anything away when it comes to whether the pair become emotionally involved.“I think people will get the feeling that there is a connection between her and Shepherd which possibly goes beyond work. People will ask why she’s backing this guy up. I suppose he is pulled towards me in that respect, because I am sticking my neck out for him. But just how far that goes you’ll just have to find out.”Meanwhile, Simone is filming a new series of BBC Scotland’s Monarch of the Glen, which she joins alongside ex-Doctor who star Tom baker. She plays a city girl who heads to Glenbogle after inheriting her late grandmothers farm.
“I think she’ll be a really fun character. I can’t believe how popular the show is.” She says.Having lost out in the casting for the film version of the Viz magazine characters The Fat Slags, Simone will be appearing on the big screen later in the year.She stars in The Bird House, a low budget flick set in Essex.“I play the mother of a fairly eccentric family, whose husband lavishes all his attention on this little bird in a cage rather than on the family.” She says.“The story goes that we have to leave our children in the house to be looked after by their 17 year old sister, and of course the bird vanishes.”“So, it’s all about the shenanigans of the daughter going out to replace the bird, and so on.
It has a poignancy to it, it says a lot about family relationships, from within the dynamic of quite a dark piece.”But fans of her last telly outing Family, will be saddened to hear that plans for a second series have been scrapped.“I really thought it was a good show, but that’s the way it goes.” Says Simone, “ITV was inundated with complaints when it was moved around in the schedules.
It’s a shame for people who liked it. But it’s done now. There won’t be any more.”The end.
