TV Times
Simone Lahbib has been mobbed by screaming British fans and asked to sign their bras and bodies. In South Africa last month, she needed minders to protect her from wild crowds eager just to touch her, and even found herself dancing on stage like a rock star, throwing water on delighted groupies. Believe it or not, this unprecedented frenzy is all due to the prison drama that made her a star, ITV's Bad Girls, and Simone's lipstick prison boss character, Helen Stewart.
Bad Girls has become a global hit, and Simone is bubbling with excitement after a stint publicising the show in Cape Town and Johannesburg with co-stars Mandana Jones (lifer Nikki Wade), Lara Cazalet (heroin addict Zandra Plackett) and Joe Shaw (prison officer Dominic McAllister). "We were in Caesar's Palace for a publicity gig, and the music started and the lights were going and there were hands coming out to touch us. It was incredible,' gushes Simone. 'It was like being in a band in Wembley.'
Their most surreal moment came when the actor's bodyguards, who didn't want them to mingle with fans, suggested they go on stage instead. 'It was weird dancing in front of 2000 people to 'It's Raining Men,' chuckles Simone. 'I had a bottle of water and we started flinging this water out at the crowd. I was jumping about like a loony and there was a popstar-type buzz. I've heard people talk about Bad Girls being a phenomenon, and it's true.'
Simone's played a large part in creating the babes-behind-bars buzz. As half of Bad Girls' hottest romance, between Helen and murderess Nikki, Simone's performance has helped the show land nine million viewers and the Best Drama gong at the National Television Awards last year. As the third series comes to a climax, Helen has infuriated Bad Girls fans by falling for a bloke, Dr Thomas Waugh, and in the final two episodes, she must chose between her two loves. 'Helen has chosen to go with her more level-headed side and I think she's pushed away Nikki because she can't cope,' says Simone. 'But Helen's feelings for Nikki are stronger than even she's acting on at the moment. The last two episodes are very interesting, full of cliff-hangers, and fans will be on the edge of their seats. The final decision with Helen doesn't happen until the last couple of scenes. I'm sure there are people thinking he's better for her than Nikki, but all I'm hearing is people getting angry at the idea of her with Dr Waugh.'
Simone has become an icon among lesbians who are thrilled to find a gay female role model who isn't butch. 'It's been fantastic in terms of getting the thumbs up from gay women, that they're thinking "At last there's a programme that doesn't stereotype lesbians and has a great love story,'" says Simone. 'Mandana and I work very well together, and like Helen and Nikki, we have a connection. We can read so much just from each other's eyes.
There's a lot of trust and she's a very lovely woman. Because there isn't a real sexual chemistry between us, in a way it makes things easier. When we're doing a love scene, it's not like "Ohh, we're about to do a kiss," its more working out whats the feeling behind it.'
Understandably, perhaps, Simone dismisses suggestions that Bad Girls is merely camp titillation, Prisoner: Cell Block H with lip gloss. Her fan mail suggests that Helen Stewart has struck a chord with real people in dire straits. 'People tell me they've been in similar situations to Helen and taken inspiration from her,' says Simone. 'The most profound one came from a woman who stopped her suicide attempt after she watched the programme. She said there was something in the sincerity and compassion of my character that made a connection with her. It's overwhelming.' Simone's sense of responsibility to fans spurred her to set up a website (www.simonelahbib.com - please note this is now Closed!) that contains a page of helpline numbers for anyone suffering torment.
So where does Simone's talent for portraying a strong-but-vulnerable woman come from? 'I think that I always have been sensitive,' says Simone, who suffered bullying at school in Stirling due to her surname (from her Algerian grandfather). 'I think that possibly things like bullying had their effect, and they were things that taught me to be strong.'
The flip side of so much attention is that Simone guards her privacy jealously. December 1999 she got engaged to a half-Italian, half-British actor whom she's never named at his request (he's not famous she adds). When they do get hitched, don't expect to see the photo spread in Hello! 'I've got to constantly advice myself to be guarded, because I think I give a lot to my work and people make a connection with me, so I've got to be careful to keep a certain amount of myself for myself,' says Simone, who's been too busy to organise what sounds like the mother of all weddings. "Both of us have family all over the world, so it'll have to be a big, white-ish gig. I'll definitely invite my Bad Girls co-stars - they'll turn it into a really good party. They always do!.
