Articles
©
TV Times - 18th September 2004 - 244th September 2004
Simone Lahbib's broken out of prison to play an organic farmer in
BBC1's top scottish drama.
Its the good life for the Bad Girl.
The messages
go on for pages and pages: 'I must tell you how gorgeous you are.
You are the most beautiful woman I have seen.' is fairly typical of
the lovestruck fan mail on one of a clutch of websites devoted to
Simone Lahbib.
The e-mails flood in from her admirers all over Britain, and a lot
of other places besides, including France, Canada, Serbia, Sweden,
New Zealand, Germany, Australia, Denmark and West Africa's Ivory coast.
There are sackfuls of letters and presents, too - and yet it's now
three years since Simone left Bad Girls, the ITV1 women's prison drama
that put her on the map.
It was her role as bisexual governor, Helen Stewart, that inspired
such an impassioned worldwide following, so it will be interesting
to see how the fans respond to her latest role. It couldn't be more
of a contrast to Bad Girls. There'll be no saucy smoldering, not a
suggestion of kit off and zero chance of any raunchy, X-rated snogging.
Instead, there will be Simone battling the elements in her green wellies,
herding cows and shoveling muck.
She has joined the cast of whiskey and whimsy BBC1's Sunday night
series, Monarch of the Glen, which begins a new run this weekend.
Scots-born Simone plays career girl, Isobel Anderson, who arrives
in the village to look after her late grandmothers croft and instantly
clashes with the new laird, Paul, played by Lloyd Owen.
'Isobel is a great character. She's high spirited, very determined
and outrageously proud. She's come back to take over her grandmother's
farm and she feels so passionately about it that she gives up her
life and her job to run it, but it's not an easy ride.' says Simone.
'Isobel's got her 12 Highland cows and big ideas about organic produce.
She's determined to get through it and I like that about her.'
'She gets one well with the other characters, although she and the
laird definitely push the wrong buttons in one another. They can't
stand each other, but we are all suckers for a love story. theres
a lot of will-they-wont-they about their relationship and hopefully
the audience will be thinking, "Go on, just kiss her man!"'
But if they do end up wrapped in each others arms, there won't be
anything to raise viewers blood pressure. 'There'll definitely not
be anything nearly as controversial as Bad Girls. There's no question
about Isobel's sexuality at all,' laughs Simone. 'We'll just have
to wait and see if the Bad Girls fans like Monarch of the Glen. I
really have no idea what they'll make of it.'
If they do fall under the spell of Molly, Golly and the rest of the
Glenbogle clan, she may well receive an avalanche of hot water bottles,
socks and thermal vests to combat the often icy temperatures on the
Monarch location, around Loch Laggan, near Fort William. Giant gift
packs of insect repellent wouldn't have come amiss wither when she
was filming during the summer. It's then that the Scottish Highlands
are plagued by biting midges.
'Dealing with them is like a military operation. You have to out nets
over your head and have repellent on every bit of flesh that's exposed.'
'There were two days of filming when the midges were just awful. You'd
take your net off and they're just over you. You're speaking and you
can feel them biting, and your impulse is just to hit out or scratch,
so you have to keep really focused not to let it show. Fortunately
I've only had four bites, so I got away lightly.'
Apart from the midges, the only downside to the six month shoot was
being away from home and her actor husband, Raffaello Degruttola,
who she met eight years ago, when they were both filming Thieftakers.
The couple married in April last year.
However, the filming schedule has allowed her to make frequent flights
down to London to see Raffaello, while her own family live only an
hour or so from the Monarch set. 'I haven't felt as isolated as I
would if I wasn't making all these trips. It is slightly remote here
and I would imagine that not everyone would find it as easy to be
away from family, friends and home.'
It could have been a difficult time for her to join the drama, now
in its sixth year, because it has had a big change of cast. The original
laird, Richard Briers, left at the end of the third series; and his
son, Archie, played by Alastair Mackenzie, disappeared at the beginning
of the last series. Also leaving is Hamish Clarke, who plays kilt
wearing daft Duncan, but his comic presence will be replaced by former
Doctor Who Tom Baker, who joins next week.
Simone is convinced the show is as strong as ever. 'It's still working
and the producers are very pleased. They say the show seems to have
a new energy, a new vitality. It's a glorious job, an absolute joy.'
Even having to spend most of her time in wellies has proved a bonus.
'I get home and look in the wardrobe and go, "Wow, look at all
my lovely clothes.!" There are shoes with heels and everything!'
Chris Pointer.