Diva
The third series of the phenomally successful Bad Girls is currently in production and this time it's bigger and badder than ever. Fans are in for a real rollercoaster of a ride as the story of the relationship between prisoner Nikki Wade and her lover, Lifers' Liaison Governor Helen Stewart builds towards its climax.
Series two ended with a nail-biting cliffhanger as Nikki Wade, disastrously disguised in a cheap acrylic blonde wig and dreadful unisex NHS nurse outfit, turned up at Helen Stewart's home for a bit of long-overdue hanky panky. The curtain came down on Nikki desperately attempting to persuade Helen to run off with her into the San Francisco sunset. Helen, meanwhile, was more drawn towards doing the right thing, and shouted, "for Christ's sake, Nikki, I'm a employee of the Home Office."
Did Helen turn Nikki in? Could their relationship survive such a betrayal of confidence? Or do Nikki go on the run? Without giving too much of the plot away, I didn't fly to San Francisco to interview Mandana Jones (Nikki Wade) and Simone Lahbib (Helen Stewart). Instead, I met them both on the set of Larkhall Prison, somewhere in the East End of London.
Filming of a heavy riot scene (scheduled for episode ten) was in full progress as I arrived on the set. Violence hung in the air. It was cramped, claustphobic and very noisy. Extras were being thrown in every direction, prison officers came hurtling towards me. A pool cue was brandished an inch from someone's eye. I backed away. I knew it was staged violence, but it moved so fast that at close range it really did feel dangerous.
I asked Mandana if she went home emotionally and physically bruised after playing Nikki Wade on a day like this. "The riot scene was pretty scary," she nods.
"So you do feel a bit jangled, yes. But if you don't do it for real, it doesn't have any drama. Sometimes, when you do a lot of takes, you can end up with bruises." She demonstrates by throwing herself across the green room and slamming herself heavily against the hardboard wall. I get the point. I can't imagine Mandana Jones doing anything with less than full conviction.
Bad Girls isn't home entertainment for the faint-hearted: there are copious amounts of blood and violence in series three, and the storylines are stronger than before. Paedophilia and bigamy are tackled, along with the ongoing themes of sexual harassment and drug abuse in prisons. How does Mandana think Bad Girls diverse audience is going to cope with the heavy material?
She is philosophical: "If you want to do these near-the-knuckle storylines you're going to upset people having their tea, aren't you?"
It's no wonder that, in contrast to the violence and chaos in their characters' lives, Mandana and Simone prefer to spend their time off set quietly. But I wonder about their anonymity. Can they go out to Tesco's without being approached by well-meaning fans or are they now as popular on the streets as Richard and Judy?
Simone says she regularly gets followed around her local supermarket, but there is nothing threatning about the fans' behaviour. The only time she has felt under real pressure from an admirer was when one woman got hold of her mobile phone number.
"It wasn't quite stalking. Let's just say she was over-zealous. I think she's probably being too kind. Eventually, Simone did what she describes as "exactly the wrong thing". She called the woman and asked her to stop phoning. It worked, but in typical stalking behaviour, the woman then sent Simone a blaming and manipulative letter. "I didn't finish reading it. It was too spooky and it's not worth upsetting yourself." Simone has also had people wandering up and down her street looking for her house, and some fans even turned up at her parents' place. "But most people are very respectful and very nice."
Mandana nods in agreement. She feels she has only had positive attention so far.
Last summer, the Bad Girls fan club (mainly dykes) hired a London pub to watch the final episode of the second seies on a big screen. Afterwards, Mandana and Simone made a surprise appearance. Both of them thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Simone felt "it was more like being pop stars than actresses. The fans were shouting out lines from the series and asking us to sign their body parts. It was incredible and fun, a buzz."
"Yes, it was amazing," agrees Mandana. "But it was wonderfully warm and not scary at all."
There is undoubtedly a strong chemistry between these two woman. They bounce lines off one another just like a couple, which, alas, they are not. But they do appear to be very good friends. They originally met at a casting session for the ITV drama London Bridge. Once they established that they weren't rivals for the same part, a friendship developed. Little did they know that a few years later they would be laying lesbian lovers in Britain's TV drama. I ask how they manage to keep continuity in their on-screen relationship when some of the scenes with their characters Helen and Nikki are filmed weeks apart. "It is difficult when the story jumps and we're suddenly in a passionate clinch with no build-up," explains Mandana.
Exactly how many clinches can we look foward to in series three, as even more complications develop in the Nikki/Helen storyline? Simone feels that the complications arise because "Helen is fighting very hard for Nikki, but she also needs to conserve her moral stance within the job." Which Nikki, in her small world inside the prison system, reads as being dumped. So no more kissing behind the Penguin paperbacks, then. Without giving too much of the story away, we are set for a hugely emotional, epic love story of Shakespearean pro-portions.
Considering that gritty reality lies at the heart of Bad Girls' appeal, storylines about inmates running mobile phone sex-lines and escaped prisoners running off into the night really belong to the land of make-believe. But a talented, strong cast sompels us to keep watching. I point out that Mandana was dealt some of the most difficult lines in series two. She carried off monsters such as "You were really fantastic up on that roof" and "When I pissed you off I didn't know how I could live" with professional aplomb.
"Yeah, that was a big old bunny to pull out of the hat," she remembers, rolling her eyes.
Bad Girls is currently being screened in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Scandinavia, Poland and Brazil. For a predominantly female drama, the force of which we haven't seen since Tenko, to be so popular all around the world is extremely empowering for the actresses involved. The sacksful of mail that both women receive every week give them some indication of the impact the programme is having on viewers, particularly the female ones. One woman wrote that she was so inspired by the character of Nikki that she had started an Open University course.
Mandana thinks they could be using the power of the spotlight more "but I'm not sure how. I'd like to think that something positive could come out of Bad Girls, which is basically about the unfairness of so many woman ending up in prison, and the predicaments and injustices of the society that they live in." She goes on to sympathise with woman who are unable to get back into the work-place after their incarceration and is concerned about the knock-on effect on their children's lives. "This is a first world country; these problems go on all around the world, in places where things are often a lot worse than they are here. I just feel that with the success of this, surely, there is something we can do publically - obviously treading very carefully and with sensitivity."
Simone also takes her responsibilities as a role model seriously. She was recently invited to guest on SM:TV Live - a programme she really enjoys - but she turned down the offer because she didn't feel Bad Girls sent out the right message to programme's young audience. "I have young nephews and nieces, what kind of example am I setting to them?"
Mandana hasn't heard of SM:TV Live "but there isn't a Bronte sister I'm not interested in," she jokes.
So it is not all politics and seriousness on the Bad Girls set. Trying to discover a little more about the personalities behind the women who play Helen Stewart and Nikki Wade, I ask Simone and Mandana about their hobbies and passions. Simone reveals that she is engaged but has yet to set a date for the wedding. She likes to "hang out with people", spending time with friends, relaxing with food and the odd glass of something alcoholic. She also enjoys the cinema. And she is still driving around in an old banger - unlike Mandana, who has a new car that she claims has "changed her life".
Life seems to be incredibly good for Mandana just now. At 34, she has finally found someone who has "got me, for the first time ever". I guess that being such an integral part of the Bad Girls phenomena has given her some direction. Before playing Nikki Wade, she says she never picked up a newspaper or bothered what was going on in the world. That's a far cry from the woman who was talking to me so passionately about raising public awareness about the problems that affect outcast women in Adis Ababa. "Yeah, getting something like that done would really turn me on."
