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If Simone Lahbib had been given a pound for each time she'd answered questions asking her about the experience of filming her character's love scenes in Bad Girl's, then she would probably be by now, a very wealthy woman indeed.
Ok, sensational exaggeration there, but try finding a newspaper or magazine interview featuring the stunning Scot's actress that doesn't sensationally probe what it was like for her to act out 'that lesbian kiss' or 'those controversial lesbian love scenes'. It's damn near impossible.
So does Simone ever tire of those same old kissing queries?
"Yeah, I do actually," she confesses, with a laugh. "I suppose there's a part of me that thinks it's a shame that it's still such a big deal.
"I have to say that there has been so many things recently about gay women, and it's been done so often - you know, so many actresses have already done the screen lesbian kiss - that I thought it would have been a bit kind of old hat. But no, some people are very curious about it."
Returning to the spotlight this month, Stirling-born Simone, 32, is back as Helen Stewart in the eagerly anticipated third series of Bad Girls. In the new 16-part run of the smash hit ITV's women's prison drama, viewers are set to be kept on the edge of their seats with the largest surprise twists and turns in the engaging relationship between Lifers' Liasion Governor Helen and lesbian lifer Nikki Wade (played by Mandana Jones). Picking up from last year's cliffhanger ending - which saw Helen in a state of turmoil over whether to turn in her prison escapee lover - the new series will see the pair's commitment to each other tested to the limit, with new love challenges made on both sides.
Proving to be one of the show's most dynamic plots, the forbidden love affair between Helen and Nikki is one that the audience are behind 100%, with fans raring for the immensely popular couple to find lasting happiness together.
"I think one of the responses - we've had very positive responses both from the gay community and from the hetrosexual communtiy - has been basically saying, 'We like these characters. We can see that they are good together, they have a connection: a deep connection'. And everybody straight and gay wants to see them together - wants to see them happy ever after. They care about them and that's great," comments Simone.
"I think they're both likeable characters and they're quite rounded characters because you see their flaws as well. Nikki's very hot-headed and passionate, and I think she makes her own bad decisions at times. She lets her heart rule her head sometimes, hence the reason that I think she ended up in prison. And the same with Helen, she is very caring and feisty, and fights the system and fights this kind of dinosaur system and all these misogynistic men, and again I think a lot of women identify with that situation, whether it be at work or whatever. And struggling with it: Helen struggles with her job and with her feelings and she too, I think, makes very idealistic decisions about things, and sometimes I think they're the wrong decisions, but usually that caring, impassioned impression carries it on and wins through most of the time."
Helen's battle with her feelings for Nikki and her moral stance within her job at HMP Larkhall is set to continue, but as Simone explains, it's a conflict that her character finds taxing.
"I think that with Helen it's part of her inherent make-up, she has very strong principles and a very moralistic streak and I think that she is uncomfortable when she breaks her own rules, or rather she's uncomfortable if she's hypocritical. She finds it very difficult to criticise people like Jim Fenner (Larkhall's much-loathed Senior Prison Officer, played by Jack Ellis) for having what she suspects is relationships with prisoners, when she's doing it herself, and she's uncomfortable with that, so there is this ongoing struggle."
In the past, Helen and Fenner have endured some heated encounters over his corrupt conduct, and much to Simone's delight, Helen is set to clash once again with the Larkhall lecher.
"He is an out and out bastard. He's conniving; he's always going out to make trouble and try and make it look as if it's the other was around. That's all great stuff. I love doing all that stuff. I love the sparring scenes with Jack! I do really enjoy them, and they kind of got thin on the ground in the second series. It's like, 'Yeah! Fighting scenes!' And 'Hooray!,' I get to win it again," enthuses Simone with excited laughter. "It's great when you've got a scene written where you win the argument, I love it!"
Since its debut in 1999, Bad Girls has become a television phenomenon, attracting massive viewing figures and winning a dedicated cult following thanks to its strong, three-dimensional characters, gripping storylines, and its terrific ensemble cast.
Now shown in many countries across the world, the award-winning serial has closed the doors on the stereotypical cliches presented in previous prison-set series, by depicting life behind bars with gritty - and at time shocking - realism; both highlighting and confronting several of the serious issues that affect female prisoners in the UK. Produced by Brian 'Corrie axe-man' Park and created by Shep Productions, the show has, as its advisers, ex-prison officers and members of the campaigning charity Women In Prison, which accounts for its potent sense of authenticity.
Like her fellow co-stars, Simone undertook much research before she stepped in front of the camera; with the cast being given plenty of advice in preparation for their roles.
"We had a lot of advice, we had ex-offenders, ex-warders - they came in and did a Q & As with us. We went to Winchester prison and spent a day there and I was also lucky enough to meet a woman that was in the same situation as Helen Stewart. She went to fast-track university and then landed the job of Govornor Grade Five, exactly the same as Helen, as the age of 24 in Holloway Prison, which is basically the prison that Larkhall is obviously based on. So that was amazing to meet her.
"Also, we'd just got the script so I was very curious to know whether these things that were written down actually did happen, or whether the production was getting carried away creating as much drama as they could. And, well, she basically confirmed that they all do - they do happen. Your riots, your suicides - obviously not as frequently as they might happen in the programme - but they do happen."
Offsetting the hard hitting nature of the series, Simone reveals there is much laughter on the Bad Girls set.
"It's a really good, fun bunch of people working on this and we enjoy each others company. We do socialise outside work, which is unusual because quite often you finish a job and if you've spent all day with these people then they're the last people on earth that you wanna see, but yeah, there's a lot of funsters on this job, a lot of er.. larking. Larking around in Larkhall!"
Having made her television debut in Taggart in 1994, Simone - who, thanks to Bad Girls has become a sex symbol for both sexes - has also had roles in Thief Takers, London Bridge and The Young Persons Guide To Becoming A Rock Star; the latter of which was like deja vu for her.
"I sang in a band when I was younger," she recalls. "Done all that - I've done quite a lot of recording inthe past, getting demo tapes together, taking them round record companies. So it all felt very familiar when I was doing Rock Star, it was stuff that I have experienced myself. But much as it was fun being in a band and all the rest of it, I didn't have that drive. I didn't have that kind of serious thing. When I started acting, something just fell into place and I knew that that was what I wanted to do. I had a different kind of serious attitude about it."
Seen recently with actor Gary Lewis in the acclaimed low-budget short film Long Haul, Simone hopes to do some more film and theatre work after the current series finishes filming in May.
"I would love to do some more films. We'll see what happens. I've potentially got a couple of short films lined up after we finish that I'm going to shoot, but they haven't got the green light yet, so I don't know if they are going to go ahead or not. I was very sad last year that the theatre I was offered clashed with the filming dates with Bad Girls. It's the first year that I haven't done any theatre!"
Already tipped for 'big things', Simone could well go on to have an international film career when she finally decides it's time to bow out of Bad Girls. But should Hollywood fame and fortune come calling, there's no chance of a proudly Scottish Simone forgetting her roots.
"I love being home. The rhythm of Scotland is my rhythm. I go down to London and I like being pushed faster there - you know you have to be - but then I go home and it's like, 'Yeah, this is more natural to me.' I love the people, I love the landscape... I even love the weather!
