Action girl is kept on her toes

Daily Record
(Glasgow, Scotland)

October 18, 1997

Scots beauty Simone Lahbib's ballet training helped her put her best foot forward when she was transformed into TV's latest action girl.

The 30-year-old, from Stirling, is the new recruit in ITV's wham-bang cop series, Thief Takers.

Simone plays Detective Constable Lucy McCarthy, who's hurled into the world of speeding car chases and shoot- outs.

And the sexy actress reckons that her four years at ballet school were great preparation for the role.

Simone said: "I've always been a very physical person, which is great for this job.

"There are a lot of cops and robbers running about in every episode.

"This week I've been chasing about in a plot which involves the Mafia, the Yakuza and a mother and child whom my character has to protect. It's great fun playing the heroine."

Before filming started on Thief Takers - which also stars former Hazell favourite Nicholas Ball, Amanda Pays and Gary McDonald - Simone went through some special training.

A member of the Flying Squad gave Simone some lessons in how to act like a real- life tough cop.

And it meant spending hours on a shooting range under the scrutinising gaze of an instructor.

Simone said: "I had mixed feelings about holding a gun.

"On one hand it's exciting and I had fun shooting at targets. But I am very aware what a gun could do.

"We worked in controlled situations with an armourer around all the time, so it was very safe."

Throughout Thief Takers, Simone uses her Stirling accent and stressed that she never even thought of not speaking in a Scots voice. She said: "Unless the part specifically calls for a different accent, I don't see any reason for not talking in my usual voice."

Although she got a real kick out of playing a member of an elite police force, Simone doesn't imagine that it's a job that she could have done for real.

She confessed: "I couldn't ever see myself being anything other than an actress.

"The great advantage of pretending to be a policewoman is that nobody gets hurt."

Despite her success in London, Simone still loves to return to her home in Stirling.

She said: "I go home whenever I can.

"Stirling is such a beautiful place. In just a few minutes you can be right in the middle of the countryside."

Simone's exotic-sounding name is the result of having a Scots m other and a French father.

She explained: "I'm a product of the Auld Alliance and yes, I do speak French, although it's a little rusty right now."

Simone was bitten by the acting bug after playing a small role in the movie The Girl In The Picture, which starred John Gordon Sinclair.

Recently, she's appeared in the movie The Witch's Daughter and she also stripped for a stage version of Lady Chatterley's Lover.

And Simone made a huge impact playing a rape victim in the London-only soap London Bridge.

She said: "It was a brilliant job and I gained a lot of experience from it."

In the opening edition of Thief Takers, the police squad is in chaos after the murder of their old boss's wife.

And Simone's character begins to wonder whether she's made the right career move.

But the way things are going in real-life, she's well on her way to the top.

THIEF TAKERS, Thursday, ITV, 9 pm

 

 

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