Daily Record

16 September 2006

 

Skye kept baby blues at bay; Actress and mother Simone Lahbib tells PAULENGLISH about her fantastic double life WIRE IN THE BLOOD WEDNESDAY, STV,9pm.(Features)

Simone Lahbib kept her head when people all around were losing theirs during her Wire In The Blood debut.

The Scots actress, who has starred in Monarch of The Glen and Bad Girls, says she had a hoot filming gruesome scenes for the Robson Green chiller, which returns this week.

Simone, who replaces Hermione Norris as the drama's female lead, says: "Scenes like finding a man's head on a platter were actually a laugh to film because you see the other side of it.

"When it's edited and has the music on it, it comes to life and is a lot more scary.

"With Wire In The Blood you don't see much of the violence but it's deeply psychological, which is just as disturbing. Luckily it didn't spook me at all."

New mum Simone plays DI Alex Fielding, and found the combination of parenthood and work crossed over perfectly.

She says: "My character Alex is a single mum and she's juggling a lot of things at once. It's very typical of many women, having a career and being a mum, including me now."

Simone gave birth to her longed-for baby Skye last October and began work on the drama when her daughter was just three months old.

"When I went to the costume fitting, the baby wasn't settling at all. When the director came in to talk to me I was bouncing her up and down while talking about the character. I realised that's what Alex is about too. Her son is a lot older but she still has to juggle - get the babysitter in, go home on time and get to the school play. It was a perfect character study."

Simone moved from her home in London to Newcastle during filming - complete with Skye and her own mum, Jean.

"Coastal (the production company) were fantastic," she says. "They gave me a big trailer so I could have the baby on set and sent a car to pick her and mum up or take them home early. I really enjoyed it - there's nothing better than that feeling of coming back to the trailer, opening the door and seeing her little face.

"For the first couple of days I wanted to get the scenes done so I could get back to my baby.

"But I had a lot of fun filming. The scripts are amazing, some of the best I've read, and Robson is great to work with."

After filming Wire In The Blood Simone returned to London with Skye to spend time with her husband, actor Raffaello Degruttola. The couple married in 2003.

She says: "Now we're going to go to Scotland so Skye can meet the rest of the family and then maybe out to LA as well. It should be great fun."