Talkin’ about bad girls: Kika Mirylees, Alicya Eyo, Vicky Alcock, Simone Lahbib, Debra Stephenson and Mandana Jones
PHOTO MANDANA JONES: PHIL SHARP
Before Orange Is The New Black and Wentworth, there was ITV’s Bad Girls. I remember watching it as a closeted pre-pubescent lesbian curled up on the sofa next to my mum and being electrified by the feisty, female-dominated cast. It was the first time I’d seen so many women onscreen at once and definitely the first time I’d seen lesbian or bi relationships on TV. This was compelling evidence that gay women might actually exist. Sure, I’d have to commit a petty crime to find them, but at least they were out there. I held my breath during romantic scenes between wing governor Helen Stewart and top dog Nikki Wade and hoped my mother wouldn’t notice my crimson cheeks.
So you can imagine how excited I was to be covering the Bad Girls Reunion for DIVA. Even my mum was impressed. At the event, I found out that mine was not a unique experience. Ten years after the final episode aired, hundreds of women who still felt affected by the show gathered at a Holiday Inn in Stevenage to meet the actresses who had played the characters they loved so much. Simone Lahbib, aka Helen Stewart, organised the convention to raise money for the Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund, a charity she set up in memory of her niece. She is thrilled that the series holds such a special place in people’s hearts: “There’s the old audience that loved it because it was important in people’s lives and then it’s accumulated a whole new audience with the re-runs so it’s actually growing.”