Telly Visions: Gabrielle Drake

Just for a change, I thought I’d better write about an actress who hasn’t appeared in “Doctor Who”! She has, however, appeared in a major science fiction series and this is probably her main claim to fame, despite being a classically trained Shakespearean actress. Her popularity also hails from, approximately, the same time period as my first two choices in this new feature and she is, facially at least, very similar in appearance to my previous “Telly Visions” selection, Wendy Padbury. I’m talking about Gabrielle Drake, one of the best-remembered stars of the 1970 television series “UFO”. Yet, she played Lieutenant Gay Ellis in only ten of the twenty-six episodes produced. Lt. Ellis worked on Moonbase, which was Earth’s first line of defence against invading flying saucers. Part of the reason for her not appearing in the remaining episodes was a gap in production, of about six months, due to relocation of the studio, during which time she needed to look for alternative employment. This also affected other major players in the Gerry Anderson show such as George Sewell. He played Colonel Alec Freeman in the first seventeen episodes then vanishes without a trace, despite still appearing, like Gabrielle, in the opening title sequence! Don’t let that put you off watching the series, though, if you’ve never seen it… Many of the later episodes have stronger scripts, despite a shifting of emphasis as to the reasons for the aliens coming to Earth! The costumes worn by Drake, and her female co-stars, included grey catsuits and mauve or purple-coloured wigs, the practical reason for which was never explained in the series. Trust me, ambiguity is good!

If you don’t remember Gabrielle from “UFO”, you may recall her appearance with John Cleese in an oft-repeated commercial for Yellow Pages, where, if I recollect correctly, the couple attempt to retrieve a goldfish bowl from their flooded home! But, really, she should be most familiar to a wider television viewing audience for her starring role in “The Brothers”, in which she played Jill Hammond for forty-two episodes between 1972 and 1974. If you’re unfamiliar with this series, “The Brothers” could be seen as producer Gerard Glaister’s forerunner to “Howards’ Way”, both being, essentially, Sunday early-evening soaps centred around a family business. It certainly brought Colin Baker into the public eye, as the villainous Paul Merroney, well over a decade before he took on the mantle of Britain’s most famous time traveller. In hindsight, the character of Paul Merroney can be viewed as a prototype for the new Thatcher-inspired generation of corporate go-getters. Anyway, it wasn’t Gabrielle’s only brush with the world of soap! Also like Wendy Padbury before her, she has appeared in the long-running motel saga “Crossroads”, though Drake’s stint was over several years during the mid-to-late Eighties as Nicola Freeman. No relation to Alec, in “UFO”, I trust! On the big screen, she played posh tottie Julia Halforde-Smythe opposite Peter Sellers in the Boulting Brothers’ romantic comedy “There’s a Girl in My Soup”. Peter’s catchphrase in the film is “My god, but you’re lovely” and this is certainly true of his co-star, Gabrielle Drake. Just take a look at the short clip of Lt. Ellis changing into her mini-skirt in the Moonbase equivalent of a locker room, from the “UFO” pilot-episode “Identified”, and I think you’ll agree!