Career
Drake attended Edgbaston College for Girls, Wycombe Abbey School and RADA. She is a classically trained actress with experience in Shakespearean plays, but first gained wider attention for her portrayal of Lt. Gay Ellis in the 1970 science fiction television series UFO, in which she sported a silver suit and had shiny purple hair. In the series, the character of Lt. Ellis is stationed on Moonbase, which is Earth's first line of defence against invading flying saucers. Drake only appeared in about half the 26 episodes produced, leaving the series midway through production to pursue other opportunities.
She also auditioned for the part of Jo Grant in Doctor Who and was on the final shortlist of three actresses. Some of her films include There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) opposite Peter Sellers and Au Pair Girls (1972).
She appeared as Madeline Bassett in the original London cast of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Alan Ayckbourn musical Jeeves in 1975. She has also appeared in a number of British television series, including The Avengers (1967), Coronation Street as Inga Olsen in 1967 and Vanessa in 2009, The Saint (1968), The Brothers (1972-74, a regular leading role), The Kelly Monteith Show (1979-80), a made-for-TV version of The Importance of Being Earnest (1985), and the ITV soap opera Crossroads, in which she played motel boss Nicola Freeman from 1985-87, and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2003-05) as the protagonist's mother.
Drake lives in the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock and continues to perform in theatre.
She can be heard accompanying her brother on a number of songs he recorded privately, and which have since been released on the album Family Tree.
Read more about this topic: Gabrielle Drake
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