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On graduation she spent three years at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool
before moving to the Malvern Theatre Company, the Birmingham Repertory
Company, the Bristol Old Vic, the New Shakespeare Company and the Young
Vic. Among the plays she appeared in were ‘The Cherry Orchard’, ‘A Comedy
of Errors’ and ‘Titus Andronicus.’ Gabrielle also appeared in numerous
television parts throughout the Sixties including ‘Intrigue’ in 1966,
an industrial espionage drama, and roles in ‘Coronation Street’, ‘The
Saint’, ‘The Champions’, ‘Journey To The Unknown’, ‘Virgin of the Secret
Service’ and she also appeared as Angora in ‘The Avengers’ episode ‘The
Hidden Tiger’ in 1967 (she auditioned unsuccessfully for the roles of
Emma Peel and Tara King).
Gabrielle gained a cult following when she portrayed Lt. Gay Ellis in
the Gerry Anderson series ‘UFO’ (dressed in a mauve wig) and in 1972
established herself still further with the British public as Jill Howard
in the highly popular ‘The Brothers’ series. Although she made her film
debut in 1969 in ‘Crossplot’, a Swinging Sixties movie starring Roger
Moore, the British cinema in the Seventies was unlike that of the Sixties.
During the Sixties American studios poured money into British studios
and there was a wide variety of films, some big-budget, some modestly
budgeted, but most aimed at international audiences. The Seventies saw
Hammer reduced to making movies based on TV series such as ‘On The Buses’,
with little appeal outside the UK, while the main British contribution
to the cinema was a string of soft-porn films. Gabrielle, who was to
be found in bed topless with Peter Sellers in ‘There’s A Girl In My
Soup’, appeared in a series of 'sex comedy' films such as ‘The Au Pair
Girls’, ‘Suburban Wives’ and ‘Commuter Husbands.’
Why a well-respected Shakespearean actress would be willing to appear
full-frontal as a sexpot in ‘The Au Pair Girls’ is puzzling as theatre
and television roles still kept her regularly in work. She appeared
as Penny in the ‘Dead Men Are Dangerous’ episode of ‘The New Avengers’
and continued to appear over the years in numerous television episodes
on ‘The Professionals’, ‘Medics’, ‘Peak Practice' – and in the 21st
Century ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘The Inspector Lindlay Mysteries’ among others.
Gabrielle is the sister of the late singer/songwriter Nick Drake. Nick
was born in Burma on 18th June 1948. He began recording in 1968 and
established his reputation with three albums: ‘Five Leaves Left’, ‘Bryter
Layter’ and ‘Pink Moon’. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1972 and
was hospitalised. Nick died at his home in Tamworth, Staffordshire,
of an overdose of antidepressants on 23rd October 1974. He was 26 years
old.
Gabrielle appeared in the documentary ‘A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick
Drake.’
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