Gabrielle Drake to guest in Coronation Street

Actress Gabrielle Drake, best known for her roles in UFO and Crossroads, is set to appear in Coronation Street.

Gabrielle Drake will appear in ITV soap Coronation Street where the actress will play a character called Vanessa – who’ll cross paths with Bill Webster and Pam, Molly’s aunt. According to The Mirror the storyline is a comical one in which Vanessa eyes up Bill and Pam. It’s not the first time Drake has appeared in the Granada soap she first starred on the street way back in 1967 when she played Swedish Inga – who Dennis Tanner had a crush on.

In the mid 1980s the actress switched to the Midlands to play glamorous Nicola Freeman in Central Television soap Crossroads. Nicola Freeman was the owner of the infamous Motel for three years and attempted to take the Motel more upmarket – something reflecting what was going on behind-the-scenes at the time. In 1985 new producer Phillip Bowman took over the reins of the famous Motel soap and decided to give the series a more “Dynasty” feel and attempted to modernise it. Drake left the soap in 1987, to appear in a play, however her return to the series in 1988 was short-lived as the axe fell on the saga and it ended the same year, branded at the time as Crossroads: King’s Oak.

As well as Crossroads the actress is also well-known for her role in the cult 1970s sci fi series UFO. In the Gerry Anderson series, he who gave the world Thunderbirds and Stingray, the actress played Lt. Gay Ellis. The series lasted for 26 episodes and although a second series was commissioned it never reached production. However, Anderson reused his plans for the show’s second season when creating Space: 1999.