You’ll never believe what UFO’s sci-fi sex siren Lieutenant Gay Ellis looks like now…

SHE was the sexiest sci-fi siren of the seventies, thanks to her intergalactic purple bob and skimpy silver dresses, but British starlet Gabrielle Drake looks very different today.

The now 71-year-old burst on to screens as Lieutenant Gay Ellis more than four decades ago in science fiction television series UFO.

Defending Earth from the invasion of flying saucers became second nature to the tough as nails character and she always looked sensational doing it.

UFO followed an attempted alien invasion and ran for two years in syndication across the UK and USA with a total of 26 episodes. The cult classic — helmed by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the married partnership responsible for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet — became the acclaimed duo’s first live action series, aimed at adults.

The epic followed a number of groundbreaking themes including divorce, drug abuse and adultery and was hailed a triumph for its unconventional nature.

Sadly, Drake turned her back on the out of this world series to pursue other projects. In turn she went on to land several erotic roles on-screen as one of the key figures of television’s sexploitation movement, regularly appearing in the nude or topless.

The starlet posed naked as an artist’s model in the 1970 cult classic Connecting Roomspand and was one of Peter Sellers’ many conquests, alongside fellow vixen Goldie Hawn, in British comedy There’s A Girl In My Soup.

Although, Drake’s early television appearances were a little more modest. In 1967 she popped up in The Avengers and made her debut in Coronation Street as Inga Olsen. Three years later she auditioned for the part of Doctor Who’s sidekick Jo Grant, but eventually lost out to Katy Manning.

More recently, she returned to the Cobbles as one of Bill Webster’s flirtations called Vanessa. The pair met on a singles night after she fell for the recurring character when he falsely claimed to be an ex-member of the army.

Outside her glittering career on stage and screen, the actress has worked strenuously to ensure the songs of her iconic late brother, Nick Drake, is forever embedded in musical history.

In 2014, she released another ode to her sibling, a book entitled Nick Drake: Remembered for a While. The epic memoir comprised of family photographs, musical analysis of his songs, essays by Gabrielle about her family’s history in colonial Burma, and tributes to the musician from friends and kindred spirits.

“I always vowed I’d never write a book about Nick and I would hate to have been seen as jumping on any kind of bandwagon,” she told the Guardian. “I did have compunctions until various publications and articles appeared that have got the story so wrong that I felt that before I pop my clogs I had better get the story straight.”

While her bright wig may have been left behind in a galaxy far, far away, her effortless sass remains as in tact as ever. With her flame red hair, the sex pot is just as glamorous 40 years on from the role which saw her break out as one of the most enviable women on the planet.

Today, she lives in the extravagant Wedlock Abbey in Shropshire with her husband of over 40 years, the South African artist Louis de Wet.

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