Gorgeous Wanda Ventham as the no-nonsense Colonel Virginia Lake on Gerry Anderson's UFO. In the second production block for the series, actor George Sewell didn't return to reprise his role as Colonel Alec Freeman for some reason, so the producers brought back the statuesque, blonde Ventham, who had appeared briefly in the pilot, to take his place as Commander Straker's No. 2 at SHADO.Lake was a very strong character, a tough and tough-minded officer who also happened to be a very sexy woman. She was competent, commanding and able to hold her own on screen with Ed Bishop's Straker - not an easy task.
Ventham has had a long and prolific career on British television as a popular guest artist and as a regular on numerous series. Among those appearances were roles in three Doctor Who stories.
Va-va-va-voom! Like a British Angie Dickinson
ReplyDeleteYou don't quite do her enough justice in the above piece; she's also got on her CV an episode of THE PRISONER, an episode of THE AVENGERS, and a pretty big role in the film CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER. That's a pretty big body of work that needs attention there...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0893243/
Jim - I'm not writing biographies of these women. Those roles, while cool and impressive, are irrelevant on a site about 70s sci-fi shows.
ReplyDeleteNice body of work is right ;)
ReplyDeleteChris - Admittedly, this may be beyond the purview of the site; it's more a matter of context than anything else that I'm suggesting.
ReplyDeleteShe looked terrible in the UFO pilot, slightly chubby with the worst 1960s hairstyle I've ever seen, but in her regular role, wow! Hard to believe it's even the same actress. Those big, steely blue eyes were absolutely hypnotic.
ReplyDelete...and is the mum of SHERLOCK's Benedict Cumberbatch to boot!
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