Gillian Lewis (born 1935) is an English character actress who, after a varied stage career in the 1950s and early '60s, appeared in a number of television drama series until the late 1970s. Notable roles were as the runaway
heiress Geraldine Melford in the original London production of
Slade
Slade are a rock band formed in Wolverhampton, England in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The '' British Hit Singl ...
and
Reynolds' musical ''
Free as Air'' and, on television, as Drusilla Lamb, secretary to
Mr. Rose in the detective series of that name.
Early stage career
Gillian Lewis was born in
Tisbury, Wiltshire. She trained at the
Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...
Theatre School and then worked with the company, combining minor acting parts with the job of assistant stage manager. In 1953 she had a supporting role (Cousin Rosie) in Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds' Christmas musical ''The Merry Gentleman'' at the
Theatre Royal, Bristol
and the following year worked backstage at the
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new buildin ...
in London when Slade and Reynolds' ''
Salad Days''
[Theatre Royal programme for ''Difference of Opinion'', ''loc.cit.''] transferred there from Bristol.
While working with the
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...
Repertory
A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.
United Kingdom ...
Company, she met her future husband, the actor Peter Beton (born 1930).
''Free as Air'' (1957)
In 1957, after Slade and Reynolds had enjoyed considerable acclaim with ''Salad Days'', Lewis and
Patricia Bredin
Patricia Bredin (14 February 1935 – 13 August 2023) was an English actress and one-time singer. She is best known as the first representative of the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957.
Career
In 1957 Bredin took the part ...
(who in the same year was the United Kingdom's first ever entrant to the
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
) took the main female roles in their follow-up show, ''Free as Air'', which opened at the
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy ...
in London on 6 June 1957 following an initial season in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
. Although this and other Slade musicals never quite matched the success of ''Salad Days'', ''Free as Air'', which was set on the fictional
Channel Island of Terhou, ran for 417 performances, some critics regarding it as more slick and professional than its predecessor. A cast recording, which includes Lewis singing a solo number, "Nothing But Sea and Sky", duets with John Trevor ("Free as Air" and "I'd Like to Be Like You") and in a trio with
Josephine Tewson
Josephine Ann Tewson (26 February 1931 – 18 August 2022) was an English actress, known for her roles in British television sitcoms and comedies. She portrayed Edna Hawkins ("Mrs H") on '' Shelley'' (1979–1982), Jane Travers in '' Clarence' ...
and
Gerald Harper ("Holiday Island"), was released on compact disc in 2007. One admirer has written that her "sometimes uncertain
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
voice" was "tenuous but perched on the edge of beauty".
[ Like Lewis, both Harper and Tewson moved successfully into television in the 1960s. Peter Beton also appeared in ''Free as Air''.]
Other roles
In the early 1960s Lewis played extensively in repertory theatre in Bristol, appearing in, among many other productions, revivals of John Dighton's '' The Happiest Days of Your Life'' (1960) (based on his screenplay for the 1949 film starring Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, film and television.
Rutherford came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's ''Blithe Spirit (1945 f ...
), Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...
's ''Private Lives
''Private Lives'' is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It concerns a divorced couple who, while honeymooning with their new spouses, discover that they are staying in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetuall ...
'' (1960) and '' Blithe Spirit'' (1961) and Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
's ''An Ideal Husband
''An Ideal Husband'' is a four-act play by Oscar Wilde that revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. It was first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London in 1895 and ran for ...
'' (1960).Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
' novel ''Nicholas Nickleby
''Nicholas Nickleby'', or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'', is the third novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. The character of Nickleby is a young man who must support his ...
''. In 2004 a compact disc was released of "demo" recordings made at the time by members of the cast, with Lawrence on piano, together with ones cut in 1969 when the show was revived in Bristol with a new cast that included Josephine Gordon and Elric Cooper.
Lewis appeared also at other provincial theatres: for example, with Robert Beatty
Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK.
Early years
Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of ...
, Kynaston Reeves
Philip Arthur Reeves (29 May 18935 December 1971), known professionally as Kynaston Reeves, was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series.
Early life
Reeves was born in London on 29 May 1893 ...
and Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to:
Politicians
*Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician
*Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, member of parliament (MP) for Leicestershire
*Geoffrey Pal ...
in George Ross and Campbell Singer
Campbell Singer (born Jacob Kobel Singer; 16 March 1909 – 16 February 1976) was a British character actor who featured in a number of stage, film and television roles during his long career. He was also a playwright and dramatist.
Life
He was ...
's ''Difference of Opinion'' at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1965. She returned to the West End in 1963 for the London première of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
's '' On the Town'' at the Prince of Wales Theatre
The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. The theatre ...
. In a short run, Lewis took the feisty role of Claire (the part played by Ann Miller
Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American actress and dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the classical Hollywood cinema musical film, musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early fi ...
in the 1949 film and on Broadway by the show's librettist Betty Comden) alongside two American actresses, Andrea Jaffe and Carol Arthur
Carol Arthur DeLuise (born Carol Arata; August 4, 1935 – November 1, 2020), known professionally as Carol Arthur, was an American actress, mainly recognizable in supporting roles in films directed by Mel Brooks.
Early life
Arthur was born in ...
.
Television in the mid-1960s
In the mid '60s Gillian Lewis appeared in episodes of such popular television series as ''Gideon's Way
''Gideon's Way'' is a British television crime series that was made by ITC Entertainment and broadcast by ITV in 1964–1966, following the 1958 film, '' Gideon's Day''. The film and series are based on novels by John Creasey (writing as 'J. ...
'' (1964), '' The Avengers'' (1965), '' Mogul'' (1965), '' Public Eye'' (1965) and '' The Baron'' (1966).Emma Peel
Emma Peel is a fictional character played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series '' The Avengers'', and by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight. ...
(Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Tracy Bond, Teresa di ...
) who was mysteriously lured away from scientific work alongside her tactile fiancé to a horticultural project aimed at propagating menacing bean
A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...
-like plants with gigantic tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized Plant stem, stem, leaf or Petiole (botany), petiole with a thread-like shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There ar ...
s. As Joyce Grant in ''The Baron'' ("So Dark the Night", broadcast 15 March 1967), her father died in a spooky country house just before the series' eponymous
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
hero ( Steve Forrest as John Mannering) and his glamorous assistant (Sue Lloyd
Susan Margery Jeaffreson Lloyd (7 August 1939 – 20 October 2011) was an English model and actress, with numerous film and television credits. She may be best known for her long-running role (1979 to 1985) as Barbara Hunter ( Brady) in the Br ...
as Cordelia Winfield) arrived to value some antiques. This was the prelude to "an eerie web of intrigue, murder and revenge, with two girls facing hair-raising danger".
''Mr. Rose'' (1967)
In the influential '' Mr. Rose'' (Granada
Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
, 1967), starring William Mervyn as Charles Rose, an acerbic retired Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
detective, Lewis played his live-in secretary, Miss Drusilla Lamb. Drusilla was employed ostensibly to help Rose with his memoirs
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...
, although work on these was repeatedly delayed by his getting involved in unofficial investigative work.
Lewis as Drusilla Lamb
Over a series of 13 episodes produced and mostly written by Philip Mackie, Lewis portrayed Drusilla as a highly professional and, at first, rather prim, proper and somewhat icy assistant who had been through finishing school
A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's ...
, had a shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...
speed of 150 words per minute, but was unable (so she always said) to make decent coffee. However, despite her apparent hauteur, she was also beautiful, attracting ready attention from men to whom Rose introduced her, and, in the first episode (broadcast 17 February 1967), her potential sexiness was hinted at by an unexpected scene in which Rose's manservant (Donald Webster as John Halifax) burst into her bedroom as she was about to put on a jumper over her bra
A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, ; ), is a type of form-fitting underwear that is primarily used to support and cover a woman's breasts. A typical bra consists of a chest band that wraps around the torso, supporting two breast cups ...
and panties
Panties are women's form-fitting underpants. Typical components include an elastic waistband, a crotch panel to cover the genitalia (usually lined with absorbent material such as cotton), and a pair of leg openings that, like the waistband, ...
. Despite Drusilla's momentary loss of composure, she appeared largely unfazed by this intrusion, as also by other early incidents, such as a bomb explosion at Rose's front door and (a few years before "women's lib
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminism, feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued till the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which resu ...
" began to take hold) Rose's pinching her buttocks
The buttocks (: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a lay ...
, apparently to demonstrate that he alone was capable of shocking her. Her generally worldly and practical outlook was further corroborated by her calm demeanour at a boisterous riverboat party that culminated in a provocative striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...
by a blonde teenager ( Judy Geeson) who had been hired to compromise Rose. Even so, Rose thought Drusilla bossy and "refused to be nagged" by her on Sunday afternoon. She could also be quite spirited, even blunt and wilful: she was angrily defiant when held prisoner after being kidnapped, while, during a minor domestic encounter, Rose seemed amused by her telling him to "damn well do" something himself because she thought she was being treated unreasonably.
An enticing contrast with Drusilla's initial twinset image was provided by a working cruise to South Africa on which she enjoyed a romance with a suave ex-jewel thief and Halifax teased her that she was displaying too much of her cleavage
Cleavage may refer to:
Science
* Cleavage (crystal), the way in which a crystal or mineral tends to split
* Cleavage (embryo), the division of cells in an early embryo
* Cleavage (geology), foliation of rock perpendicular to stress, a result of ...
while relaxing on deck. It eventually came to light that in fact her background was not as straight forward as it had seemed: specifically, she had been encouraged to apply for the job with Rose by an ex-army confidence trick
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...
ster whom she believed to be her father. His unwelcome re-appearance in Drusilla's life following release from a seven-year prison sentence led both Rose, who he tried to blackmail, and Halifax, who began to emit some tender feelings for his female colleague, to take stock of their relationship with her, but then actively to stand by her. In the final episode of the series, Drusilla told Rose that she had "no private life", although it became reasonably clear that she reciprocated Halifax's apparent fondness for her.
The first series of ''Mr. Rose'' was released on DVD by Network in 2012. Lewis did not return for the second series (1968) in which Jennifer Clulow played Drusilla's successor, Jessica Dalton. In the first episode of that series, Rose recalled to Halifax that he had given Drusilla away at her wedding.
Later TV roles
Lewis appeared in a number of later series, including '' Department S'', starring Peter Wyngarde
Peter Paul Wyngarde (born Cyril Goldbert, 23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018) was a British actor. He was best known for portraying the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: '' Department S'' (19 ...
as Jason King (1969), the ground-breaking science fiction drama '' Doomwatch'' (1970), '' The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder'' (as Margaret Belman, a role she took over from Virginia Stride, in several episodes based on stories by Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction.
Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...
, 1971), ''Crown Court'' (1972), '' The Duchess of Duke Street'' (1976) and '' The Mallens'', adapted from the novels of Catherine Cookson
Dame Catherine Ann Cookson (''née'' McMullen; 20 June 1906 – 11 June 1998), was a British writer. She is in the top 20 of the most widely read British novelists, with sales topping 100 million, while she retained a relatively low profile in ...
(nine episodes as Jane Radlet, 1979–80).
Films
Among Lewis's film credits were '' Ring of Spies'' (1964), based on the events surrounding the Portland spy ring of the early 1960s, Galton and Simpson's satirical spoof ''The Spy with a Cold Nose
''The Spy with a Cold Nose'' is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Laurence Harvey, Daliah Lavi, Lionel Jeffries, Denholm Elliott, and Colin Blakely. It was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Plot
A d ...
'' (1966) with a cast that included Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to Union of South Africa, South Africa at an early age, before ...
, Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He appeared primarily in films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Golden ...
and Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...
, and a TV movie ''Belgrove Hotel, Goodbye'' (1970).Fahrenheit 451
''Fahrenheit 451'' is a 1953 Dystopian fiction, dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" Book burning, burn any that are found. The novel follows in the ...
'' (1966).
Film historian Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...
dismissed ''The Spy with a Cold Nose'' as a "rather painful, overacted and overwritten farce full of obvious jokes masquerading as satire". The essence of Lewis's role as Lady Warburton was captured in the opening sentence of Galton and Simpson's 1967 novel based on their screenplay: "To the eyes of her beholders, the beauty of Sandra, Lady Warburton, lay in strict ratio to the importance they attached to her bank balance".[Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, ''The Spy with a Cold Nose'' (Arrow Books, 1967).]
References
External links
*
Unsung heroines – Gillian Lewis (an appreciation of her early career in musicals)
* ttp://www.cinema.de/bilder/gillian-lewis,1601199.html Still of Gillian Lewis and Laurence Harvey in ''The Spy with a Cold Nose'' (1966)* [https://www.google.com/imgres?q=gillian+lewis+mr+rose&hl=en&safe=off&rls=ig&biw=1024&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=iWunPD2sUoNAeM:&imgrefurl=http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/showthread.php%3Ft%3D106617&docid=1CCFEnW61ALxiM&imgurl=http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/cornershop15/British%252520Actresses/GillianLewis1-cropped.jpg&w=655&h=503&ei=9xvST-_8Ncjg8gOLksSZAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=411&vpy=155&dur=76&hovh=197&hovw=256&tx=90&ty=110&sig=111841784218301143889&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=240&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:76 Still of Gillian Lewis in ''The Baron'' (1967)]
Still of Gillian Lewis as Drusilla Lamb with William Mervyn (Charles Rose) and Donald Webster (John Halifax) in ''Mr. Rose'' (1967)
YouTube extract from episode of ''Mr. Rose'', "The Nobel Roman" (1967) with Gillian Lewis as Drusilla Lamb, William Mervyn & Donald Webster
Videocaps of Gillian Lewis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Gillian
1935 births
English film actresses
English television actresses
English women singers
English musical theatre actresses
People from Tisbury, Wiltshire
Actresses from Wiltshire