Her mother (Liberiana Dorina Rescagliova 1917–2001) was of French, German and Italian descent, while her Canadian-born father (Gilbert Lendon Bastedo 1915–1985) was of Spanish, Dutch, Scottish and native American extraction.

Although most familiar to viewers of 1960s TV as Sharron Macready in The Champions, she was also known for her language skills, speaking Italian, Spanish, French and German.

This ability brought her to the attention of 10 Downing Street, where she was employed to assist with translations, and landed her the role of co-presenter of Miss World competitions with Peter Marshall in the 1980s.

Still working as an actress, she appeared in Batman Begins, and touring theatres in 2006 with a production of Beyond Reasonable Doubt alongside Leslie Grantham and Simon Ward.

Bastedo dated David Frost and Omar Sharif, but turned down the advances of Steve McQueen who, she recalled, propositioned her with the line, "My wife doesn't understand me".

In the case of Sharif, the liaison lasted only a few weeks because of the actor's bridge-playing, his odd hours and the fact that he took telephone numbers from other women.

[12][13] A journalist who interviewed her husband in 2010 described their domestic surroundings: [W]e sit in his Sussex garden looking towards a small lake with a jetty and a battered rowing boat – a perfect pastoral scene which could be a stage set.