Her music career began when she was 15; Barney Colehan, a BBC producer, heard her sing and invited her onto one of his radio shows.

In 1959, she was unexpectedly cast by Joan Littlewood as Sally in the Theatre Workshop musical Make Me An Offer, and soon appeared in West End shows such as Gigi and Not Now, Darling.

Her casting in Triangle occurred after the death of the actor originally due to play the owner of the shipping line.

Her first husband was composer Monty Norman whom she married in May 1956 at the St John's Liberal Synagogue after converting to Judaism.

[5] In 2001, she gave evidence in a High Court case after her former husband sued The Sunday Times following a 1997 article suggesting that Norman had falsely taken credit and royalties for the James Bond theme music, which was claimed actually to have been written by John Barry.

[7] Coupland, who was a patron of National Lupus UK, died at the University Hospital in Coventry in November 2006, aged 78, after failing to recover following an operation to resolve long-term heart problems.