She began her career as a child performer in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, playing Veruca Salt.

The film debuted in New York City on 30 June 1971 and in London the following week, and Cole was chosen to present a bouquet of flowers to Princess Margaret at the Royal Premiere.

Immediately after returning from filming, Cole was cast in a reoccurring role on the ITV sitcom, ...And Mother Makes Three, in which she played Arabella, a stuck-up and snobbish teenaged girl.

Occasionally, she was cast in other moulds, on an episode of the Orson Welles' Great Mysteries series, she played a murder victim.

She made her next theatrical appearance in British-German comedy film That Lucky Touch, opposite Roger Moore.

In 1975, Cole got her break-out role being cast as one of the leading characters in BBC medical drama Angels.

Poldark was immensely popular and garnered much attention for its romantic, and at times racy, plot lines.

[1] Cole met actor Nick Wilton in 1988, at the revival of the Whitehall farce Dry Rot.