Born in Camberwell, South London, Coombs was one of three children; her father worked in insurance for the Employers' Liability, the forerunner of Commercial Union.

After leaving school, she began her working life as a student kindergarten teacher, but soon a keenness to act prompted her to take drama lessons during the Second World War with her friend and neighbour Vivien Merchant.

[2] Coombs first made her name in the post-war era of radio variety as 'Nola', the dim and put-upon daughter of Irene Handl in Arthur Askey's Hello Playmates; their double-act had started as a guest spot on Bob Monkhouse's show.

Coombs also gained experience as a comedy stooge in radio shows alongside Ted Ray and Charlie Chester.

(1970), Till Death Us Do Part (1966–75) and its sequel In Sickness and in Health (1990, 1992) and The Lady is a Tramp (1983), in the last of which she co-starred with Patricia Hayes in a series set among 'down-and-outs'.

Coombs had also appeared in many films, including A Stitch in Time (1963), Carry On Doctor (1967), Carry On Again Doctor (1969), Cucumber Castle (1970) starring the Bee Gees, Ooh... You Are Awful (1972) with Dick Emery, and Spike Milligan's Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1972), as well as the movie versions of Till Death Us Do Part (1969), On the Buses (1971) and Dad's Army (1971).

She was seen in Rainbow (1981–82), The Basil Brush Show (1977–79) and Supergran, and joined Stanley Baxter to play Miss Flavia Jelly in the first two series of Mr Majeika (1988–89), among many others.

She had just completed a role for BBC Radio 4 alongside Roy Hudd and June Whitfield in Like They've Never Been Gone when she died on 25 May 2002, aged 75, from emphysema in Denville Hall actors' home, a west London nursing home to which she had moved to be close to her friend Peggy Mount, who had died six months earlier.