Berman was born in London in 1929. Her father, Sir Albert Berman (1890 - 1946) was a conservative MP and 2nd generation Austrian immigrant. Her mother Eleanor (1899 - 1958) was a former suffragette whose political ideology had taken a swift move to the right. Her parents both joined the British fascist party in 1935 and moved even further to the right. In 1937 she was sent off to board at the Kilgare Girls Academy in Scotland. Whilst there she developed a talent for acting and dancing and in 1942 she joined the junior royal acting academy at Stratford. In 1946 her father was killed during a bombing raid.