5 James Robertson Justice

Famous for playing irascible upper-crust doctors or captains of industry, the star of Checkpoint and The Fast Lady was also a car fanatic; one who participated in motorsport prior to the Second World War. Not only that, he became a member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club in 1933. Competing as JNHR Justice, he may – and it is hard to pin this down with absolute certainty – have competed in the May 1932 JCC 1000 Miles Race at Brooklands aboard a Wolseley Hornet Special. He was great friends with the obscenely wealthy Whitney Straight, too, and purportedly acted as his team manager. Robertson Justice built his own Jap-engined special dubbed ‘Tallulah’ and campaigned it in the 1933 Brighton Speed Trials (below). It failed to make the end of the kilometre course along Madeira Drive. His motorsport endeavours appear to have ended in 1934.

Anorak fact He later fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans