Robert Ross pays tribute to James Robertson Justice, best known for playing pompous authority figures such as Sir Lancelot Spratt in the Doctor series...

With Joan Sims (seen behind) in Doctor in Love (1960);

with Gregory Peck in Moby Dick (1956);

with Dirk Bogarde in Doctor at Sea (1955); an early publicity shot

With a beard as sharp as the pleats in his kilt; and a barking, scattergun delivery of a funny line that made him the British screen comedy authority figure second to none, James Robertson Justice remains iconic.

This most Scottish of Scots was actually born in London, to a Scots father. Still, he remained true to his roots for the rest of his days; during his tenure with Ealing Studios he was, of course, enlisted for Whiskey Galore! (1949), as the kindly Doctor Maclaren; he was pivotal in the establishment and launching of the commercial station Scottish Television in 1957; and he would even narrate the documentary Golf -Scotland’s Royal and Ancient Game, in 1968.

In his time he was an angler; a falconer; a racing driver; a newspaperman; a naturalist; and a mentor of a future King. For it was he who tutored Prince Charles in the sport of crowned-heads and the bedroom technique of the nobility. More than anything though, and as much as he would prefer it not to be the case, Justice is known as a brilliant, one-note film actor. It was always a subtle variation on that beady-eyed, howling behemoth of rules and regulations, with always a playful heart of gold beating just beneath the surface.