dailyjameshunt

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James Hunt in the pits in a bucket hat, date, location and photographer unknown

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James Hunt at the British Grand Prix in 1975. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt and Davina Galica on 13th July 1976. Photographer not known. Happy Monday, bisexuals.

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Deep Dive Sunday: *That* Photoshoot with James and Five Women

At the British Grand Prix weekend in 1976, James Hunt was photographed being held up by five very pretty women, all dressed in super cute 50s style frocks. James's facial expression in the second photo is, imo, one of the great facial expressions in F1 history.

Turns out those five women were members of an almost entirely forgotten 1970s girl group called Glamourpuss. And when I say "almost entirely forgotten," someone on a message board got in contact with a songwriter who worked with them, who could only remember one of their names.

But! This is the internet and there is a record of their names in their discography, and there are varying amounts of information about their lives. I'm going to collate their info into one place, since I only ever see this photo shared as evidence of James's womanising/playboy behaviour (which is valid), but these women were promoting their new single in this photo, so they were at work. Admittedly having more fun than I've ever had in my job, just saying, but still. They were not, in fact, just there to make James look virile.

So even though this isn't direct James lore, though there is lore sort of knitted through this, I wanted to do a bit of research and give these women back their identities, rather than leaving them as decorative ornaments in a photograph of a high-achieving man.

Who Were The Women?

Left to right in the photos above, their names were

Stephanie Lawrence

Chrissie Kendall

Vilma Laryea

Zena Clifton

Val Mitchell

Together, they formed a girl group called Glamourpuss, one of the earlier known "manufactured" pop acts. (For younger readers, there was a time in the mid-90s when it was morally pure to make music with your childhood friends or folk you met through an ad in the music papers - music papers used to be a thing - but morally impure if you answered an ad in the same music papers from a record label, and were hired alongside other artists you didn't know, so that you could all form a pop act. The Spice Girls got particular ire for being "manufactured", not least because they all had assigned personalities, one of which was racist. We're sorry, Mel B, you deserved better. Anyway, I was a kid in that era so I have internalised some views about Manufactured Pop Acts without fully integrating that the reality TV era that followed in the 2000s meant that Manufactured Pop Acts became the default. Probably lots of people don't remember that pop acts used to emerge organically from suburban garages and city bedrooms, and that being "manufactured" used to be an insult).

A rather dedicated chap going by the name Arthur Nibble on a message board about the British music chart show Top of the Pops (1964-2006) did some digging on behalf of a Top of the Pops nostalgia blog site called Yes It's Number One. He made contact with the record label that released their most remembered song, Superman. He found out that (quote from Yes It's Number One):

[W]e now know as much as pretty much ever will about Glamourpuss. They were created by the songwriters Chris Arnold, David Martin and Geoff Morrow [...] who had created Guys'n'Dolls to some success and decided to give an all-female group a go. According to Morrow "the act got really good PR, partly because of a photo shoot we did with the girls in white t-shirts (and little else!) coming out of the sea".

David Martin is the guy who can now only remember one of their names out of five.

Glamourpuss is a colloquial English word, mostly used in Britain, simply meaning a glamorous woman. It was first recorded in 1940 and appeared in a novel in 1950. Kind of like calling a group The Hotties (someone probably has) or...idk, The Influencers. (The word pussy, by the way, has been used to refer to vaginas since the seventeenth century, so glamourpuss is kind of suggestive. Pussy Galore, the Bond Girl, first appeared in a novel in 1959).

At the time the photograph was taken, the group had just released their single Superman on 11th June 1976, and performed it on Top of the Pops on Thursday 15th July 1976 - directly before the British Grand Prix weekend.

It's also possibly fair to say that the British Grand Prix in 1976 was peak Hunt-mania. James was not always popular in his driving career, which gets forgotten, and he'd been involved in a row the week before at a driving event known as the Tour of Britain (another deep dive post, maybe?). But he was also second in the world championship, behind only the reigning champion, and he was with a major team for the first time. The 1976 British Grand Prix is the race where James was not going to be allowed to resume following a red flag, due to a technicality, and the crowd pressure was so strong that the decision was overturned. He took the win, but was disqualified later in the season following a review and a challenge by Ferrari (two other teams withdrew their challenges).

All of which is to say, he was a good man to be photographed with, in July 1976, if you had something to promote.

So who were Glamourpuss?

Stephanie Lawrence

Stephanie Lawrence, the lady with the substantial, eye-catching necklace in these photos, was ultimately the most successful member of the group. She was a well-regarded, popular and critically acclaimed musical theatre star in the West End, playing roles like Evita, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Magdalen (not in that show, another one) and she was the first person to play Pearl in Starlight Express (a musical about trains where the actors are on roller skates). She died tragically young at 50 from liver disease the coroner attributed to alcohol addiction. She had married a lifelong friend, Laurie Sautereau, two months before she died, so we can hope she was happy in her final months. Her obituary in the Guardian gives a flavour of her talent. This tribute in the Telegraph gives a deeper sense of how well-liked, popular and hard-working she was.

Chrissie Kendall

Chrissie Kendall had a few small parts in films and TV shows following her short music career. She was one of 32 people credited as a dancer in The Apple (1980) and later had a role in Mack the Knife (1989) by the same director, which starred a pre-Gomez Addams Raul Julia. Her last IMDB credit was in 1994, when she was in British cop drama The Bill. That she was evidently still acting and auditioning for parts, twenty years after her first performing credits, suggests she was either very dedicated and kept trying, or that she was dipping her toes in and out of performing between other things. Either way, much respect to her for a twenty-year career in anything artistic, and for keeping the faith. One source reports that she has passed but I couldn't corroborate this.

Vilma Laryea

Vilma Laryea has had various roles as a performer and presenter since 1976, and rather unexpectedly, performed in the London 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony. Her father was a Ghanian performing artist, across ballet, theatre and circus in Ghana and the UK. Her brother was also a performer, starring in The Bugaloos in the US and made history as one of the cast of Empire Road, Britain's first TV drama series which was written, directed and acted by Black people. While Vilma herself was less high-profile, she's been active in fandoms for her brother's shows, has presented a documentary for the BBC on the early life of the Buddha, and had some parts in TV shows in the 80s.

Zena Clifton

Zena had appeared in two Carry On films in the early 1970s before joining Glamourpuss, along with some other TV and film roles, and made another Carry On film in 1977. Her acting career was short and sadly she died earlier in 2025. More happily, a moderator of a retro film group on FB hopes to make a video about her life, and was in contact with her family before she died. Though she was in bad health, her family were able to tell her that people online were continuing to enjoy her films, which she was pleased to hear.

Val Mitchell

Not least because she has a common name and is therefore hard to find online, Val Mitchell proved to be the most elusive member of the band. All I can confirm is that she was a series regular on a children's TV programme called Crackerjack until 1979, and appeared in a film called Let's Get Laid, which are two interestingly contrasting items to have on a CV. She doesn't have any acting credits after 1979, which suggests she may have retired.

So there you go - why five women were holding James Hunt, and who they were. I know this is tangential to James but I love these photos and wanted to give the women back their names and achievements.

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James Hunt in his Wolf Racing overalls in June 1979, shortly after announcing his intention to retire from racing. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt with his partner Jane Birbeck at Heathrow Airport in July 1980. James had recently started a commentary career and is seem using a stick to walk following his skiing accident earlier that year. Photographer not known

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James Hunt at Silverstone, possibly 1975. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt with Debbie Johnsey at the Daily Express Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards in 1976. Debbie Johnsey is a showjumper born in Newport in Wales in 1957, who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. She would be 19 in this photo. James is 29. Photographer not known, images from Alamy.

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James Hunt with Hans Stuck in 1976, on the Saturday of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. James turned 29 the following day. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt with his second wife, Sarah Lomax (mum to his sons Tom and Freddie Hunt), in London in February 1987. Sarah and James were married until October 1988, divorcing in 1989. Sarah later married a man named Chris Jeffrey who served in the British Army, and they had a son together. Tragically, Chris died suddenly when their son was nine months old. Sarah often used the surname Hunt-Jeffrey until she died herself from breast cancer in 2014, at the far too young age of 55. She attended the premiere of Rush with her sons while undergoing treatment.

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JAMES HUNT during a press conference at the 1977 ARGENTINA GRAND PRIX || [x]

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James Hunt with the legendary Professor Sid Watkins, known to the drivers across the decades as Prof.

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James Hunt and Niki Lauda at Monza in 1976, Niki's first race weekend following his accident at the German Grand Prix. From La Stampa newspaper on 12th September 1976. Photo by Cesare Bosio

I absolutely love this photo. Niki's first weekend back was very rough. He resented Ferrari engaging Carlos Reutemann to drive in his place, and felt that at a minimum, the team should have dropped Reutemann as soon as Niki was confirmed fit. He was enormously anxious after his first session, and took a little time to get his head back in the game. The media attention was overwhelming. He had almost died five weeks earlier, and his championship lead had been diminished by his favourite colleague and old friend (while recovering, Niki called John Watson after Watson won the Austrian Grand Prix to thank him for taking points off James. This was alongside reportedly multiple calls to James, just to chat).

But in this photo, Niki's smile looks genuine. He looks like he's actually happy in the midst of all the drama and pressure. He seems to be outside James's trailer, since James is inside. I love how they both have the most mischievous, naughty, cute smiles like two little boys caught doing something they shouldn't. It's a really sweet moment of friendship.

I'd seen this photo a lot but Google reverse image search let me find the original, which appeared in the Italian newspaper La Stampa on 12th September 1976 - hence the graininess. It also allowed me to actually credit the photographer. Some day I hope someone finds and releases the actual photo and not just the newspaper reproduction. I'd love to see a little more detail.

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James Hunt in Japan in 1976, ahead of winning his world title. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt with Jochen Mass at the 1977 Argentinian Grand Prix. Yes, James, it's very impressive. Photographer unknown

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James Hunt presenting Nigel Mansell with three trophies at the British Racing Drivers' Club Awards. Date and photographer unknown - if anyone can help me pin down a year when Nigel won...everything, please let me know!

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James Hunt making a guest appearance at Snetterton in April 1988. Photographer unknown