The rather grand Royal Masonic School on Chorleywood Road appears as an American college in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the scene, Indiana Jones (played of course by Harrison Ford) is briefed on the Nazi’s suspected hunt for the lost ‘ark of the covenant’ which is said to hold Moses’ stone tablets bearing the ten commandments. It’s imperative that Indy beats them to it, for it’s believed that “an army which carries the ark before it is invincible”…

Rickmansworth is name-checked on the opening page of Douglas Adams’ classic sci-fi comedy novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which was first published in 1978.

The lines in question refer to a “girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth” who suddenly conjures up a simple solution for achieving world peace… before she can tell anyone though, Earth is destroyed by alien bulldozers “and the idea was lost forever.” And rumour has it that small cafe was at 122 High Street Rickmansworth…..well that’s what Tony says!!