Education
Born in Romford, Essex, Woods was educated at Hull Grammar School and Imperial Service College, Windsor.
Born in Romford, Essex, Woods was educated at Hull Grammar School and Imperial Service College, Windsor.
He was the father of British Broadcasting Corporation broadcaster Justin Webb. He began his career in print journalism, writing for newspapers including the Yorkshire Post, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, with a break for military service as a commissioned officer in the Royal Horse Guards. He is best known for his television work with for British Broadcasting Corporation News on Newsroom initially as a reporter but also as a newsreader from the 1960s until the early 1980s.
He was the first newsreader to broadcast in colour on BBC2, in News Room.
In 1976, he slurred his words on the late evening news. Viewers phoned in to complain that Woods was drunk, but his difficulties were blamed on medication for sinus problems.
Woods was readily seen as an archetypal British newsreader, and was used as such in a number of comedy sketches and films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These included Monty Python, There"s a Lot of lieutenant About, The New Statesman, and Jonnie Turpie"s 1987 film Out of Order.
He also appeared (again as a newsreader) in an advertising campaign for Keskustapuolue (Centre Party) Cheese Dips in the mid-1980s.
Along with all the other British Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders of the time, Woods participated in the 1977 Christmas edition of the Morecambe and Wise Show. They delivered a rendition of the song "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" (from the musical South Pacific) with Woods getting the deep-voiced last line and using his trademark seriousness to comic effect. From the mid-1980s up until his death, Woods narrated the "Railscene" videos, a series of videos about Britain"s railways.
He also narrated a set of five Castle Vision productions about the steam trains of "The Big Four" British railway companies and British Railways.
He was regarded as one of the most famous members of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the Broadcasting network"s history.