Stuart Clink Hood (17 December 1915 – 31 January 2011) was a Scottish

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

and a former British television producer and Controller of BBC Television.

Life

Hood was born in

Edzell Edzell (; sco, Aigle; gd, Eigill) is a village in Angus, Scotland. It is 5 miles (8 km) north of Brechin, by the River North Esk. Edzell is a Georgian era, Georgian-era planned town, with a broad main street and a grid system of side stre ...

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

, Scotland. His father was an infant school headmaster, firstly in Edzell and then in Montrose. After school Hood attended the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

between 1934 and 1938. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Hood served in the British Army as an Intelligence Officer. He spent a year in Italy as a prisoner of war before joining the partisans. His memoir of this period, ''Pebbles from my Skull'', was published in 1963; a revised version appeared in 1985. It is an unromantic account of the partisans in Italy and their relationship to the official allied forces. From 1961 until 1963, Hood was the Controller of the BBC Television Service. As Controller, he played a key role in changing the BBC's reputation from being a producer of stodgy, didactic programming in the tradition of

Lord Reith Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

to a more creative broadcaster. His tenure saw the launch of innovative programming such as on the police drama ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...

'', the satire ''

That Was the Week That Was ''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pr ...

'' and the influential science fiction programme '' Doctor Who'', as well as the appearance of the first female newscaster,

Nan Winton Nancy Wigginton (6 November 1925 – 11 May 2019), known professionally as Nan Winton, was a British broadcaster, best known for being the first female newsreader to read the national news on BBC television. Career Winton (born Nancy Wigginton ...

. He became the overall Controller of BBC Television in 1963 with the preparations for the launch of the minority channel BBC2, with his former assistant

Donald Baverstock Donald Leighton Baverstock (18 January 1924 – 17 March 1995) was a British television producer and executive, born in Cardiff, Wales. He initially worked for BBC Television in their Talks Department, where he was the Editor of the topical mag ...

working under him to Control

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

and Michael Peacock doing the same for the new channel. This arrangement was short-lived, he resigned from the BBC in the summer of 1964, although his period at

Rediffusion London Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

as Controller was short. During the 1970s, he was Professor of Film and Television at the Royal College of Art, School of Film and Television. He was active in the ACTT union and was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party between 1973 and 1978. In his youth, he had been a member of the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

and then the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1988, he hosted an edition of '' After Dark'' called "What Do Women Want" and featuring among others

James Dearden James Dearden (born 14 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter, the son of Scottish actress Melissa Stribling and English film director Basil Dearden. He directed nine films between 1977 and 2018. His film '' Pascali's Isla ...

, Mary Whitehouse,

Joan Wyndham Joan Olivia Wyndham (11 October 1921, in East Knoyle, Wiltshire – 8 April 2007, in London) was a British writer and memoirist who rose to literary prominence late in life through the diaries she had kept more than 40 years earlier, which were a ...

Naim Attallah Naim Ibrahim Attallah ( ar, نعيم إبراهيم عطالله, 1 May 1931 – 2 February 2021) was a Christian Palestinian-British businessman and writer. He was the publisher of Quartet Books and the owner of The Women's Press. The Palest ...

and

Shere Hite Shere Hite (; November 2, 1942 – September 9, 2020) was an American-born German sex educator and feminist. Her sexological work focused primarily on female sexuality. Hite built upon biological studies of sex by Masters and Johnson and by Alfred ...

Writings

Hood gained a reputation as a translator, beginning with

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...

's '' On the Marble Cliffs'' in 1946. He also translated

Erich Fried Erich Fried (6 May 1921 – 22 November 1988) was an Austrian-born poet, writer, and translator. He initially became known to a broader public in both Germany and Austria for his political poetry, and later for his love poems. As a writer, he mo ...

Aldo Busi Aldo Busi (born 25 February 1948) is a contemporary Italian writer and translator, famous for his linguistic invention and for his polemic force as well as for some prestigious translations from English, German and ancient Italian that include Jo ...

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

Dino Buzzati Dino Buzzati-Traverso (; 14 October 1906 – 28 January 1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for ''Corriere della Sera''. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel ''The Tartar Ste ...

Goffredo Parise Goffredo Parise (8 December 1929 in Vicenza – 31 August 1986 in Treviso) was an Italian writer, journalist, and screenwriter. He won the Viareggio Prize in 1965 for his novel ''Il padrone'' ''(The Boss)'' and the Strega Prize in 1982 for ''S ...

and

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

. His first book, ''The Circle of the Minotaur'' appeared in 1950. It contained two novels: ''The Circle of the Minotaur'' itself and ''The Fisherman's Daughter''. It was followed by another novel, ''Since the Fall'', in 1955. ''Pebbles from My Skull'', about the time he spent with partisans in war-time Italy, was published in 1963 (Hutchinson) and revised in 1985 (Carcanet). He wrote several books that analyze and critique the broadcasting industry, including ''A Survey of Television'' (1967), ''The Mass Media'' (Studies in Contemporary Europe) (1972), ''Radio and Television'' (Professions) (1975), ''Questions of Broadcasting'' with Garret O'Leary (1990), ''Behind the Screens: The Structure of British Television'' (1994), and ''On Television'' with Thalia Tabary-Peterssen (1997). He also wrote some more novels, including ''A Storm From Paradise'' (1985), ''The Upper Hand'' (1987) and ''A Den of Foxes'' (1991). Hood also translated the anti-Nazi German novelist

Theodor Plievier Theodor Otto Richard Plievier (Plivier, until 1933) (12 February 1892, Berlin – 12 March 1955, Avegno, Switzerland) was a German writer and communist, best known for his 1948 anti-war novel . During World War I, he served on the '' SMS Wolf'' ...

's novel ''Moscow'', which shows the 1941 Battle of Moscow from both German and Soviet perspectives.

References

External links

BBC video interview with Hood, 1961
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hood, Stuart 1915 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British translators 20th-century Scottish novelists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh BBC One controllers British Army officers British Army personnel of World War II British World War II prisoners of war Communist Party of Great Britain members Scottish male novelists Scottish novelists Scottish translators Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members World War II prisoners of war held by Italy