Peter Woods (journalist)

British journalist, reporter and newsreader (1930–1995)

Peter Holmes Woods (7 November 1930 – 22 March 1995) was a British journalist, reporter and newsreader. He was one of the BBC's best known broadcasters of his day. He was the biological father of BBC broadcaster Justin Webb.

Born in Romford, Essex, Woods was educated at Hull Grammar School and Imperial Service College, Windsor.

Woods began his career in print journalism, writing for newspapers including The Yorkshire Post, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, with a break for National Service as a commissioned officer in the Royal Horse Guards. In 1956 while a reporter for a British national newspaper Woods dropped by parachute with 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment and landed under fire at El Gamil Airfield near Port Said during the Suez Crisis. He was the only civilian to drop with British parachute forces in the conflict. He is best remembered for his television work for BBC 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 BBC 2, 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. Webb commented that the separation may have been as much his mother's doing as his father's, saying "I do not believe she was abandoned". Woods provided financially for Webb and supported his education at Sidcot School, but saw him only once, when he was six months old.