Hood's father was an infant school headmaster, firstly in Edzell and then in Montrose. After school the son attended the University of Edinburgh between 1934 and 1938.

During the Second World War he 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, and a revised version in 1985. This 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. He became the overall Controller of BBC Television in 1963 with the preparations for the launch of BBC Two, with his former assistant Donald Baverstock working under him to Control BBC One and Michael Peacock doing the same for the new channel.

On resigning from the BBC, he worked briefly at Rediffusion London as Controller.

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 Socialist Labour League between 1973 and 1978.

Hood is known as a translator, beginning with Ernst Jünger's On the Marble Cliffs" in 1946. He also translated Erich Fried, Dario Fo and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

'Pebbles from My Skull' about the partisans in war-time Italy, was published in 1963 (Hutchinson) and revised in 1985 (Carcanet).

He has also written 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 has also written the novels A Storm From Paradise (1985) and The Upper Hand (1987).