John Hough (director)

After many credits as a second unit director on The Baron, The Avengers and The Champions, he took his first job as a director on the 1968 season of The Avengers, directing episodes such as "Super Secret Cypher Snatch" and "Homicide and Old Lace".

"ITC was a very special place to work in," he said later. "And the people cared. Instead of asking you to do it quicker and with less quality, they'd push you to excel yourself. It was creative and interesting, but very disciplined. It was like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel on a nine-to-five contract."[2]

His TV work led to a TV pilot for a proposed Robin Hood TV show, Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood in 1969. Even though the series never materialised, the pilot was picked up by Hammer Films, which distributed it theatrically.

"That one sank without trace," Hough recalled in the notes for his biography on the DVD of his 1980 film The Watcher in the Woods, "but in 1970 a Hollywood producer named Paul Maslanksy came over here looking for a new director to work on a remake of The Window (1949), in which a young boy is the sole witness to a murder and is then tracked down by the assassin."[3]

The film Eyewitness (1970) was well received; Hammer then approached him to make the final film in its erotic vampire horror 'Karnstein' trilogy, Twins of Evil (1971).

Hough moved to Hollywood, wanting to direct for Disney.[4]

Hough's career then hit an unexpected slump. He spent a year and a half at Columbia and a year and a half at Disney preparing films which ultimately were not made. He made no films for three years. "I had to sort of rebuild my career again," he said.[4]

He later directed three of the TV movies in the 1984 anthology series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.

He did a series of films based on Barbara Cartland novels starting with A Hazard of Hearts.[5]

He directed Something to Believe In (1998) for Lew Grade.[6]

• The Fan Club (1974) – for Lawrence Gordon at Columbia Pictures based on novel by Irwin Wallace.[7]
• Poe – about Edgar Allan Poe (1976)[8]