Born into a wealthy shipping family in Liverpool, Woods was educated at the exclusive Downside School in Somerset before enrolling to study medicine at Christ's College, Cambridge at the behest of his father.
Many of his films involved collaborations with producer Irving Asher, cinematographer Basil Emmott and screenwriter Brock Williams, while another frequent association was with actress Chili Bouchier.
Woods...takes the workmanlike story of a petty criminal...and invests it with an atmosphere of unrelenting wind, rain and gloom which makes the average American film noir look bright and breezy by comparison.
"[4] Woods' reputation was further enhanced by the 1939 spy drama Q Planes (co-directed with Tim Whelan) and his final film Busman's Honeymoon, a Dorothy L. Sayers adaptation.
Woods and his pilot Norwegian Jan Otto Bugge were flying a de Havilland Mosquito night fighter when it collided with a Vickers Wellington and crashed at Emsworth, killing them both.