Hugh has a strong award-winning record as an ambitious film-maker, often with a rock and roll twist, and with what the Observer described as 'a daring commando-style'. With a background as a cameraman, he has often shot sections of his films himself and has constantly re-invented his documentary approach. His acclaimed Dancing in the Street: A Rock and Roll History won many plaudits - and a BAFTA nomination. John Peel said of his Indian Journeys series with the writer William Dalrymple that it was 'as wonderful a film as I have ever watched' - it went on to win the Grierson Prize for Best Documentary Series.

As a freelance, he has made films for the BBC, C4, Granada and PBS Nova. As well as adventurous, challenging films in difficult conditions, as in a C4 Dispatches Special on Afghanistan, he has specialised in making 'authored' films with presenters such as William Dalrymple, Joanna Lumley and Jonathan Dimbleby in which they put forward their view of a subject: the BBC's recent flagship series Dimbleby's Russia was a good example of this.

He is also a successful writer, as the author of several books published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which include The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland, Nanda Devi and Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru. His most recent book is Tequila Oil, a memoir about getting lost in Mexico when he was eighteen. It was chosen by R4 to be serialised as their Book of the Week.