Head of Programmes (English), BBC Wales

Clare Hudson is BBC Wales' Head of Programmes (English), based in Cardiff.

She was born in London. After attending university in Bristol, she trained as a journalist on a local weekly newspaper in a Yorkshire mining community. After travelling in the Soviet Union, China and the Far East, she came to Wales to work on the investigative magazine Rebecca. She then worked as sub-editor, reporter and presenter for BBC Wales, she joined HTV Wales in 1988 as a reporter on Wales This Week, an investigative current affairs programme. An award-winning journalist, she was appointed as the programme's editor in 1994 before taking up the role of Head of Network Factual Development at HTV Wales in February 1999. In this role, she executive produced factual programmes for C4 and Channel Five. She was appointed Head of Programmes (English), BBC Wales in June 2000.

In her role as Head of Programmes (English) Clare Hudson commissions around 750 hours of television a year, in all the main genres including drama, targeted at audiences in Wales, out of a budget of £24m per year. She also has overall responsibility for the delivery of BBC Wales's network television production for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four - the slate includes Doctor Who and Torchwood - and for the delivery of a range of output for the BBC's radio networks. Clare also takes a keen interest in the creative development of talent within BBC Wales, and within the independent sector, and sees this as a key part of her role. She line manages the key creative leaders who deliver BBC Wales's TV output - about 35 people in all.

Clare has a B.A degree in English and Philosophy from Bristol University (2:1), and a M.Sc.Econ from University of Wales in Media Studies. Her Masters Dissertation was about Western News Coverage of Developing Countries. She has travelled extensively in Europe, India, China, Japan, North America and North Africa, and has made TV programmes in the Horn of Africa and in South Africa.