The Cook Report

Roger Cook was an Australian who came over to the UK and originally did a program on the radio called checkpoint which eventually became the cook report on TV. This was a consumer program with a bit of a difference. Forget Watchdog, Thats Life and anything else like that this was very aggressive TV journalism. Roger would be investigating something or someone, usually a very controversial subject, and was utterly fearless in the way he pursued his quarry. There was then the microphone stuck under the persons nose with a comment such as 'I am Roger Cook, Central Television, our viewers need some questions answered.' More often than not he usually got beaten up by the people he was trying to interview ..... in fact, that was probably the reason most people watched it !!

This U. K. TV series ran from the late 1980s to the late 1990s.

Roger Cook was an investigative journalist who was not afraid to take some really tough subjects.

The show's format was to have undercover journalists investigate a case from the inside and record secret footage. When they had enough evidence, Roger would appear with a camera crew and confront the perpetrators - who would deny the allegations and often lash out at Roger. He would then turn the footage over to the relevant authorities to investigate.

Some of the subjects he tackled were particularly harrowing (child pornography, the ivory trade and big game hunting) and some took years to come to justice (Hillsborough and the contaminated blood scandal). These programmes showed that the people behind the scandals would not go unchecked.

I can't believe that ITV stopped commissioning this programme (for budget reasons). Ross Kemp hosted a similar, modern day programme (Ross Kemp on...) but Roger's personality and tenacity are what made The Cook Report so watchable.