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"I'm Roger Cook from Central Television", a familiar TV journalist uses a familiar TV catchphrase; a man who what one would think as the equivalent of a celebrity bailiff if they really do exist in teal life. A very familiar looking man tries to put the "boot-in-the-door" approach and tries to push his way into a dwelling belonging to some unsavory hasbeen, probably exposed by the News of the World (that sort of type); the leader of the pack is followed by his camera and sound recordist crew for he was part of the inside invesigations of The Cook Report; a show that I used to take its title too literally at first as I thought that it was similar to Food and Drink - i.e. reporting about cooks. Roger Cook, the man himself, has died at the age of 83 - one assumes that his death was completely unconnected to his experiences on the programme but certainly more to be natural causes. Those that he confronted back in the day would probably think "rot in hell" to the man in receipt of his demise, and if we ever saw anyone be nice to him and treat him as a gentleman, then Central seldomly ever televised it.
Cook was born in New Zealand in 1943 and in the UK he presented investiagtive journamism programmes for Radio 4 and also for Central Television, becoming one of the co-presenters of the Friday night, just-after-News-at-Ten series Central Weekend in 1986, where he also appeared on the show a couple of years after he ceased presenting, in a debate about cot deaths. A year later in July 1987 The Cook Report began which was almost a spin-off of the weekend show; it was pre-watershed lasted until as late as 1999, and Cook's experience of it was something that most people wouldn't even dream of. He presented as someone who, shall we say, had he have worked at London Zoo, he would have got into the lion's cage to feed the animals himself. He was so confrontational either delibately or incidently.
As a person who lived in inner-city Nottingham and went to school there in the 1980s and early 1990s, I was used to be bullied for being different, assaulted (punched in the face and stomach, and being kicked in the groin was the usual speciality, never mind the old sticks and stones situation), and God knows what, and I was also spat at in such a way that the late Roy Hattersley's Spitting Image puppet could never have done so. It seemed that the late Roger Cook had experienced identical if not the same reactions to an average inner-city person in the system who was being bullied at schoool during his stint working during his Cook Report programme. In an interview for a Sunday newspaper in the mid 1990s he had revealed that he had every bone in his body broken at least once, and that he was lucky that he had not ended up in a wheelchair or at least on crutches. On an edition of Have I Got News For You, the then permenant host Angus Deayton also made reference to Cook's assaults and the perceived "walked into a door" and so-called "swept under the carpet" accidents, and that Cook was "sick of being beated up". Deayton then suggested that he should have been replaced by Jeremy Beadle in his Beadle's About persona.
He was parodied, and even Benny Hill did a "Bentral Television" [sic] sketch for his show in the late 1980s just before his contract with Thames TV was terminated for being too sexist and misogynist. In 1993 Paul Merton did a series of Cook Report-alike parodies to advertise Imperial Leather soap. "For another ten quid we could have had Robert Hardy". Roger Cook is not to be confused with the British songwriter who is still with us in 2026 at the age of 85 and was born before the journalist was.
He had guts, that is what I can say about him. And he wasn't a wimp either.
Cook was born in New Zealand in 1943 and in the UK he presented investiagtive journamism programmes for Radio 4 and also for Central Television, becoming one of the co-presenters of the Friday night, just-after-News-at-Ten series Central Weekend in 1986, where he also appeared on the show a couple of years after he ceased presenting, in a debate about cot deaths. A year later in July 1987 The Cook Report began which was almost a spin-off of the weekend show; it was pre-watershed lasted until as late as 1999, and Cook's experience of it was something that most people wouldn't even dream of. He presented as someone who, shall we say, had he have worked at London Zoo, he would have got into the lion's cage to feed the animals himself. He was so confrontational either delibately or incidently.
As a person who lived in inner-city Nottingham and went to school there in the 1980s and early 1990s, I was used to be bullied for being different, assaulted (punched in the face and stomach, and being kicked in the groin was the usual speciality, never mind the old sticks and stones situation), and God knows what, and I was also spat at in such a way that the late Roy Hattersley's Spitting Image puppet could never have done so. It seemed that the late Roger Cook had experienced identical if not the same reactions to an average inner-city person in the system who was being bullied at schoool during his stint working during his Cook Report programme. In an interview for a Sunday newspaper in the mid 1990s he had revealed that he had every bone in his body broken at least once, and that he was lucky that he had not ended up in a wheelchair or at least on crutches. On an edition of Have I Got News For You, the then permenant host Angus Deayton also made reference to Cook's assaults and the perceived "walked into a door" and so-called "swept under the carpet" accidents, and that Cook was "sick of being beated up". Deayton then suggested that he should have been replaced by Jeremy Beadle in his Beadle's About persona.
He was parodied, and even Benny Hill did a "Bentral Television" [sic] sketch for his show in the late 1980s just before his contract with Thames TV was terminated for being too sexist and misogynist. In 1993 Paul Merton did a series of Cook Report-alike parodies to advertise Imperial Leather soap. "For another ten quid we could have had Robert Hardy". Roger Cook is not to be confused with the British songwriter who is still with us in 2026 at the age of 85 and was born before the journalist was.
He had guts, that is what I can say about him. And he wasn't a wimp either.