Easily the most-watched investigative reporter on British TV and arguably the bravest. Roger Cook’s programmes were the stuff of legend.
Roger was brought up in Australia, where he began his broadcasting career as a radio and television reporter/newsreader for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, Roger started work with BBC Radio 4 as a reporter on The World at One. He went on to present both The World at One and also the PM Programme.
In 1973 he created Checkpoint, the investigative radio programme that he produced and presented for 12 years. He is widely credited with originating a whole new genre of broadcasting.
The Cook Report:
Roger joined ITV in 1985 and the ground-breaking Cook Report was born. For 16 series, Roger travelled tens of thousands of miles a year in pursuit of criminals, con-men and corrupt officials. For the whole of its long run, the series was by far the most popular current affairs programme on TV. Often his audience approached ten million.
Amongst its many firsts, The Cook Report exposed the likes of child pornography, Northern Ireland protection rackets, baby trading in Brazil and the illicit ivory trade. He looked at illegal immigration, war criminals in Bosnia and those behind 9/11 and other terrorist plots. Roger Cook also exposed the Russian black market in weapons-grade plutonium. In all, there were more than 120 episodes. A number of them were followed by successful police prosecutions or major changes in the law. In the pursuit of justice and in the course of making those programmes, he was injured numerous times. Roger made physical and journalistic fearlessness his trademark.
He has been much imitated, but Roger Cook has never been equalled. He has won 11 major national and also international awards. These culminated in a BAFTA Special Award ‘For 25 years of outstanding quality investigative reporting’. A more recent accolade was an RTS award in 2012 for the best current affairs programme.
For nearly two decades, Roger has also been Visiting Professor (and latterly Emeritus Professor) at the Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism at Nottingham Trent University and was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 2004.
Book:
From the hilarious but also to the hair-raising, Roger has many a tale to tell. All from a unique career spanning more than 40 years as a globe-trotting investigative reporter. Now, with the launch of the latest edition of his memoirs “More Dangerous Ground”, you have a chance to meet the man and also acquire a personally signed copy of the book.
Book Roger Cook to speak at your after dinner event or conference by clicking on the Enquire Now link below