Roger Cook, the award-winning investigative journalist behind The Cook Report, has died aged 83 after a short illness, his family confirmed.
Roger Cook, the award-winning investigative journalist whose bruising television investigations helped define a generation of current affairs reporting, has died aged 83 after a short illness, his family has confirmed.
Cook, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, became one of British broadcasting’s most recognisable investigative reporters through ITV’s The Cook Report , which ran from 1987 to 1999. He was widely credited with popularising the doorstep interview, a confrontational method that put alleged wrongdoers directly in front of a camera and a reporter’s questions.
In a family statement, Cook was remembered as “first and foremost a beloved husband and father” as well as a journalist with a distinguished career. “He will be deeply missed by all of us, and we ask for privacy as we navigate this difficult loss,” the statement said.
ITV, which broadcast The Cook Report , praised what it called Cook’s “groundbreaking approach to investigative journalism” and said it had made him “one of broadcasting’s most trusted and respected figures.” The broadcaster said he worked to expose criminal wrongdoing and injustice and helped drive lasting changes in the law.
Cook won a Bafta special award for “25 years of outstanding quality investigative reporting” for his current affairs work. At its peak, his investigations drew audiences of more than 12 million.
His reporting often carried personal risk. Cook took on alleged criminals and conmen in Britain and abroad, and his work landed him in hospital around 30 times. During one doorstep interview in 1981, he suffered three broken ribs after being attacked by an alleged car thief with a baseball bat. At another point, police said a hitman had been hired to kill him.
Before his long run on ITV, Cook moved to the UK in the late 1960s and worked at BBC Radio 4 on programmes including The World At One , PM , Checkpoint and The World This Weekend . His investigations later covered subjects including child abuse, protection rackets in Northern Ireland, baby trading in Brazil, the illicit ivory trade, weapons-grade plutonium on the Russian black market, illegal immigration, war criminals in Bosnia and terror attacks.
Cook acknowledged that he disliked the doorstep format but defended it as necessary. In an interview with Ruth Wishart on Life Behind the News , he said the aim was not aggression for its own sake, but to stand in front of those accused of harming others and ask: “What do you have to say to them?”
He also published several books, including the autobiography Dangerous Ground . His forceful reporting style became influential enough to be parodied by comedians including Reeves and Mortimer and Sir Stephen Fry.
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