The investigative journalist Roger Cook, best known for the current affairs programme The Cook Report, has died aged 83, his family has said.
Cook was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia where he began his broadcasting career before moving to the UK in 1968. His distinctive style of investigative journalism, based on confronting and exposing criminals and conmen, began in the form of the BBC Radio 4 show Checkpoint, which he created in the 1970s.
Cook has been credited with pioneering the TV doorstep confrontation format, which would later become a staple of on-screen news reporting.
In 1981 during a report for BBC Newsnight, Cook was beaten with a metal bar by an antiques dealer he had exposed with his undercover investigation.
He would later take his journalism to the nation’s TV screens when the Cook Report launched on ITV in 1987 and ran until 1999. Over its 16 series, the show, which attracted up to 12 million viewers at its peak, exposed a wide range of corruption and injustice.
Examples of investigations by the show include programmes on protection rackets in Northern Ireland, the adoption trade in Guatemala and the infected blood scandal.
His undercover stings also led to police investigations and criminal convictions, including its exposé on a huge money laundering scheme by the notorious criminal Johnny “Goldfinger” Palmer, which contributed to him being handed an eight-year jail sentence years later for timeshare fraud.
In 1997, Cook was given a special Bafta award for 25 years of outstanding investigative reporting.
He later became a target of the tabloid press. In 2000, he sued the News of the World for its claims that he had faked scenes in his programmes and even conspired with criminals to set up easily solvable crimes. Two years later, he settled his libel action with the Sunday paper after it admitted its reporting was wrong and should never have been published.
A statement from ITV on Monday said: “In a career spanning an incredible five decades, Roger Cook’s ground-breaking approach to investigative journalism made him one of broadcasting’s most trusted and respected figures. On his eponymous current affairs programme, The Cook Report, Roger worked tirelessly to expose criminal wrongdoing and injustice, helping to drive important and lasting changes in the law.
“His fearless contribution to journalism will long be remembered, and we send our deepest sympathies and condolences to his wife, family and friends at this difficult time.”
