Overview
- Roger Cook died peacefully on Saturday with his wife and daughter at his bedside, his family said in a statement released on Monday.
- ITV paid tribute to a five-decade career that made Cook one of broadcasting’s most trusted investigative reporters and said his work helped drive important changes in the law.
- Cook rose from radio to television after joining the BBC in the late 1960s, creating Radio 4’s Checkpoint before fronting ITV’s The Cook Report from 1987 to 1999, a series that won a BAFTA in 1997.
- He used staged stings and undercover confrontations to expose criminals and con artists, a style that brought large audiences but also exposed reporters to physical danger.
- Colleagues and broadcasters have flooded social media with tributes, and his death leaves a legacy that will shape how TV investigations are produced and how the public holds power to account.