The Cook Report

[shoulders]

Having binge watched these I reckon the programme name should have been 'Fuck With This Bastard'

[PlanktonSideburns]

The thumbnail for this one is truly special

Robbie coltraine CANCELLED

[shoulders]

Lol

[Indomitable Spirit]

Amazing how dressing up like an Arab sheikh was seen as a completely necessary part of investigative journalism in the 90s and we all just went with it.

[The Culture Bunker]

Quite enjoyed it when Vic Reeves beat him up while calling him an "interfering get".

[Yussef Dent]

Quite enjoyed it when Vic Reeves beat him up while calling him an "interfering get".

"Cut!"
"Yeah, quite badly too."

[Enzo]

Amazing how dressing up like an Arab sheikh was seen as a completely necessary part of investigative journalism in the 90s and we all just went with it.

That trick was still being pulled within the last decade

[mippy]

Am I right in thinking that he had a hidden camera system that was basically a holdall with a hole cut in it for the lens?

Will have to watch some of these as I was very young when many of them were on and mostly remember it as the programme where the presenter used to get attacked a lot.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Quite enjoyed it when Vic Reeves beat him up while calling him an "interfering get".

Is this the actual Reeves, or some villain looking like him?

[Norton Canes]

Am I right in thinking that he had a hidden camera system that was basically a holdall with a hole cut in it for the lens?

I think that's how a lot of 'roving reporter' hidden camera stuff was done back in the day

Will have to watch some of these as I was very young when many of them were on and mostly remember it as the programme where the presenter used to get attacked a lot

It's the main reason most people watched it. The actual stories were very secondary.

[The Culture Bunker]

Is this the actual Reeves, or some villain looking like him?

Nah, just referring to a sketch from 'The Smell of...' where we get to see "behind the scenes" of the R&M factory and a Cook lookalike turns up to uncover some of Vic's dubious activities.

[George White]

Roger Cook then. I've been watching a bunch of them on YouTube. Absolutely love him.

Hot Dog! Remember that time when you could cash in your savings and start your own business? Some proper horrible scammers in this episode. 10/10 for Rog's disguise.

Triads in Manchester. Not for the feint hearted.

Perhaps the most notorious episode. If the subject matter wasn't so grim it'd be hilarious. It's basically the Brass Eye Paedogedon episode.

The Triads ep is astonishing too, down to the (possibly Patrick Allen-narrated) Hong Kong PIF about Triads.

[George White]

Turns out there was an ITV drama about Persico, Thompson and the Hot Dog Wars. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1648329/

[Tony Yeboah]

True or false: Nosey parker Roger Cook has never done anything wrong in his life?

[popcorn]

Yea, it's one of those "I really shouldn't laugh" moments.

The opening credits are marvellous. Dead exciting music, clips of him fighting whilst his cig burns in his ashtray.

Love the urgent shots of his arse climbing the floors.

[popcorn]

Hot Dog! Remember that time when you could cash in your savings and start your own business? Some proper horrible scammers in this episode. 10/10 for Rog's disguise.

I've never seen any of these. I just watched all of this episode. The sequence at 4:00 of him going undercover as smoky sax music plays is incredible.

[McDead]

I genuinely love that he has a big fat arse, a rare sight on TV these days.

[anton dick]

Roger Thicc 🍑

[Bingo Fury]

I was walking through Edinburgh Airport at some point during the '90s and saw Roger Cook making a beeline for me. Of course, he just happened to be heading in my direction and strode straight past, but I had a very panicked few seconds trying to figure out what I'd done that would make me a target for him.

Similarly, spotting an approaching Peter Tatchell on the Royal Mile. He'd recently been in the news for disrupting church services and similar stunts, and I had a terrible moment thinking was that he was about to chain me to a pillar box or something.

[jobotic]

That hot dog one is brilliant. The bloke who "weighs in" at 25 stone who has hot dogs made of flowers at his funeral. Nobby Anderson and the next bloke who seem to both be played by Michael Caine. The Moustache.

[McDead]

The Close Encounters episode is genuinely eerie, hauntological stuff with no easy explanation. The poor old bastard at the centre of the story seems positively irradiated with fear and exhaustion.

[George White]

The Close Encounters episode is genuinely eerie, hauntological stuff with no easy explanation. The poor old bastard at the centre of the story seems positively irradiated with fear and exhaustion.

The Satanic child abuse one too, interview with leading American satanist Michael Aquino (who I learnt had been advisor on one of US B-movie/Grizzly director William Girdler's first films, Asylum of Satan).