View Full Version : Does anyone remember the TV programme 'The Cook Report'?
Just asking this as yesterday evening I stumbled across this old episode of the programme from April 1991 titled 'Hot Dog Wars' on YouTube.
In that particular episode, Roger Cook exposed 'illegal' hot dog/fast food vendors who were not only involved in organised criminal gangs but were also sabotaging and attacking fully 'legit' hot dog/fast food vendors, including the mention of one particular high-profile incident in Leicester the previous year (1990) that involved a murder. All very heavy (and indeed cringeworthy) stuff that I was totally unaware of at the time (nearly 14 years old) but would totally creep me out if there were regular reports of such things happening today, let alone all the usual knife crime stuff.
That Roger Cook was surely a brave man and must have really had a thick skin in order to successfully confront and help to bring to justice a lot of the psycho sh1tebags of the UK's criminal underworld. A true genius and a hero!
I once had to deal with a museum enquiry from Roger Cook. He was exceptionally rude to me when I was trying my best to help him out.
I once had to deal with a museum enquiry from Roger Cook. He was exceptionally rude to me when I was trying my best to help him out.
Sounds like you had a spot of bad luck there BI.
Mind you, he could come across as rather forceful, plod-like and intimidating on occasions, and rumour has it that he eventually bottled out of doing the series due to being on the receiving end of a number of death threats later on, so inevitably the programme was rendered untenable by the end of the 90s. In fact, he even got duffed up on the odd occasions by some of the villains he had his run-ins with.
But it was edgy, groundbreaking, hard-hitting stuff during its 12 years on air, albeit cringeworthy on occasions.
I bet nobody in TV land would really have anywhere near the same amount of guts to do such programmes like 'The Cook Report', 'World In Action', and various others of that particular ilk today.
Panicattacka
29-11-22, 03:17
The guy was a self-righteous, grandstanding blowhard. Typical super ego TV 'journalist'. I wish he'd gone away sooner.
Weirdly we were talking about him the other day.
"A cross between Meatloaf and the Equalizer". :roflmao:
Sounds about right, Nora. I was quite excited to work with him at first. Then I told him we had limited information, he requested a paid search anyway and then got very narky indeed because the information I gave him was, indeed, limited.
Sounds like you had a spot of bad luck there BI.
Mind you, he could come across as rather forceful, plod-like and intimidating on occasions, and rumour has it that he eventually bottled out of doing the series due to being on the receiving end of a number of death threats later on, so inevitably the programme was rendered untenable by the end of the 90s. In fact, he even got duffed up on the odd occasions by some of the villains he had his run-ins with.
But it was edgy, groundbreaking, hard-hitting stuff during its 12 years on air, albeit cringeworthy on occasions.
I bet nobody in TV land would really have anywhere near the same amount of guts to do such programmes like 'The Cook Report', 'World In Action', and various others of that particular ilk today.
No, not bad luck, he was definitely a tw@. He was a rich, powerful man crapping on a minimum wage employee who was doing her best. That's definitely ****tery.
I remember this lencoboy. Quite shocking but revealing a lot of crooks and fakes. As you say, quite alarming to watch at times.
On a similar note, I also remember Central Weekend Live on ITV on Friday evenings in the late 80s and through the 90s, where certain audience members and even some guests sometimes used to whip each other up into a frenzy and end up behaving like animals, which could also be dead cringeworthy and indeed embarrassing on such occasions.
I bet many audience participants who ended up causing epic rucks on some episodes of CW Live no doubt revelled in their 'fifteen minutes of fame' on live TV.
CW Live and the aforementioned 'Cook Report' were two of the finest examples of 'confrontation porn', especially during the late pre-Internet era.
ankietyjoe
29-11-22, 19:31
'confrontation porn'
I was struggling to think of a witty phrase to describe my thoughts of that programme, but you perfected it here.
For me this was the beginning of the downfall of genuinely investagative journalism/TV.
The British Shock Jock.
I was struggling to think of a witty phrase to describe my thoughts of that programme, but you perfected it here.
For me this was the beginning of the downfall of genuinely investagative journalism/TV.
The British Shock Jock.
I think you're right there, AJ.
I think the producers also felt obliged to keep upping the ante in terms of 'shock value' as the 90s wore on, with nearly everything being pushed to the max, while at the same time trying to appeal to (and inadvertently exploit) the 'lowest common denominators' of our society.
Nearly everything in popular culture nowadays seems so trite, boring, hackneyed and unoriginal, and I think the early 90s onwards was when the rot first started IMO.
There's also the irony of 'PC-gawn-mad' nowadays.
MyNameIsTerry
01-12-22, 06:59
I used to watch it. It was certainly different to what I was used to seeing and there was some excitement to it.
TV is competition remember, you won't keep those ratings up and earn money with the same old tired formats. And like every generation for you I bet they all said the same about the slide of society. It's going to flow with current trends or die. The good thing is...we have remote controls and different channels :yesyes:
I think the producers also felt obliged to keep upping the ante in terms of 'shock value' as the 90s wore on, with nearly everything being pushed to the max, while at the same time trying to appeal to (and inadvertently exploit) the 'lowest common denominators' of our society.
Remember Jerry Springer and all those, 'I'm in love with my Grandma (And we're going to have a baby) type episodes? Chairs flying all over the place and punches being thrown? (And the audience absolutely loving it).
MyNameIsTerry
01-12-22, 14:15
Remember Jerry Springer and all those, 'I'm in love with my Grandma (And we're going to have a baby) type episodes? Chairs flying all over the place and punches being thrown? (And the audience absolutely loving it).
And the infamous reveals "we've done sexual stuff but...he doesn't know I'm really a man" :roflmao:
There were often twists. The cheater comes on on to confess and the partner is knocking her sister off.
I used to watch it. It was certainly different to what I was used to seeing and there was some excitement to it.
TV is competition remember, you won't keep those ratings up and earn money with the same old tired formats. And like every generation for you I bet they all said the same about the slide of society. It's going to flow with current trends or die. The good thing is...we have remote controls and different channels :yesyes:
Yes, many viewers no doubt felt a bit of a sense of 'voyeurism' when watching it at the time. Ditto for Crimewatch UK back in the 80s and 90s, which still does sometimes come on but in the mornings rather than post-watershed, so is obviously a bit more toned down now compared to what it once was.
And you're right that people have been bemoaning the so-called 'malaise' of our society and have also uttering expressions like 'kids today have no respect', etc, for eons now.
I came across another episode on YouTube today of 'TCR' from 1993 about car 'ringers' where organised crooks managed to weld each 'half' of two matching stolen cars of the same make and model together, and ended up selling them on to unscrupulous second-hand car dealers where they (the 'modded' cars) presented as death-traps for the eventual buying customers.
I wonder if people still do that sort of thing to vehicles today?
On a similar note, I also remember Central Weekend Live on ITV on Friday evenings in the late 80s and through the 90s, where certain audience members and even some guests sometimes used to whip each other up into a frenzy and end up behaving like animals, which could also be dead cringeworthy and indeed embarrassing on such occasions.
I bet many audience participants who ended up causing epic rucks on some episodes of CW Live no doubt revelled in their 'fifteen minutes of fame' on live TV.
CW Live and the aforementioned 'Cook Report' were two of the finest examples of 'confrontation porn', especially during the late pre-Internet era.
With the current trend of reviving old TV programmes, I doubt very much if they would be able to resurrect 'The Cook Report' nor 'Central Weekend Live' (or equivalents) today, especially as both shows became a bit too raucous and OTT as the 90s wore on; hence both having been taken off air completely by the early 2000s.
Then again we did have the Jeremy Kyle Show that followed in the 2000s and 2010s which in turn seemed to be a magnet for the dregs of our society in pursuit of their '15 mins of fame' that was also abruptly cancelled in 2019 for similar reasons to CWL.
Of course we still have raunchy/edgy programmes like Love Island and of course Big Brother that recently made a comeback after a 5-year hiatus, where certain sadcases are prepared to humiliate themselves on TV. And not forgetting IAC that both Nigel Farage and Matt Hancock have humiliated themselves even further by appearing on over the past year.
Can we just have it on the record that Jeremy Kyle is, in fact, a dreg himself, and an exploitative one at that? There are some documentaries explaining what went on, and while I wouldn't have wanted some of the guests as my neighbours, I don't think any of them ever drove anybody to suicide.
Can we just have it on the record that Jeremy Kyle is, in fact, a dreg himself, and an exploitative one at that? There are some documentaries explaining what went on, and while I wouldn't have wanted some of the guests as my neighbours, I don't think any of them ever drove anybody to suicide.
Hence why the Jeremy Kyle Show is such a lousy programme and should remain consigned to history where it clearly belongs.
Quite a few people I know are of the opinion that CWL was quite good and interesting in its earlier years (late 80s and early 90s) but unfortunately got hijacked by the boisterous rabble-rousing mob element which basically brought said show into perpetual disrepute which consequently culminated in its ending in 2001.
As for TCR, Cook being very up himself by nature (as you implied upthread BI) no doubt heavily contributed to the eventual demise of said programme.
He also came across as a bit 'militarised' on occasions.
A couple of years ago I watched an episode of TCR on YouTube from the 90s about certain pubs in the Gtr Manchester area (Salford I think) being turned over by violent protection racketeering gangs which were eventually forced to close, even with innocent punters attacked themselves. Dead cringeworthy and terrifying, and thank God I never had the misfortune to go anywhere near those hellholes!
It didn't say the original airdate or year of said episode on YouTube, but it was no doubt around the time of Manchester being nicknamed 'Gunchester' (and likewise, Nottingham subsequently being nicknamed 'Shottingham').
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