In the nineteen eighties the popular press often ran stories of how British fugitives from justice were living it up on the Costa del Sol. They could do so with impunity because extradition procedures between Britain and Spain simply didn’t work. However, the stories were never pursued further until the Cook Report took them up on what became known as the Costa del Crime.
Rodger Cook investigates Child Pornography
Roger Cook investigates the likely cover up behind the strange goings-on at two different properties in the west of England.
Rodger Cook investigates Who Cares?
In Northern Ireland during ‘the troubles’ paramilitaries on both sides made most of their money not from bank robberies or donations from America, but from extortion on building sites. And since at that time most of the building work was carried out on behalf of the Government, the British taxpayer was inadvertently funding terrorists. Builders who refused to pay protection money had their sites sabotaged, their equipment and materials trashed or stolen and their staff threatened and sometimes even murdered. Indeed, one of the programme’s brave informants, Jack Kielty, father of the popular comedian and TV host Patrick, sadly suffered that very fate. In the first of many TV stings, the Cook Report filmed an armed UDA brigadier demanding money from its presenter for ‘protecting’ a major, but fictitious development. In the court case that followed, Brigadier Eddie Sayers was sent down for ten years, largely on Cook Report evidence. The programme returned to investigate both UDA and IRA
Rodger Cook investigates Fraud
Rodger Cook investigates The Baby Trade
In the late eighties, the American-based multi-national pharmaceutical company Wyeth, promoted its new tranquiliser, Ativan, as being non-addictive and virtually side effect free. This was far from the truth – and one Cook Report viewer offered to help the programme prove it. Ada Niesyty had been prescribed the drug for mild depression following the death of her husband, but had quickly become addicted and had suffered such frightening and debilitating side-effects that she decided to wean herself off it. However, even her GP found it hard to believe how much more debilitating were the results of attempting to do just that.
Rodger Cook investigates Badgered to Death
As the British Expeditionary Force retreated towards Dunkirk at the end of May 1940, a group of soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, fought an heroic rear-guard action to delay advancing German troops threatening the mass evacuation. Their actions gave the allies an extra 24 hours and saved many lives. Eventually, having run out of ammunition, they surrendered to soldiers from the Waffen SS, assuming that they would be taken prisoner according to the Geneva Convention. Instead, nearly a hundred men – mostly from the Warwicks – were herded into a small barn near the little town of Wormhoudt. The SS then threw grenades into the building, killing most of those inside and then machine gunning them for good measure. Miraculously, a few men survived to tell the terrible tale.
Rodger Cook Series 2 Update
Rodger Cook investigates Going Home
In this first episode of a new series, Roger Cook investigates the ivory trade from East Africa to carving in Dubai and markets in Hong Kong.
Rodger Cook investigates The Island of Shame
A close look at some of the reported incidents of satanic ritual abuse of children and adults in the UK and the US.
This programme in 1991 was prompted by the assassination of Gary Thompson, the millionaire hot dog and burger overlord of the Midlands. He was murdered as he returned home with tens of thousands of pounds in takings in the boot of his Rolls Royce. He controlled all the best sites and those traders who did not meet his terms were subjected to intimidation, violence and fire-bombings. Thompson’s death sparked all-out war as rivals fought to take over his empire. It was a prize worth seizing. Over a weekend, big music and sporting events could produce an income of £250,000.
So-called "Friendly Fire" incidents; indeed this edition was later referred to by that title.
Roger Cook investigates The Triads in London and Manchester.
Roger Cook investigates the illegal adoption trade between Guatemala and the UK, and the involvement of freelance social worker Jim Wroe, who also worked for Islington Council.
Target number one: Nick Griffin, aged 38. Dedicated racist and the focus of our investigation.