Susan Lorraine Cook (née Thomas; born 30 March 1949) is a British television presenter and author. With Nick Ross, she co-presented the BBC One factual crime show Crimewatch from 1984 until 1995.
Early life
Cook’s mother, Kathleen Thomas was born in 1919.
[Sue Cook was guest on Nigel Farage "Talking Pints" Talk TV, Freeview ch 236, August 2022, confirmed 10 GCE passes and was Queen’s Guide as a child. Her mother is 105 years old.] Her father, William Thomas, was a senior executive with the Commission on Industrial Relations (later
Acas). She has two younger brothers and lived in
Ickenham.
She attended Glebe Primary School, then the newly opened Vyners School, also in Ickenham on Warren Road. She gained ten O-levels and three ,
Career
Sue Cook's broadcasting career began as a producer, presenter and DJ for London's
Capital Radio. She then moved to the
BBC where, over the next thirty years, she presented programmes for both radio and television—notably,
You and Yours,
Making History,
Nationwide,
BBC Breakfast,
We're Going Places,
Daytime Live,
Children in Need and
Out of Court. In 1984, Cook was the joint presenter with Nick Ross on the launch of
Crimewatch, staying for eleven years.
Other BBC TV presenting credits include Pebble Mill at One, BBC Breakfast, ‘’Daytime Live’’, Omnibus at the Proms, Having a Baby, the documentary series Hampton Court Palace, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Maternity Hospital, the 1994 Pilot for Out of This World, (the series presented by Carol Vorderman, in 1996), and the Children's Royal Variety Performance. She was a regular guest on Call My Bluff, and a member of Holidays team of reporters. For Channel 4 she hosted The Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Flower Show and the popular afternoon series Collectors Lot. She also appeared as herself in the BBC television drama serial Edge of Darkness (1985) and in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986).
She is a recurring character in the comedy series I'm Alan Partridge, in which she is an unseen friend of Partridge's.
Publications
Cook's two novels,
On Dangerous Ground (2006) and
Force of Nature (2009), were published by Hodder Headline. She devised and presented a supportive series for writers,
The Write Lines, for BBC Oxford.
Film
Cook was the executive producer of
Tracker (2010), a film which starred
Ray Winstone and was directed by her husband,
Ian Sharp, with whom she collaborated on the screenplay.
It was released in the UK in April 2011.
She is adapting her first novel, On Dangerous Ground, for the screen.
Charities
Cook is an Ambassador for the King's Trust, and a patron of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund, the Children's Liver Disease Foundation, the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity and
Humanists UK.
Recognition
The University of Leicester conferred an honorary D.Litt degree on Cook in 1997
in recognition of her contribution to British broadcasting.
In 2025, Cook was named Britain's number one secret crush by readers of BBC Gardeners' World magazine.
External links
