Cook has been parodied by many comedians such as Benny Hill and Reeves and Mortimer. He says he regards it as a compliment. In the 1980s, his "Checkpoint" series got its sitcom counterpart in BBC Radio 4's "Delve Special", where investigative journalist David Lander, played by Stephen Fry, doorstepped many fictional villains. When Cook's investigations moved to television, so did his parody, in Channel 4's "This is David Lander", which was followed later by Tony Slattery taking over the central role in "This is David Harper". Many of Lander and Harper's investigations were based on reports made by Cook, "Panorama" and "World in Action".