| Birth Name: | Susan Lorraine Thomas |
| Birth Date: | 1949 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Ruislip, Middlesex, England |
| Nationality: | British |
| Parents: | William and Kathleen Thomas |
| Alma Mater: | Leicester University |
| Occupation: | Television presenter, author |
| Employer: | BBC |
| Children: | 2 |
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.
Susan Lorraine Thomas' mother, Kathleen Thomas was born in 1919.[1] 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 Grammar School, also in Ickenham on Warren Road. She gained ten O-levels and three A-levels, and went on to the University of Leicester, graduating in 1971 with an honours degree in psychology.[2]
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,[3] 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 briefly as herself in the BBC television drama serial Edge of Darkness (1985) and in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986).
Cook is a recurring character in the comedy series I'm Alan Partridge, in which she is an unseen friend of Partridge's.[4]
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.
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.[5] It was released in the UK in April 2011.
She is adapting her first novel, On Dangerous Ground, for the screen.
Cook is an Ambassador for the Prince'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.
The University of Leicester conferred an honorary D.Litt degree on Cook in 1997[6] in recognition of her contribution to British broadcasting.