Argh! In a stroke of major misfortune, I am stuck at home with a stinking cold for most of today and so, to my great disappointment, was unable to meet Roger in person. Gutted.

I did, however, have a very interesting chat with him over the phone. He has a very dry sense of humour.

On calling his hotel room:

Me: Hello, is that Roger Cook?
RC: No, it’s the bogeyman. Of course it’s Roger Cook, who else is it going to be? 

And that’s how it started. It is also how it continued, with me occasionally being chided for my lack of wit. (A fair and just accusation.) 

It cheered me up, which is no mean feat when I’m under the weather. (Usually I get stupidly maudlin. A bout of flu once had me weeping at an episode of Pet Rescue.)

I will use a lot of the interview for a 600-word piece for the Media & Marketing page on Monday.

However, to answer Bounder’s question:

RC: It’s a bit of an accolade to be parodied. In total I have been parodied 23 times – yes I have counted them.  The first time was on Not the Nine O’Clock News by Mel Smith. It was hysterical.

I was also parodied by Spitting Image three times. Two of the times they weren’t very funny – one had two puppets of me and I was beating myself up. That’s just ridiculous as I never beat anybody up on The Cook Report. They also gave me a terrible brash Australian accent.

The third was really good. It was me doorstopping God, accusing him of selling the Holy Land as a timeshare to the Muslims and the Jews. That was very funny, but I think with Spitting Image most of the talent was in making the puppets, not in the writing.