Derek Cooper, campaigning food journalist, has died

[Guest]

Derek Cooper, the original voice of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme, and the campaigning journalist credited with breaking the BSE story, has died aged 88.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/20/derek-cooper

He had the most wonderful radio voice and succeeded in making food and its production interesting on radio, where we couldn't see it, something i always thought was a quite a feat.

He'll be missed in this household and hundreds of thousands of others I'm sure and remembered with affection and gratitude in equal measure.

[Richard Tarleton]

Lovely man. I met him in May 1979 (the year the Food Programme started?) when I was living and working on an island famous for its seabirds - I was standing outside our hut when the island's ancient taxi rolled up and this gent got out, introduced himself and said he was making a BBC radio programme about islands. We had a chat, he quizzed me about the seabirds, and off he went. Absolutely charming.

[amateur51]

Lovely man. I met him in May 1979 (the year the Food Programme started?) when I was living and working on an island famous for its seabirds - I was standing outside our hut when the island's ancient taxi rolled up and this gent got out, introduced himself and said he was making a BBC radio programme about islands. We had a chat, he quizzed me about the seabirds, and off he went. Absolutely charming.

Lovely story, RT

I read somewhere that his devotion to Scotland's islands and their flora & fauna (inc. humans) was such that he only agreed to write a book on food if the keen publisher would publish a book about Scotland that had, as yet, not found a publisher.

This was agreed and his Scottish island books have stayed in print ever since

I just hope that the current flock of food journalists prove to be as keen on the investigative side of their subject as Derek Cooper was - we need to be kept safe.

[Flay]

Thanks for bringing this loss to our attention, ammy. I always enjoyed his programmes and his authoritative voice.

[french frank]

his authoritative voice.

It was he, I recall, who taught me (after 13 years in Aberdeen), via Radio 4, the correct pronunciation of Glen-MOR-angie which we (Anglos - no doubt to the the smirks of the locals) all called GlenmoRANGie. Years later I emailed the distillery to ask - never quite able to believe that I had always been wrong. They confirmed that I had always been wrong, and that it rhymed with orangey.

Derek Cooper

[amateur51]

It was he, I recall, who taught me (after 13 years in Aberdeen), via Radio 4, the correct pronunciation of Glen-MOR-angie which we (Anglos - no doubt to the the smirks of the locals) all called GlenmoRANGie. Years later I emailed the distillery to ask - never quite able to believe that I had always been wrong. They confirmed that I had always been wrong, and that it rhymed with orangey.

Derek Cooper

Lovely story french frank - definitely a whisky voice

[Ferretfancy]

I used to meet him often at Television Centre when he recorded commentary for Tomorrow's World. He was superb at that job, as he was in many others, and he was a considerate, affable and sometimes very funny man. Television and radio are now very short of authoritative figures like him, which is sad.