Profile

After playing Baltimore drug boss Stringer Bell in The Wire, and Detective John Luther on British television, Idris Elba is now appearing in a very different role - Nelson Mandela in Long Walk to Freedom. Chris Bowlby profiles the British actor who some think will one day be the first black James Bond. Producer: Smita Patel.

As the drama of street protests in Ukraine continues, Mark Coles profiles 'Dr Ironfist', the world boxing champion turned opposition political leader Vitali Klitschko. He's the son of a Soviet air force officer, one of two top boxers with a PhD (the other is his brother Vladimir) and he's nice to his mum. But can he make it in the murky world of Ukrainian politics? Producers: Chris Bowlby, Laura G...

Edward Stourton profiles the Michelle Bachelet, the favourite in this weekend's presidential election in Chile. If Bachelet wins as expected, then it will be her second term as president of a country which elected her to office in 2006. Bachelet took 47 per cent of the vote, almost twice as much as her rival, in the first round but it was not enough to secure an outright victory. Bachelet's family...

He was one of the poster boys for London 2012 - a contributor to Team GB's medal haul, admired for his perfect mid-flight somersaults and skimpy swimwear. British Olympic diver Tom Daley has lived his life in the public eye since first attracting attention aged ten, when he became Britain's youngest diver to win the national championships. Tom Daley is in the media spotlight more than ever this we...

With the SNP announcing its plans for an independent Scotland this week, Lesley Curwen profiles Nicola Sturgeon - a figure who may be key to the party's chances of success. She's deputy to Alex Salmond but is central to the party's campaign, and she's playing a major but perhaps under-reported role in negotiating with London too. How did she achieve such a rapid rise to political prominence? And w...

Bill de Blasio, sometime supporter of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, will soon take over as mayor of New York. He's overcome the suicide of his war veteran father, created the most famous multiracial family in the US and now has to persuade Wall Street to fund his radical plans to overcome inequality in the Big Apple. Ed Miliband is said to be watching carefully. Mark Coles profiles a pol...

India means Sachin and Sachin means India. So how did a shy 16-year-old cricketer come to embody a nation and its hopes and dreams? Sachin Tendulkar's career spanned a period of remarkable change in what is now one of the world's biggest developing economies. As he plays his 200th and final test match, Tim Franks looks at how Sachin's progress mirrored and even inspired India's over a quarter of a...

She's been described as the UK's most experienced criminal prosecutor, responsible for bringing some of the most infamous criminals to justice. But she also has a passion for cooking and entertaining. Becky Milligan profiles Alison Saunders, who this week became the new Director of Public Prosecutions. Producer: Ben Crighton.

He is one of a small number of people who has made it to both the North Pole and the South Pole. He runs ultramarathons. He climbs mountains. Oh, and he is a billionaire, one of the country's richest men, who has reluctantly been making the headlines. Jim Ratcliffe, who recently threatened to close the huge Grangemouth petrochemical plant in Scotland - which he owns through his company Ineos - is...

Last year, long-standing Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign his new job as Chief Whip after being accused of calling police officers guarding the Downing Street gates "plebs." The so-called 'Plebgate' saga has hit the headlines once again this week after a committee of MPs summoned three senior police officers to explain their inquiry into the incident. While last year Andrew Mit...

It's 40 years since the National Theatre was led by someone who wasn't a Cambridge graduate, but this week it was announced that Rufus Norris - who spent his late teens as a painter and decorator - would succeed Sir Nicholas Hytner as the theatre's director. So why is Norris such a popular choice for British theatre's top job? Mary Ann Sieghart looks at the making of a director whose work includes...

This week saw the surprising exit from the English Defence League of its leaders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll. Instrumental in their decision to leave was Essex-born Maajid Nawaz, a former activist for the Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Arrested in 2001 for attempting to revive the group in Egypt, he served four years in a Cairo jail. Today, he has renounced his old beliefs and now runs...

A gifted journalist with his finger on the pulse of Middle England? Or 'the most dangerous man in Britain' as the Guardian newspaper has described him? Mark Coles profiles the powerful and influential Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre. Producers: Ben Crighton and Simon Maybin.

Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani has been centre of attention at the UN this week. He's promising a new approach to talks with the West over his country's nuclear programme. He is certainly a change from his abrasive anti-Western predecessor. Rouhani studied in Britain, loves Bogart films and Thomas Hardy novels and is fond of designer clerical robes. So, Mary Ann Sieghart asks, is all that mer...

Comedian Billy Connolly has announced new film and touring plans despite facing ill health. Mark Coles explores how Connolly has long used humour to defy serious adversity. Childhood abuse and alcoholism have been countered by a rich musical, comedy and acting career. In this profile of the Glasgow welder who became a global star, Connolly's own performances and voice are mixed with the thoughts o...

Mark Coles profiles Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a key figure in the Syria crisis. Has this chain-smoking, vodka-loving diplomat managed to restore Russian power? Those who've dealt with him tell us just why he's such a formidable opponent, and how he survived the collapse of the Soviet Union to put Russian diplomacy back at the centre of world affairs. Producers: Chris Bowlby and Smita...

Chris Bowlby profiles German Chancellor Angela Merkel - always underestimated, physicist and ruthless politician, the woman at the centre of the eurozone crisis. What has shaped a figure who grew up under East German communism, came to dominate united German politics and proclaims her love of football and opera? And as her friendship with David Cameron deepens, might she be key to Britain's EU fut...

Mark Coles explores the life of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who is taking a global leadership role over Syria. As President Obama said when he nominated him for Secretary of State, "Kerry's entire life prepared him for this role." One of his childhood friends tells us that Secretary Kerry has kept the same principles he held as a young man at Yale. But others see him as a man of contradicti...

Edward Stourton profiles the Commander of Egypt's Armed Forces, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, now the most powerful man in Egypt. General al-Sisi was appointed Defence Minister and Head of the Army by President Morsi in August 2012, and he was thought by many to be sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. But he was instrumental in Morsi's downfall in July and oversaw the subsequent violent suppress...

Jane Deith profiles Mo Farah. This week he became the first British man - and only second man ever - to hold the Olympic and World 10,000m and 5,000m titles. He was born in Somalia and moved to Britain as a young boy, where his athletic journey began. But it was an unusual one for such a successful athlete - he needed cajoling, ran the wrong way in cross-country races and enjoyed playing to the cr...

Chris Bowlby profiles the new governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, who unveiled his economic strategy this week. Heralded as 'the outstanding central banker of his generation' by George Osborne, Mr Carney now faces the task of guiding the UK's economy towards full recovery. Since arriving in London he has caused a stir by arriving to work on his first day by tube and unveiling Jane Austen...

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female film director. Haifaa Al-Mansour directed the recently-released Wadjda, the first film entirely shot in Saudi Arabia. The film follows the dreams of an 11-year-old girl who is desperate to own a bike, and was partly inspired by Al-Mansour's early years, growing up in a small town near Riyadh. After working for an oil company...

Helen Grady profiles Professor Sir Andre Geim who is one of the most unusual scientists working in Britain - perhaps the world - today. This week he was awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal, believed to be the world's oldest science prize, for his ground-breaking experiments using graphene - thought by many to be the miracle material of the 21st century. He is also a winner of both the Ig Nobe...

Edward Stourton profiles Samantha Cameron. There's been debate this week about the degree to which her views influence government policy. But what do we actually know about the Prime Minister's wife? The daughter of a baronet with a family estate in Lincolnshire, Samantha Cameron was born Samantha Sheffield. She grew up in Oxfordshire but moved to Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where she took h...

With the Ashes underway, Mark Coles profiles the England cricket captain Alastair Cook. Born on Christmas Day in 1984, Cook's first career was as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral. A talented musician, he also studied the clarinet and the saxophone but cricket soon took over and he made his England Test debut at 21, scoring a century. He's hit more Test centuries for England than any other player...