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This week the football world ascended dizzying heights of breathlessness over the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. But as one footballing titan steps down, another - a man who is, in some ways, the antithesis of Sir Alex - is about to step up to take on one of the highest-profile jobs in world football. Tim Franks profiles Pep Guardiola, and asks whether he could be Sir Alex's successor as perhaps...

As she wages war against tax avoidance, Margaret Hodge - Chair of the Public Accounts Committee - is enjoying a blazing Indian summer in her political life. As Edward Stourton discovers, her political journey is set against the background of a turbulent personal life that began as the daughter of Jewish refugees in Egypt.

Alisher Usmanov has just been named the richest man in Britain. Born in Uzbekistan, Usmanov made his fortune in the collapsing Soviet Union. His empire has stretched from plastic bags to minerals, telecoms, Facebook and Arsenal Football Club. But, as Mark Coles reports, Usmanov's rise has not been straightforward, nor free of controversy.

Mark Coles profiles the long-serving and influential head of the FBI, Robert Mueller. Mueller took on the job one week before the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Now, as he approaches retirement, the FBI is again dealing with the aftermath of an attack on American soil. The squared-jawed Princeton graduate was decorated for bravery during the Vietnam War before training as a lawyer. Dissatisfied...

Mary Ann Seighart profiles Elizabeth Llewellyn, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who had an obvious talent for singing from an early age. Her school-teachers in south London encouraged her to take lessons and go to concerts, and she won a place at the Royal Northern College of Music. But ill-health forced her to drop out. She then pursued an alternative career in IT recruitment, her talent lyi...

Amazon first became the world's biggest bookshop and then went on to revolutionise shopping as we know it. What began in 1994 as a small start-up in a Seattle suburb has become arguably the most significant technology company on the planet. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, is now a billionaire many times over. Bezos rarely makes public pronouncements and avoids media interviews. Those who have worked...

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles the Reverend Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's Piccadilly, and a former Canon of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Many inside the Church see her as favourite to become the first female bishop of the Church of England, if the rules change. Lucy Winkett read history at Cambridge before studying theology, and then trained as a soprano at the Royal College of Music for a year...

Chris Bowlby looks at the 22-year old Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen. He has the highest rating in the world ever and has been called the Mozart of chess. He is currently in London playing the tournament that will determine which top player gets to challenge the reigning world champion, Vishy Anand, for that title. Carlsen has been amazing the world of chess since he was a child. He became...

Chris Bowlby profiles the British-educated Chinese property billionaire Zhang Xin, one of the most powerful women in business. She is in advanced talks to buy 40 per cent of Manhattan's iconic General Motors building. Zhang Xin stands out as the high-profile CEO of the prominent, upmarket property developer SoHoChina, which she founded with her husband. Unusually for Chinese billionaires, she is a...

Justin Bieber, the 19-year-old Canadian pop star, is an internet phenomenon with 35 million Twitter followers. His first hit is the most-watched video in YouTube history. He has upset fans on his UK tour by keeping them waiting before taking the stage, prompting some to suggest that the pressure of such extraordinary fame, experienced at such a young age, is beginning to show. Although Justin Bieb...

Beppe Grillo has achieved a stunning success in the Italian elections with the performance of the new citizens' protest network - the Five Star Movement. He is its guiding star, a comedian-turned politician. The movement emerged from the web and took its argument into town squares all over Italy. The citizen activists oppose what they regard as the corrupted, self-serving traditional parties - the...

Mike Ashley began his business career as a teenager with a single shop in 1980s Maidenhead. Now his international Sports Direct empire makes him millions. Among his more recent acquisitions was Newcastle United football club. Chris Bowlby searches for the secret behind Ashley's huge retail success, and discovers what happened when a southerner who hates publicity tried to win over the Geordie fait...

Designer Tom Ford has become a brand in his own right. Running his own label, producing and directing the film 'A Single Man' and dressing the stars are just some of his successes. Now as he prepares his first full scale catwalk show for London Fashion Week, he's credited with attracting record interest and unprecedented numbers of US buyers to the event. In the 1990s he turned around the fortunes...

John Brennan, President Obama's trusted counter terror advisor has been nominated to head the Central Intelligence Agency amidst a storm of controversy. Despite being a career CIA man for more than 25 years, he's now at the centre of American foreign policy dilemmas, including questions about the use of drones, waterboarding techniques and the future of the world's most powerful intelligence agenc...

Sir Philip Green is one of the UK's most successful, and colourful, businessmen; his stores are estimated to make up 10 per cent of the high street and his wealth runs into the billions. This week he sold a stake in his flagship fashion chains Topshop and Topman for a reported £500 million. Lesley Curwen profiles the man who is perhaps the most successful retailer of his generation, with contribut...

The UK Independence Party has been in the news a lot lately: two of its supporters in Rotherham had their foster children taken away from them because of their UKIP affiliation; Conservative Party deputy chairman Michael Fabricant suggested the Tories might be wise to enter into a pact with UKIP at the 2015 general election; and rumours surfaced of a possible defection of several Conservative MPs...

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles the Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby.

Mark Coles profiles Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic cleric described by the Home Secretary as "a dangerous man, a suspected terrorist, who is accused of serious crimes in Jordan". Seen by some as Britain's most wanted man and Osama Bin Laden's right hand man in Europe , the Palestinian-Jordanian scholar arrived in the UK in 1993 seeking asylum and claiming he had been tortured in Jordan. This week...

Mark Coles profiles the controversial Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who has been suspended from her party for taking part in the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here". Dorries - a self-proclaimed council estate Scouser not afraid of speaking her mind - left school with few qualifications but went on to become a hospital nurse before setting up a successful company providing child...

In a few days a 59-year-old man will almost certainly ascend to one of the most powerful positions in the world. His name is Xi Jinping and the signs are he's about to become the President of China. There have been no debates, no campaign ads, and no forensic interviews. Getting a measure of the man is not easy. But in the course of this edition of Profile Tim Franks talk to some of those who have...

Lucy Ash profiles the Russian lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who this week topped a ballot to elect leaders of the opposition to President Putin. He came to prominence as a leader during the anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow last December, the biggest such rallies since the end of the Soviet Union. He has also been fighting against corruption through a website that invites...

As the new James Bond film "Skyfall" opens next week, Mary Ann Sieghart profiles its director Sam Mendes, a man who wanted to play cricket for England but went on to become a theatre supremo before winning critical acclaim in Hollywood. Born in Reading and brought up by a single mother, Sam Mendes was educated at Magdalen College School in Oxford, where he demonstrated a competitive streak as capt...

Claire Bolderson profiles US Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Producers: Smita Patel and Chris Bowlby.

Chris Bowlby profiles the South Korean pop star Psy, sudden global star whose Gangnam Style has topped the UK singles charts, and whose video is the most popular video ever on Youtube. How has a Korean star swept the world, what lies behind his success, and why is he now selling fridges? And how has the world's most closed society, North Korea, responded to the global Gangnam craze? Producer: Smit...

Edward Stourton profiles Justin Welby, former oil executive and now Bishop of Durham, emerging as one of the most striking candidates for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury. He became a priest after a long business career, and has chaired an NHS trust along the way. When he was Dean of Liverpool he allowed bellringers to play John Lennon's 'Imagine' from the cathedral bells. He has visited Afric...