PODCAST

Profile

BBC Radio 4

An insight into the character of an influential figure making news headlines

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

14:03

Samantha Cameron

Profile ·

2013/07/20

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 her A' Levels before studying Art at Camberwell College and Bristol Polytechnic.She met David Cameron

14:00

Alastair Cook

Profile ·

2013/07/13

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 but shuns celebrity and spends his spare time sheep farming.

13:55

Pep Guardiola

Profile ·

2013/05/11

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 the most successful manager in the game.

14:08

Margaret Hodge

Profile ·

2013/05/04

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.

13:59

Alisher Usmanov

Profile ·

2013/04/27

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.

13:48

Robert Mueller

Profile ·

2013/04/20

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 with private practice, he found a government job as assistant US attorney in San Francisco - a move which

13:39

Elizabeth Llewellyn

Profile ·

2013/04/13

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 lying dormant. But when, years later, she joined an amateur choir, her new colleagues urged her to take her

13:52

Jeff Bezos

Profile ·

2013/04/06

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 with him describe him as a hands-on manager, who plans the grand strategy as a well as the tiny

13:33

Lucy Winkett

Profile ·

2013/03/30

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, even though she'd already decided to enter the priesthood. She uses her musical and creative side in

14:12

Magnus Carlsen

Profile ·

2013/03/22

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 a Grandmaster after just four years of playing, when he was thirteen. He also achieved a draw against

14:02

Zhang Xin

Profile ·

2013/03/16

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 also a philanthropist and speaks out about issues ranging from democracy to smog, in the international

14:04

Justin Bieber

Profile ·

2013/03/09

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 Bieber came to fame as a musical prodigy, who found his audience through the internet, these days his power as

14:13

Beppe Grillo

Profile ·

2013/03/02

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 entire failed political establishment. The movement has connected with huge numbers of Italians who

14:03

Mike Ashley

Profile ·

2013/02/23

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 faithful.

13:44

Tom Ford

Profile ·

2013/02/16

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 of Gucci, the luxury fashion house and revolutionised the luxury brand market. Despite controversial

14:15

John Brennan

Profile ·

2013/02/09

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 agency. A Catholic basketball player, turned academic and fluent Arabic speaker, Brennan has risen through

14:16

Sir Philip Green

Profile ·

2012/12/08

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 contributions from Sir Stuart Rose, Bill Kenwright and Kate Phelan.Producers: Ben Crighton and Hannah Barnes.

13:54

Nigel Farage

Profile ·

2012/12/01

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 to the anti-EU party. And then, of course, there were three Westminster by-elections in which UKIP

14:09

Lynton Crosby

Profile ·

2012/11/24

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles the Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby.

14:04

Abu Qatada

Profile ·

2012/11/17

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, after serving seven years, without charge, in a British prison, a court ruled that he cannot be

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