Profile

The UK’s chief Brexit negotiator is hardly a household name and until very recently this former diplomat had no public profile at all. Now David Frost has arguably one of the most challenging jobs in British politics. How has he made it to the top?Presenter: Edward Stourton Producers: Eleanor Biggs, Kate Lamble, Olga Smirnova, and Phoebe Keane

The manager who's put Liverpool Football Club on the path to winning the treble and has lead them to so many victories, their lead at the top of the table is the biggest in premier league history. But he wasn't always this successful. When he was a young footballer at Mainz 05 in Germany, his former team mate Guido Shafer says he 'had no talent'. So what can we learn from his childhood in Germany's Black Forest? How did he become the manager he is today? Presenter: Becky Milligan Producers: Phoebe Keane and Eleanor BiggsThanks to BBC 5 Live podcast: At Home With Colin Murray and SWR.

Appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer within just five years of becoming an MP, Rishi Sunak's rise has been rapid. He was parachuted into a safe seat for the Conservative party during the 2015 election and his trajectory has been skywards ever since. However, he takes office under difficult circumstances, the post only became vacant as former Chancellor Sajid Javid rejected the prime minister's order to fire his team of aides, saying "no self-respecting minister" could accept such a condition. So can Rishi Sunak take the helm and will he stand up to the Prime Minister?

The citizen journalist behind the highly acclaimed film 'For Sama', which tells the story of life, love and motherhood in war-torn Aleppo.Already the winner of 25 awards, including a BAFTA, the documentary is now in the running for an Oscar. Mark Coles reveals the extraordinary life of the Syrian student compelled to capture the daily lives of citizens trapped in the terror of civil war. Producers: Phoebe Keane & Diane Richardson

The US Secretary of State caught up in the Ukraine impeachment scandal.Mike Pompeo has a lot on his plate. He’s at the centre of the impeachment investigation into US President Donald Trump, who’s accused of breaking the law by pressuring Ukraine's president to dig up damaging information on a political rival. He’s pressuring the UK government to look again at its decision to give Chinese company Huawei a role in its 5G mobile phone network. And he’s facing criticism for refusing an extradition request relating to the death of British teenager Harry Dunn. In the week Mike Pompeo visits both the UK and Ukraine, Edward Stourton investigates the life and record of America’s top diplomat.Producers: Simon Maybin & Diane Richardson Editor: Penny Murphy

The young, black cellist from Nottingham making chart history.Sheku Kanneh-Mason was the first ever black winner of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year. He performed with the eyes of the world looking on at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. And now he's become the first ever cellist to reach the UK’s top 10 album chart. Who is the 20-year-old making classical accessible? Mark Coles finds out from those who know him best.Producers: Simon Maybin & Diane Richardson Editor: Penny Murphy

The judge taking up the presidency of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom as tensions with the government simmer.British judges have been under attack like never before in recent years, described as “enemies of the people” by one newspaper. The Supreme Court was accused by Downing Street of making “a serious mistake” in its ruling on the prorogation of Parliament. The Conservative Party’s election manifesto promised ominously to look at “the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts”. The role of the country’s most senior judge has arguably never been more important. So who is Lord Reed? Mark Coles investigates.Producers: Simon Maybin & Diane Richardson

The Australian prime minister feeling the heat over his response to his country’s bushfire crisis.Pilloried for holidaying in Hawaii while his homeland burned, then heckled on camera by angry victims, Scott Morrison has been making international headlines for all the wrong reasons. It’s not been good PR for someone with a background in marketing and tourism. Mark Coles unpicks the character of Australia’s man of the moment.Producers: Simon Maybin & Diane Richardson Editor: Hugh Levinson

Becky Milligan looks at the life of Dina Asher-Smith, the fastest woman in British history. An athlete who's also a keen historian, role model and lover of the glitz. For years she's been winning championships and breaking records. But will the great British hope win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?Producer: Smita Patel

On ‘Profile’ this week - one of Britain’s most celebrated storytellers. Michael Morpurgo has written 180 books over the past half century.Over Christmas, he narrated a new BBC TV film adaptation of his 2014 children’s story ‘Mimi And The Mountain Dragon’. Morpurgo is best known for ‘War Horse’ - a book about a horse bought by the British army to serve in the First World War and its young owner’s attempts to bring it home to safety. Turned into a National Theatre play, then a Hollywood movie – it’s made him a household name. Mark Coles hears from Morpurgo’s wife, brother, biographer and close friends talk about what inspired his writing - the profound impact war had on him as a child and the father he didn’t know for years. We hear about his time in the army, the charity he set up to give city children experience of the countryside – and why now in his mid 70s, he’s taken up his love of singing again. Producer Smita Patel Editor Penny MurphyThe programme contains music from the BBC TV Film, "Mimi & the Mountain Dragon", composed by Rachel Portman

Leopards, aliens and Songs of Praise. Mark Coles explores the life of actor John Boyega, whose talent and dedication brought him to the attention of Hollywood.Producers: Linda Pressly and Di Richardson

Pink trams, flying squirrels and a taste for rock music. Mark Coles finds out about the life and character of Finland's new Prime Minister, Sanna Marin. The first to graduate in her family, Sanna Marin entered politics at the age of 20 and rose quickly through the ranks of the Social Democratic (SDP) party becoming an MP in 2015. She now leads a five-party governing coalition.Mark Coles asks colleagues and friends what drives the world's youngest Prime Minister.

We’re profiling the relatively little known RMT union leader Mick Cash this week.Train guards have begun what they say will be 27 days of strike action across the entire South Western Railway region in December.More than 600,000 journeys a day are being affected. The aim, says 59 year old Mick Cash, is to prevent SWR introducing new driver-only controlled trains next year. Mark Coles tries to find out more about the man.

In the headlines this week was Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Ephraim Mirvis. Just weeks before the general election he made it clear that he believed Jeremy Corbyn was unfit to become PM because of his record on dealing with anti-Semitism within the Labour party - though Mr Corbyn said the party had taken "rapid and effective" action.Edward Stourton traces the Chief Rabbi's story, which begins with a childhood in apartheid South Africa. His tenure as Chief Rabbi has been marked by a few liberalising initiatives, which have ruffled feathers and caused some disquiet within the wider Jewish community. But observers might wonder if the initiatives have gone far enough. He is used to controversy within his own community, but unused to being in the wider public's gaze. So what persuaded Ephraim Mirvis to enter the political fray and what does his intervention tell us about the man?Producer: Rosamund Jones

The American rapper and singer nominated for eight Grammy Awards - more than any other artist this year. A global chart-topping success, Lizzo has captivated audiences across the world this year from the Glastonbury festival to America’s Video and Music Awards. A classically trained flautist, her flute even has 250,000 Instagram followers. But she isn’t just celebrated for her music, she’s known for inspiring self-love and acceptance too, earning her icon status in the body positivity movement. Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Phoebe Keane and May Cameron

Did Donald Trump ‘bribe’ a foreign power – Ukraine - to try to discredit a political rival ahead of next year’s US Presidential race ?On Profile this week, we’re looking at Adam Schiff - the man tasked with finding out. A leading Democrat Congressman and former lawyer, Schiff chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is leading the impeachment investigation. President Trump calls him biased…a “pencil neck, low life” who’s conducting a “hoax witch-hunt”.Mark Coles talks to Schiff’s close friends, critics and former colleagues to find out what he’s really like…and why – before getting into politics - he wanted to be a Hollywood movie writer. Producer: Smita Patel Researcher: May Cameron

Mark Coles profiles the new Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, meeting - among others - his pet parrot, Boris.

Becky Milligan explores how a teacher from the Sydney suburbs came to lead England into the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Producer Smita Patel Researcher May Cameron.

We explore the life and career of British artist Bridget Riley as a new retrospective of her work opens at London's Hayward Gallery. She found fame in the sixties with a series of challenging black and white abstract works. Now in her eighties, she's still producing new work - perhaps even her best, according to some critics. Producer: Smita Patel Researcher: May Cameron

Bernardine Evaristo is the first black British woman to win the Booker Prize. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other shared the 2019 award with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. Mark Coles has been finding out about Evaristo's life as an activist, actor and writer.Producer: Smita Patel Researcher: May Cameron

The president of Turkey has controversially sent troops into northern Syria. The decision has been widely condemned by foreign leaders and at home there are signs that his popularity could be fading. But how did Recep Tayyip Erdogan rise to power? How did the son of a sea captain end up in a palace of a thousand rooms?

This week's Profile is the tale of two Rudys: a divisive figure fighting for his - and Donald Trump’s - political life. And a man who united his nation in its darkest hours. Presenter: Becky Milligan Producer: Neal Razzell

Baroness Hale, President of the Supreme Court, was wearing a giant spider brooch as she delivered this week’s bombshell ruling that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful. "Spiderwoman takes down the Hulk" was the headline in one newspaper. Mark Coles looks at the life of the first woman to lead the UK's highest court.Producers: Smita Patel and Jordan Dundar Researcher: Darin Graham

The former Wales and British Lions captain, Gareth Thomas, has been headline news this week after announcing he’s living with HIV. In Wales, Thomas is a legend. In 2005, he led the national team to its first Six Nations grand slam title for 27 years…became the first Welsh player to be capped 100 times for his country. Mark Coles talks his friends and former colleagues. We hear about his early days as a postman, his success on the field and how he became one of the first sporting superstars to come out as gay. Producer Smita Patel Researcher Darin Graham Editor Penny Murphy

The life story of Commons Speaker John Bercow. He has announced he will stand down at the end of October after ten highly controversial years in the job. In turbulent political times, he’s proved to be a polarizing figure. For some, he is the backbencher’s champion - the most modernising Speaker in parliament’s history. Others accuse him of bias, and deliberately trying to stop Brexit. Mark Coles talks to friends, colleagues and critics of Speaker Bercow - hearing about his long political journey which started on the far right - and how he wooed his now wife with feats of rhetoric. And with his thunderous shouts of ‘Order Order’ now mimicked and memed around the world, we hear how for some, he has become an unlikely social media superstar.Producer Smita Patel Researcher Darin Graham

This week David Gauke - MP for South West Hertfordshire - shook the government he served as a cabinet minister only a few weeks ago, voting to stop Boris Johnson taking the UK out of the EU without a deal. He's given the Tory rebels their label: the "Gaukeward Squad." Edward Stourton looks at the life of this unlikely rebel.Producers: Darin Graham and Smita Patel

Peter Navarro is the economist and key White House advisor who’s egged President Trump on in his bitter trade war with China. It’s a conflict some fear threatens the stability of the global economy. Producer Smita Patel Researcher Darin Graham

Arguably the most controversial appointment of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reshuffle was that of 47-year-old Dominic Cummings as his head of Brexit strategy. After serving as Michael Gove’s special adviser in the Department for Education, his role as the mastermind behind Vote Leave changed the course of British history – and now he is back to finish what he started. How did a swotty schoolboy from Durham come to be hailed as a political genius, and the most feared – and revered – man in Whitehall?Presented by Becky Milligan Produced by Jordan Dunbar Researched by Kirsteen Knight and Eleanor Biggs

Ihlan Omar is the 37-year-old Somali-born US congresswoman - one of only two Muslim women ever elected to Congress - who's become a thorn in President Trump’s side and on the receiving end of his temper. Omar was one of four congresswomen Trump told to “go back” to where they came from. So who is Ilhan Omar, why has she got the President’s back up - and what's he really up to in targeting her? Mark Coles has been finding out.Thank you to Norah Shapiro for use of clips from her documentary 'Time for Ilhan'. Researchers: Khadidja Ndiaye and Kirsteen Knight Producer: Phoebe Keane

German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen is likely to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission in November. Mark Coles tells her story so far.Producer Smita Patel

The US women’s football team has made it to the World Cup final. One American newspaper has described the team's iconic player - Megan Rapinoe - as the most important athlete on the planet right now. But she isn't only a sensation on the pitch. She's a controversial figure off it. Presenter: Becky Milligan Producer: Viv Jones

It's Britain's top civil servant this week: Sir Mark Sedwill, Cabinet Secretary and the UK’s National Security Adviser. He's the first person to juggle both roles at the same time. And - what with Brexit, a new PM, perhaps even a looming constitutional crisis - he's doing it at a time of serious uncertainty. So: who is he?Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Ben Crighton

Joshua Wong has gone from schoolboy protester to the face of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong - a passionate defender of the territory’s right to self determination. He’s been repeatedly arrested and jailed. Now this week - fresh out of prison - the 22-year-old Wong is back in the limelight, putting himself on a collision course with the authorities in mainland China.

Jo Swinson is the bookies favourite to win the Liberal Democrat leadership race and take over from Vince Cable. But can this 'millennial' politician from a suburb of Glasgow, be the woman who takes the Liberal Democrats to election victory?

This week Sadiq Khan was called a "stone cold loser" and mocked for his compact stature by the President of the United States. But London's mayor hit back. He described the President's behaviour as that of an 11 year old. Becky Milligan profiles the first Muslim to become mayor of a European capital.Producer: Ben Carter

Sonita Alleyne is the jazz-loving businesswoman who's just been appointed Master of a Cambridge College - the first black woman to take on such a role. Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Ben Carter

John Bolton is the hawkish and famously moustachioed US national security adviser using the ear of the President to push a hard line on Iran.Producer: Ben Carter

He's the post-punk storyteller with a taste for panto and The Smiths. Becky Milligan profiles the new poet laureate, Simon Armitage.Producer: Ben Carter

Penny Mordaunt has just been handed her dream job. This daughter of a former paratrooper has been appointed Britain’s new Defence Secretary following Gavin Williamson’s sacking. She’s the first woman ever to hold the role. A Brexiter, Royal Navy reservist, reality TV contestant and one-time magician’s assistant, some Conservatives apparently see Penny Mordaunt as a potential future leader.Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Ben Carter

Andy Evans has been at the forefront of the campaign to secure justice for himself and thousands of others - many who have not survived - affected by what’s been called the worst scandal in NHS history. Next week he’ll give evidence at the Infected Blood Inquiry. He's waited a long time. The group he co-founded, Tainted Blood, takes as its motto words from the philosopher Voltaire: “to the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe only the truth”. Producer: Smita Patel Researcher: Tural Ahmedzade Editor: Richard Knight

Loyle Carner might not be a household name yet. But in the music world this week he’s the one everyone's talking about; a young British hip hop artist rapping about things the macho world of hip hop usually ignores - like family. His 2017 debut album was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Now the follow up - ‘Not Waving But Drowning’ - is poised in the charts to bring him mainstream success.Producer: Smita Patel Researcher: Tural Ahmedzade Editor: Richard Knight

As Libya edges towards civil war, Becky Milligan looks at the life of the man behind the most recent conflict, which began with his military assault on the city of Tripoli.Known as "The Strongman", Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar comes from a family of soldiers and as a young man admired his fellow army student Muammar Gaddafi, who would later denounce him after their disastrous defeat in a war in Chad. He was given refuge by the Americans and ended up living for twenty years in Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA, before returning to Libya, with the self-proclaimed aim of saving the country from extremists. Producers Smita Patel & Tural Ahmedzade Editor Andrew Smith

The England and Tottenham Hotspur defender Danny Rose says he’s had enough of being on the end of racist abuse at matches and “can’t wait to leave football behind”.On Profile this week, Mark Coles tries to find out why.Friends and colleagues talk about the footballer’s formative years, his remarkable premiership debut against arch-rivals Arsenal and how a knee injury sparked depression and introspection. But it’s racism that dominates his story.A black player representing England in international matches, he’s been subjected to racist chanting and abuse. After last month’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Montenegro, he said , enough is enough… it’s time for football’s governing bodies to stamp it out. Producer Smita Patel Researcher Tural Ahmedzade Editor Emma Rippon

The primary school teacher at the centre of a row over LGBT rights has said he's received threats. Pupils have been pulled out of Parkfield School in Birmingham and parents have protested outside the school gates, chanting 'Say no to No Outsiders'. No Outsiders is the programme Andrew Moffat designed to teach pupils to be accepting of different types of people - despite their race, religion or sexuality. Some story books he uses feature families with two mothers or two fathers. He says he designed the programme so that no child has to hide who they are as he did when he was young. Thanks to the Varkey Foundation for footage of the Global Teacher Prize.Producers: Viv Jones, Phoebe Keane

The Conservative MP Sir Oliver Letwin made headlines this week when he persuaded the Commons to try to agree an alternative plan for Brexit. Mark Coles profiles the member for West Dorset, who has previously been in the news for - among other things - accidentally letting burglars into his home.

The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has received international attention for her response to the Christchurch attacks. Her call for unity was followed by swift action to tighten the country’s gun laws. Edward Stourton looks at the rise of this young leader.Producer: Phoebe Keane(Jacinda Ardern DJing audio courtesy of Marty Duda and The 13th Floor)

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is celebrating 30 years of his creation. He's also issued a warning that the Web could plunge towards a "dysfunctional future". Mark Coles looks at the life of the pioneering computer scientist.Producer: Phoebe Keane

Nan Goldin is a cultural icon and pioneer of art photography celebrated for her provocative and intimate photos of drag queens, drug addicts and sex. But recently she has been generating headlines not for her art but for her activism. The photographer has been fighting the US opioid epidemic after battling her own addiction to prescription painkillers.CORRECTION: In this edition of Profile we said Nan Goldin has protested on the steps of the Museum of Modern Art. In fact she has protested on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Producers: Viv Jones and Tural AhmedzadeProtest audio courtesy of Mike Quinn

CRISPR Cas9 has been described as the greatest biological breakthrough in decades. The hopes resting on this gene editing technology are immense - this week a Swiss drug company announced it is beginning a landmark clinical trial using CRISPR on a patient with a dangerous blood disease. Mark Coles profiles one of the creators of the technology, the American biochemist Jennifer Doudna. Clarification: In 2018 a federal court confirmed that the patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to the Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard concerning CRISPR editing of eukaryotic genomes do not interfere with patent claims filed by the University of California, Berkeley where Jennifer Doudna is based. A new decision in February 2019 has granted Jennifer Doudna and her team the patent at the heart of this intellectual property dispute. Jennifer Doudna and her team have been granted several substantial patents for CRISPR technology.Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Viv Jones, Tural Ahmedzade

MP Luciana Berger resigned from the Labour Party this week to join the newly-formed Independent Group. For years she has been the target of sustained anti-Semitic abuse, and has criticised the Labour Party's handling of the issue. One of the reasons she gave for leaving the party is that she has come to view it as "institutionally anti-Semitic”. Her resignation comes within days of her facing a vote of no-confidence in her Liverpool Wavertree constituency, which was withdrawn after a bitter row.Presenter: Becky Milligan Producer: Viv Jones, Tural Ahmedzade Editor: Penny Murphy