Tom Fletcher heads the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has been at the forefront of recent efforts to deliver aid into Gaza. Last week, he was criticised for making inaccurate claims about the impact of the Israeli blockade. No stranger to tough jobs, he was previously a foreign policy advisor to three British Prime Ministers and the UK Ambassador to Lebanon as the country dealt with the civil war in neighbouring Syria. He once fought the mayor of Nairobi in a...
May 31, 2025•14 min
In April 2024 Rosemary Coogan became only the third person from the UK to qualify as an astronaut after completing basic training with the European Space Agency (ESA). Originally from Northern Ireland, she excelled academically and holds two master's degrees from Durham University and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Sussex. She became an ESA astronaut after a challenging selection process which whittled down 22,000 applicants. The agency hopes to send Rosemary to the International Spac...
May 24, 2025•15 min
Earlier this month the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also made President Trump's National Security Advisor. The last person to undertake both roles simultaneously was Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. The son of Cuban immigrants, Mr Rubio has had a turbo-charged career; rising from junior positions in his home city of Miami, to the US Senate which he reached before he turned 40 and now a Cabinet position where he dominate US foreign policy. As a boy he dreamed of being President and he made ...
May 17, 2025•14 min
Reform UK triumphed in May’s local elections, winning many more council seats up for grabs than the other major parties. Behind the scenes, the party has gone through major changes. Millionaire businessman and donor Zia Yusuf was appointed chairman last summer, and has been credited with professionalising the party. The son of Sri Lankan immigrants, he made his money co-founding a luxury concierge business, before moving into politics; and all before the age of 40. But where do his ambitions lie...
May 10, 2025•14 min
President Trump shocked the world earlier this year when he announced plans to impose tariffs affecting nearly all goods entering America. But rather than coming as a surprise, the US President had made the policy one of the key cornerstones of his re-election campaign. He'd also implemented some tariffs during his first term in office too. Despite strong opposition to the move, President Trump enjoys the unflinching support of economist Peter Navarro, who is seen by many as the architect of the...
May 03, 2025•15 min
Canadians are gearing up to vote in a snap General Election. It's been called by Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England, who in recent months replaced Justin Trudeau as leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party. Carney is hoping to receive a fresh mandate from the public, and face down US President Donald Trump, whose rhetoric towards America's neighbour in the north has become increasingly belligerent since returning to the White House. It's been a long journey for 60-year-old Ca...
Apr 26, 2025•15 min
Beloved Britpop band Pulp have released their first new music in almost a quarter of a century, the single 'Spike Island'. Their talismanic frontman Jarvis Cocker has always been the band's star turn, with his second-hand 70s style, mesmeric stage presence and biting lyrics. Following some difficult early years in his hometown of Sheffield, Cocker formed the band in 1978, but had to wait over a decade before breaking through on the crest of the Britpop wave in the mid-90s. The band released some...
Apr 19, 2025•15 min
Stephen Smith profiles the actor Lesley Manville, winner of a second Olivier theatre award. From growing up in Hove to her long-time collaboration with film-maker Mike Leigh, Manville has a reputation as the complete professional. With contributions from Mike Leigh, Director Rob Icke, Actor Tim McCullan, former teacher Julia Clarey, Observer critic Susannah Clapp and friend Rebecca Blond. Presenter: Stephen Smith Production Team: Bob Howard, Chloe Scannapieco, Devian Maside Editor: Max Deveson S...
Apr 12, 2025•15 min
Steve Witkoff started out as a New York lawyer, until a late night encounter with Donald Trump in a sandwich shop inspired him to move into real estate. Known as "Smoking Steve", he has amassed a property empire worth millions, become friends and golf buddies with Trump, and has now been appointed as his Middle East Envoy and go-to international negotiator and trouble shooter. To his critics he's dangerously unqualified and out of his depth. To his supporters, he's the straight-talking fresh pai...
Apr 05, 2025•15 min
Jack Thorne is co-author of Netflix drama Adolescence. But this is far from his first rodeo, over a 20 year career, his writing has appeared in many iconic British dramas, from Shameless and This is England '86 to His Dark Materials. He started out as a playwright and hasn't lost his love for theatre, having written West End box office hit, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Jack is known in the industry for his compulsive work ethic, political edge and capacity for empathy. Stephen Smith speaks...
Mar 29, 2025•15 min
Jonathan Powell, the UK’s National Security Adviser, is used to operating behind the scenes: he’s spent decades working as a diplomat, negotiator and mediator. Recent events in the US and Ukraine have thrust him into the spotlight. After the fiery Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, Powell has been credited with advising Ukraine and ensuring that lines of communication were kept open. He travelled to Kyiv to meet Zelensky and played a key role in fashioning a plan...
Mar 22, 2025•15 min
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has one the toughest tasks in Labour’s domestic programme: tackling the burgeoning welfare bill. Next week, the government is expected to announce reforms to the welfare system. There is unease over the plans within the party, with some Labour MPs saying they fear drastic cuts could push vulnerable people into poverty. The move could split the party and put Liz Kendall in a difficult position. A grammar school girl, Kendall went on to study history at Camb...
Mar 15, 2025•14 min
As the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas is the bloc's top diplomat. So when EU leaders gathered in Brussels this week to thrash out a new defence plan for Ukraine, Kallas was in the thick of things. Before taking up the EU role she was Prime Minister of Estonia, the nation's first female leader. She was born in 1977 in the Estonian capital Tallinn, then part of the Soviet Union, into a family bound up with her country’s centuries-old struggle for independence. A Russia hawk and...
Mar 08, 2025•14 min
He’s the former corporate lawyer, who has a pilot's licence and loves music, but has never before been a government minister. Friedrich Merz was born in the west German town of Brilon in 1955 into a prominent conservative, Catholic family. He joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) while still at school, before going on to study law. Merz then worked as a lawyer and judge for a few years, but he always had his eye on politics. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1989, and his journe...
Mar 01, 2025•15 min
His 14 year-stint at the top of European politics has earned him a distinguished record of domestic and international achievements. Mark Rutte, born in The Hague in 1967, embarked on a career in business after leaving university and held several positions at Unilever. His career in Dutch politics started in 2002, and four years later – as leader of the VVD party – he became prime minister. During his tenure, he steered the Netherlands through times of significant national and global upheaval. Fr...
Feb 22, 2025•14 min
Having helped mastermind Labour's renewal in the 1980s and 1990s, one of British politics best-known figures has just embarked on his latest role. And, it's a long way from Hartlepool, in the post-industrial North-East of England, where he first became an MP. Born in 1953, Peter Mandelson started on the road to party politics as a researcher at the Trades Union Congress. After a stint as a TV producer, he left to take up the role of Labour's director of communications, but his real ambition was ...
Feb 15, 2025•15 min
Despite just winning a seventh consecutive presidential term, a look at Alexander Lukashenko’s early life reveals rather humbler origins. Brought up by a single mother in a poor village in eastern Belarus, he first made his mark as the manager of a farm in the late 1980s. After moving into politics at the end of that decade, he quickly established his reputation as a man with authoritarian instincts – and by 1994, he was elected president of Belarus for the first time. Ever since, he has managed...
Feb 01, 2025•15 min
A mathematician and cyber defence expert, Poppy Gustafsson has been handed an integral role within government, as the prime minister attempts to grow the economy and attract international investment. She was born in 1982, to parents John and Gilly. Her father ran an agricultural sales business, while her mother was a journalist. In her early career, Poppy Gustafsson worked for a venture capital firm before co-founding Darktrace, a cybersecurity company, in 2013. She would go on to take the role ...
Jan 25, 2025•15 min
She is the renowned scientist who studied environmental engineering, and went on to hold the role of mayor of Mexico City during the Coronavirus pandemic. Late last year, Claudia Sheinbaum made further history. "For the first time in the 200 years of the [Mexican] Republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico," she said before taking office. Born in 1962, Claudia Sheinbaum’s father was a chemical engineer and her mother, a biology professor. Both parents descended from Jewish immig...
Jan 18, 2025•15 min
He's been described as the best connected man in the business world. Allan Leighton’s the arch-moderniser who's led some of the UK's most well-known companies. His career started at Mars Confectionery in the mid-70s, working his way up through the business over nearly two decades. But, it was in the 90s that Allan Leighton really made his name. He moved to Asda in 1992, becoming Chief Executive four years later. There he was credited with a successful turnaround of the supermarket and oversaw it...
Jan 11, 2025•15 min
He’s been described by his new bosses at the Football Association as, "one of the best coaches in the world". Thomas Tuchel has also earned a reputation as a “control freak”, with “charming” yet “divisive” attributes. Born in Krumbach, Bavaria in 1973 his football journey began as a youngster when his father coached him at his local club. After growing into a promising defender, a knee injury brought his playing career to an end at the age of 25, but he’d already turned his eye to coaching. Spel...
Jan 04, 2025•15 min
Oh! What’s occurrin'? Good question… This week’s Profile, with Stephen Smith, is focusing in on a woman born in Bridgend in south Wales, who loved to participate in musical theatre as a child – and went on to create one of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms. With a degree in drama under her belt from the University of Warwick, Ruth Jones initially found work at BBC Wales in both TV and radio comedy. She soon branched out into theatre, before gaining a role in the popular ITV series Fat Friends. It was...
Dec 28, 2024•15 min
Since it was privatised over a decade ago, there's been speculation around the future of the UK's troubled postal service, Royal Mail. Now the government has approved its purchase by the Czech billionaire, Daniel Křetínský, a relative unknown here in the UK. Born in communist Czechoslovakia in 1975, Křetínský was a teenager when the Berlin Wall came down. He started his career as a lawyer, but after taking a job in an investment firm soon acquired a reputation as a financial prodigy. He went on ...
Dec 21, 2024•15 min
Through his passion for stop motion and modelling clay, we have come to love his silent (but wise) dog and well-meaning owner. Wallace and Gromit are Nick Park’s most famous creations, but what more do we know about this Preston born Oscar winner? He would use his mother’s home movie camera to record his early films; he studied animation at the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire; and joined Aardman Animations in the mid-80s. Over the last few decades, Nick Park has gained cri...
Dec 14, 2024•15 min
From using a skateboard to baking sourdough, Tom Molnar leads an eclectic life. Born in the United States, he earned a degree in Ecology at Dartmouth College, before going on to gain experience in corporate strategy and client management. It was during those years, that he noticed a gap in the market for quality bread. Tom Molnar joined forces with Ran Avidan and Gail Mejia in 2005, and their Gail’s story began in a small corner of North London. Nearly 20 years later, the chain has become omnipr...
Dec 07, 2024•15 min
She is the self-styled "proud Yorkshirewoman" at the centre of an extraordinary week at Westminster. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind a bid to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill in England and Wales, was born in West Yorkshire in 1976. Before her life in politics, she worked in furniture sales and as an exercise instructor, before becoming a lecturer in health and exercise in her late 20s. But it was the murder of her sister Jo Cox in 2016 that saw her thrust into the public eye....
Nov 29, 2024•14 min
From television commercials in the 1970s, to today’s toga-ripping, chariot-flipping sequel to Gladiator. Sir Ridley Scott is one of Britain’s greatest film directors. The grammar school boy, born in South Shields, spent part of his childhood in Germany before pursuing his passion for art at school in Hartlepool and then the Royal College of Art. But the camera appealed to Scott as much as the canvas, and Stephen Smith has been talking with the Hollywood titan’s friends, family and peers to find ...
Nov 23, 2024•15 min
Born in communist East Germany, to a German mother and Iranian father, Sahra Wagenknecht has long been the face of the country’s hard left. But her own breakaway political movement, supporting a higher minimum wage as well as an end to weapons deliveries to Ukraine, appears to be gaining further support. And with Germany set to hold elections early next year, following the collapse of the governing coalition, some think the 54-year-old will play a pivotal role in the future politics of the EU's ...
Nov 16, 2024•15 min
She is one of the highest-ranking women in the Labour Party, now holding the position of home secretary. Yvette Cooper, born in Inverness in 1969, grew up in Hampshire and went on to forge a career in politics full of firsts. She served as the first female chief secretary to the Treasury. She also became the first minister to take maternity leave, and she was one half of the first married couple in the cabinet - alongside Ed Balls. But not everyone is convinced Yvette Cooper has the answers to t...
Nov 09, 2024•15 min
From his hilltop glass mansion in ancient Tbilisi, he’s accused of cultivating Georgia’s shift from the west over the past decade. And, with his political party’s recent victory in the parliamentary elections, that trajectory appears set to continue for some time yet. Bidzina Ivanishvili is the guiding force behind the Georgian Dream party, but what else do we know about the mysterious billionaire? In this edition of Profile, Mark Coles takes a closer look at the man who keeps animals, collects ...
Nov 02, 2024•14 min
