Sir Martin Sorrell has spent the last three decades transforming a maker of wire shopping baskets into the world's largest advertising firm. The self-proclaimed workaholic bought a stake in Wire and Plastic Products plc in 1985 and has since taken the advertising world by storm with a string of major acquisitions. His meteoric rise is not without controversy. He is known for his relentless work ethic, punishing schedule, and ruthless approach to business. He has engaged in bitterly hostile takeo...
Apr 23, 2016•14 min
Mark Coles looks at the life and career of footballer Jamie Vardy. In just four years Vardy has gone from being a relative unknown, being paid a few hundred pounds a week at a non-league club, to one of the biggest names in European football. As well as playing for England, Vardy is Leicester City's star player - the team are now hotly tipped to win the Premier League. Rejected by Sheffield Wednesday while a member of their youth team for being too short, Vardy spent years working in a factory i...
Apr 16, 2016•14 min
Mark Coles profiles Sanjeev Gupta who this week met the Business Secretary Sajid Javid to discuss a possible deal to buy Britain's biggest steelworks at Port Talbot. In recent months he's invested significantly in British steel but before all that, in his earlier life, Gupta also bought and sold bicycles, sugar - even frozen chicken feet and fish heads. We ask his wife Nicola, sister Angeli and colleague Douglas Dawson what makes this entrepreneur tick - and why he thinks he can succeed in Port ...
Apr 09, 2016•14 min
Mark Coles profiles the actress, Sophie Okonedo, star of the new Sunday night drama, Undercover. She plays a successful barrister who discovers her life is based on a series of lies. Okonedo has a career encompassing stage, screeen and television, with parts as diverse as a future Queen Elizabeth (Liz Ten) in Doctor Who, to playing Winne Mandela. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Hotel Rwanda. Director Dominic Cooke, fellow actor Adjoa Andoh and writer Peter Moffat tell us why they ...
Apr 02, 2016•14 min
n 2002 the British journalist Nick Denton created Gawker in the US, a website which made its name breaking news and celebrity gossip. Last week a US court ordered the site to pay Hulk Hogan $140 million in damages, after Gawker ran a clip from a sex tape involving the wrestling star. Mark Coles profiles the man friends describe as being "ahead of his time" and a "visionary". But Mark also discovers how, as a journalist, Nick Denton reveals other people's secrets, while carefully guarding his own...
Mar 26, 2016•14 min
"Ambitious", "cold-hearted" and "calculating"; just some of the words used to describe Frauke Petry, leader of Germany's Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party. She has suggested German border police should be allowed to use firearms to deter illegal immigrants. The populist, right-wing AfD has, under her controversial leadership, jumped from winning just a few percent of the vote at the 2013 federal elections, to more than 20 percent in some parts of Germany in last weekend's regional election...
Mar 19, 2016•14 min
Senator Ted Cruz is a hardliner, even by the standards of his native Texas: anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, in favour of the death penalty and fiercely opposed to gun control. But in the race to be the next US president, some believe he has the best chance of beating Donald Trump to the Republican nomination. Son of a Cuban immigrant - and a virtual unknown three years ago - the 'anyone-but-Trump' candidate's ascent through Republican ranks has been as stratospheric as his style is divisive. W...
Mar 12, 2016•14 min
For more than 30 years Jenny Beavan has been designing beautiful and historically accurate costumes, for film and stage. But though she cares intensely how the costumes look on the actors and on screen, she has little interest in fashion or dressing up herself. So despite being called a bag lady at the Baftas she went along to collect her second Oscar in comfortable clothes. Presenter - Becky Milligan Producer- Shabnam Grewal and Elizabeth Cassin.
Mar 05, 2016•14 min
Chris Bowlby profiles the German art historian and curator Dr Hartwig Fischer, who this year takes over one of the most important jobs in UK culture: director of the British Museum. What can the museum's visitors - and its staff - expect from the new man in charge? Producer: Smita Patel.
Jan 02, 2016•14 min
Millions will miss Lady Violet's withering one-liners now that Downton Abbey is over. Chris Bowlby profiles one of Britain's most successful actors: Maggie Smith. Her extraordinary career has spanned Shakespeare on stage, Hollywood films and, of course, popular televison drama. Producer: Smita Patel Photo credit: "Downton Abbey" / Carnival Films.
Dec 26, 2015•14 min
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, has a plan to stop computers from taking over the world. The co-founder of Paypal - who made his first fortune in his twenties - has joined other tech giants to fund a not-for-profit company called OpenAI. Its aim is to develop the most advanced forms of artificial intelligence and then to share the results. Musk is among a group of thinkers - including Stephen Hawking - who have warned that AI could eventually lead to the end of the h...
Dec 19, 2015•14 min
Mark Clarke was once a rising star in the Conservative Party. He was a prominent figure who started and led 'RoadTrip2015', a project to bus young Conservatives into marginal seats to campaign door-to-door. Clarke was dubbed the 'Tatler Tory' after the magazine tipped him as a future minister. But he was recently expelled from the party following lurid allegations of blackmail and bullying, and the tragic suicide of one fellow activist. Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Sonia Rothwell....
Nov 28, 2015•14 min
Online hacking collective Anonymous declared "total war" on IS after the attacks in Paris. Their tactics have often been controversial, sometimes illegal, and don't always win them support. As so-called Islamic State vows to fight back, what is Anonymous likely to achieve and will its strategy help or hinder the fight against extremism? Presenter: Becky Milligan Producer: Ben Crighton.
Nov 24, 2015•14 min
Known by many in her country as 'The Lady', Aung San Suu Kyi has become one of the world's most famous female politicians. And yet she has never exercised any power in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Under the country's current constitution, she is forbidden from becoming president. Will she find a way of ruling the country if, as is expected, her party The National League for Democracy wins this weekend's elections? Aung San Suu Kyi's political career, which began dramatically with the failed...
Nov 07, 2015•14 min
She's the self-proclaimed Beyoncé of the House of Lords, calling herself a 'single lady' and an 'independent woman'. Baroness Tina Stowell is the Leader of the Upper House. She was in the spotlight this week after the Lords defeated the government over tax credits. After leaving school at 16, Baroness Stowell's journey to this position has been a discreet one. How will she negotiate the potentially testing times ahead as the government contemplates reform of the House of Lords? Presenter: Edward...
Oct 31, 2015•14 min
He's been a boxer, a bouncer and a bungee jumping coach. Now he's the Prime Minister of Canada. Justin Trudeau is going back to his childhood home, 24 Sussex Drive, the PM's residence in Ottawa. His father, Pierre Trudeau, was a previous resident. Justin Trudeau is young and charismatic. He might even be the world's first tattooed national leader. But who is he? What does he stand for? And can he live up to his famous name? Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Charlotte Pritchard and David Rhodes....
Oct 24, 2015•14 min
Saudi Arabia's human rights record is firmly back in the spotlight. A teenage boy on death row for protesting. A British pensioner expecting to be lashed. Britain no longer willing to help train those running the Kingdom's jails. Our subject this week - Saudi interior minister Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef - is right in the thick of it. Mark Coles profiles the man who is a crucial counter-terrorism partner for Britain and United States, and a hardliner who is next in line to the Saudi throne. Produc...
Oct 17, 2015•14 min
Bernie Sanders is a socialist and a grump. But is he also a future US president? Some 20,000 people recently turned out to hear Sanders speak - the sort of crowd Barack Obama would have been proud of in 2008. He is, it seems, an increasingly viable contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders has spent the last forty years attacking inequality and he is known for giving loud and impassioned speeches. But he can also be prickly with the media and he doesn't do small talk. So coul...
Oct 10, 2015•14 min
Gina Rinehart - one the world's richest women - is about to realise a lifelong dream: to own and operate her very own iron-ore mine. Rinehart's life has been defined by huge success and the staggering speed at which she has accumulated her enormous wealth - but also by family feuds which have pitted generations of her family against each other. Mark Coles profiles the controversial Australian billionaire. Producers: Ben Crighton and Chloe Hadjimatheou.
Oct 03, 2015•14 min
Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.
Sep 26, 2015•14 min
Perching on Labour's new front bench are high-flying twin sisters: Angela and Maria Eagle. Angela is the new shadow business secretary. Maria has been given the defence brief. Mark Coles profiles the pair who - over 25 years in politics - have soared from Merseyside to the heart of Westminster. Producers: Hannah Barnes and Chloe Hadjimatheou.
Sep 19, 2015•14 min
He’s the bad boy of French literature. Loved and hated in equal measure. But who is Michel Houellebecq? Ed Stourton profiles the controversial novelist who loves to provoke.
Sep 05, 2015•14 min
Sir John Chilcot has been at the heart of some of the most important political events in recent decades - often in the background, unnoticed by most. It's only in recent years, since he was asked in 2009 to lead the inquiry into the Iraq War, that his name has come to the attention of the wider public. Now - nearly six years after he started - the Chilcot Report has yet to be published, and Sir John has come under increasing pressure from politicians, media and the families of soldiers who lost ...
Aug 29, 2015•14 min
Dr Dre's first album for 16 years is top of the charts and a film charting the rise of NWA - his breakout 90s gangsta rap group - is playing to packed cinemas. Over the past 25 years Dr Dre has made an indelible mark on popular culture. After NWA he founded a record label and turned producer - making global stars of artists like Snoop Dogg and Eminem. And he's a hugely successful businessman. His Beats brand - whose headphones have become a ubiquitous fashion accessory - was sold last year to Ap...
Aug 22, 2015•14 min
Founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand Michelle Mone's rags to riches tale. Clever use of PR has helped make Michelle Mone one of Britain's most recognisable businesswomen. Now she has been made the government's new entrepreneurship tsar and is tipped for a place in the House of Lords. Presenter Mark Coles charts her journey from childhood poverty in Glasgow to a City penthouse overlooking the Thames. Producers: Keith Moore and Katie Inman.
Aug 15, 2015•14 min
Suddenly everyone's taking Jeremy Corbyn seriously. Dismissed by many as a fringe 'unelectable' figure in the Labour leadership campaign, a bearded vegetarian lover of Latin American revolutionaries, Commons rebellions and allotments, he's now making the running. Chris Bowlby explores what's shaped him, what sort of leader he'd be, and whether he really wants the top Labour job.
Aug 08, 2015•14 min
Billionaire Donald Trump, leading Republican candidate in the US Presidential race was in Scotland this week. Mark Coles asks if he has what it takes to get him to the White House.
Aug 01, 2015•14 min
Mhairi Black was yet to graduate when she was elected to the House of Commons in May - the youngest Member of Parliament for over a century. She overturned a 16,000 majority and ousted the veteran Labour MP Douglas Alexander to win Paisley and Renfrewshire South for the SNP. She's packed a lot in to the past few weeks: taking her seat in Parliament; sitting the final exam of her politics degree (dissertation subject: the rise of the SNP); attending her graduation ceremony; and making her maiden ...
Jul 25, 2015•14 min
Mark Coles profiles the muckraker's muckraker, American journalist Seymour Hersh, who has challenged the official story of how Osama Bin Laden was killed. The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer is one of the world's most famous investigative reporters. He exposed both the My Lai massacre, when US soldiers killed hundreds of civilians during the Vietnam war, and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison. To some he is a hero - a tenacious investigator of uncomfortable truths...
May 16, 2015•14 min
The last couple of weeks of the election campaign - and the erroneously narrow polls which highlighted the role of The Queen in the event of a hung parliament - brought to the attention of the public a man who has held arguably one of the most important jobs in Britain since 2007, but who remains largely unknown. He's Sir Christopher Geidt, Private Secretary to The Queen. He is her adviser on political and constitutional matters, and her line of communication to the Government. But who is he? Pr...
May 14, 2015•14 min
