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
The Liverpool-born comedian, known for his razor-sharp wit, has traded in his stand-up routines for some serious dance moves of late. Chris McCausland is the first blind contestant to take part in the BBC show, Strictly Come Dancing - and he's being tipped as a possible winner. In his 20s, Chris lost most of his sight due to retinitis pigmentosa. But that didn’t slow down his career. He's been lighting up the comedy scene since 2003, with regular appearances on hit programmes like 8 Out of 10 Ca...
Oct 26, 2024•14 min
He's the man who masterminded Labour's general election campaign, and now holds one of the most important positions in Downing Street. Morgan McSweeney was recently appointed the prime minister's chief of staff, after Sue Gray quit the role. But what do we know about him? Born in Macroom, County Cork, he moved to London aged 17. He soon joined the Labour party under Tony Blair, working in a junior role at their headquarters. He rose through the ranks, forging a reputation as a skilled campaign s...
Oct 19, 2024•15 min
She’s a girl from New York's Lower East Side whom grew up to a life of stardom and is now known by just one name. Gaga, a classically trained pianist, has secured Grammy-winning songs like Poker Face and Rain on Me. While her performance in A Star Is Born was Oscar-nominated. Along the way, there’s been a meat dress, a high-profile stance against US military policy, and a collaborative album with Tony Bennett. Her latest work, Harlequin, is a companion album to her new big screen performance in ...
Oct 12, 2024•14 min
He’s not yet completed a hundred days in his new job, but David Lammy finds himself overseeing the UK’s response to rising tensions in the Middle East. Born to Guyanese parents in north London, and raised by his mother from the age of 12 after his father left them, the foreign secretary is known for his advocacy for social justice, equality, and human rights. His journey to the top of British politics began with a legal career – becoming the first black Briton to study a masters in law at Harvar...
Oct 05, 2024•15 min
It’s a tiny computer with a catchy name: Raspberry Pi. But what's the story behind the man who thought up this affordable device? His name is Eben Upton. He has gone from being a child desperate to make computer games, to the head of a company described as a ‘city darling’. The firm reported higher than expected profits in its first report, after being listed on the London Stock Exchange. Stephen Smith has been speaking to Eben Upton’s childhood friends, former colleagues and some big hitters in...
Sep 28, 2024•14 min
Some call it one of the trickiest jobs in the country. How do you stop the small boats trying to cross the English Channel and smash the smuggling gangs? The government has appointed Martin Hewitt to the role- he’s leading the UK’s new border security command. It’s a tough job, so can he do it? Martin Hewitt is a former senior police officer and chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council. He is also the man who oversaw the policing of Covid lockdowns. Mark Coles has been speaking to some of hi...
Sep 21, 2024•14 min
This week we delve into the life of the First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan, the first woman to hold the position. Morgan was introduced to politics at a very young age by her parents, who were both councillors. Her early career was spent working in broadcasting before her political career began at the age of 27, elected as the youngest Member of the European Parliament in 1994. She went on to take up a seat in the House of Lords and was Welsh Health Secretary during the Covid pandemic. Stephe...
Sep 14, 2024•15 min
Some of world football's biggest names have been linked to England's top job since Gareth Southgate hung up his waistcoat. But, for now at least, it is Lee Carsley who takes over as England's interim manager. The modest, methodical and quietly spoken coach started his footballing journey at Derby County – before making his name at Everton. Family and charity work are Lee Carsley’s other priorities. He’s a patron of the Solihull Down Syndrome Support Group – after they helped his middle child, Co...
Sep 07, 2024•15 min
James Graham’s writing obsession started at the age of six in the shadow of Nottinghamshire's former coalmines. Equipped with a typewriter from his mother he created hundreds of stories from the family home in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Accelerating through university in Hull and a writing residency in west London, Graham’s work started to attract wider audiences following a break at the National Theatre in 2012. Building on his thrilling political drama This House, he went on to write plays and TV ser...
Aug 31, 2024•14 min
From ‘hillbilly’ roots to becoming Donald Trump’s nominee for vice-president. At 39, if JD Vance is elected, he would be one of America’s youngest ever Vice-Presidents. A lot has been laid bare in his own words, in ‘Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis’. He talks about being raised by his grandparents who moved from the Appalachian Mountains area of Kentucky to Ohio, to a Middle America Rust Belt town looking for a better life. His mother struggled with drug addiction and ...
Jul 20, 2024•15 min
Shabana Mahmood is the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. Born in Birmingham in a Kashmiri Pakistani family, she has three siblings, one of whom is her twin. From an early age her father ensured that the children were aware of the world around them, and made them each read five minutes from the Times newspaper every evening. Inspired by the 1990's TV series, 'Kavanagh QC' to become a lawyer, Shabana Mahmood attended Lincoln College, Oxford University, a year below a certain ...
Jul 13, 2024•15 min
Evan Gershkovich is the Wall Street Journal's Moscow reporter. He's been imprisoned in Russia since March last year, and has just gone on trial there - the first American journalist to be jailed in Russia since the Cold War. He's accused of espionage, something he, his employer and his government all strenuously deny. To his friends, like Jeremy Berke, he is "the most extroverted person that I've ever met in my whole life". He loves football and is a dedicated Arsenal fan - so much so that he'd ...
Jul 06, 2024•15 min
Before she became one of the best-selling musicians of all time, Shania Twain worked for the family tree-planting business, singing for tips in lumberjack bars to help make ends meet. Stephen Smith charts the rise of a hard-up Canadian country girl, from a violent family home, to a country-pop crossover superstar. This year's Glastonbury 'Legends' slot will be the first time some will have seen or heard from Shania in decades - we hear about the disease that robbed her of her voice at the peak o...
Jun 29, 2024•15 min
Sometimes known as the “sultan of swing,” Professor Sir John Curtice has become an institution of election coverage in the UK. But is there more to the man than stats and figures? There might be some broad beans and jam, as Mark Coles finds out. CONTRIBUTORS Rev Dr Lisa Curtice, John’s wife Phil Tremewan, childhood friend John Leston, friend from university David Dimbleby, broadcaster Paddy O’Connell, BBC broadcaster PRODUCTION TEAM Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Ivana Davidovic, Diane Richard...
Jun 22, 2024•15 min
Who is National Rally's 28-year-old leader, Jordan Bardella? Stephen Smith looks at the life of the boy from the Paris suburbs who joined the far-right as a teenager and rapidly became the face of National Rally, helping to bring success for the party in the European elections. CCONTRIBUTORS Cécile Alduy, Professor of French Studies, Stanford University, Political Scientist, Sciences PO Paris Aymeric Durox, National Rally Senator Pascal Humeau, Communications Advisor and Media Trainer Bénédicte ...
Jun 15, 2024•15 min
Rylan Clark is on the cusp of becoming a national treasure. Having defied the odds of most reality TV stars, he has managed to stay the course, cementing his already steady career rise to the top with his most recent television outing with Rob Rinder 'Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour', which showed the viewing public a whole new side to his talents. Brought up in the East End by his mum, Linda. Rylan or Ross as his family and friends know him, was always performing from a young age, according to his m...
Jun 08, 2024•15 min
