Profile

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 could Bernie Sanders, the self-styled socialist and "grumpy old guy", beat Hillary Clinton - and the Republicans - to become the next President of the United States? Chris Bowlby reports.Producers: Keith Moore and Ben CrightonThe song "Feel the Bern", used in this programme, was performed by Tony Tig and produced Corbett.

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.

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.

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.

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.

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 their lives.Adam Fleming profiles a private man who has had to get used to the spotlight.Producers: Keith Moore and Joe Kent.

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 Apple for $3bn (£1.8bn).It's all a long way from his start in life as a poor child to a teenage mother in Los Angeles. But, as Mark Coles hears, there's a dark side to Dr Dre's story of almost unimaginable success.Producers: Keith Moore and James Melley.

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.

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.

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.

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 speech, in which she attacked the Conservative budget with the observation that she was the only 20-year-old in the whole of the UK who the Chancellor was prepared to help with housing support. The seven minute speech has been viewed online an astonishing 10 million times.Mhairi Black emerged as a political starlet during the referendum campaign on Scottish independence in 2014. She caught the eye of the former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars, who invited her to play a central role in the Yes Campaign, and who also advise

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. To others he is a fantasist - a gullible journalist who sees conspiracy and cover-up wherever he looks.At 78 he shows no sign of slowing down. Now Mark Coles investigates the investigator.Producers: Hannah Barnes and Joe Kent.

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?Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Joe Kent and Charlotte Pritchard.

Earlier this week, Loretta Lynch was sworn in as the new US Attorney General. Brought up in North Carolina the daughter of a Baptist minister father and a mother who picked cotton as a young girl, Lynch is the first black woman to hold the position of the nation's top law enforcement official. Harvard-educated Lynch worked at several private law firms and has been a federal prosecutor, winning high-profile cases against corrupt New York lawmakers, sex traffickers and mafiosi. But there has been criticism, too. She is accused of being soft on Wall Street wrongdoing. Edward Stourton has been speaking to people who know her well.Producer: Chloe Hadjimatheou.

Mark Coles profiles Aidan Turner, the Irish actor who stars in Poldark, the BBC's most successful drama for a decade. Turner has won legions of fans as the brooding, scythe-wielding Cornish hero in the classic costume drama remake.Producers: Ben Crighton and Chloe Hadjimatheou.

With five World Championship titles already under his belt, Ronnie 'The Rocket' O'Sullivan will compete in Sheffield this weekend hoping to secure a sixth. He is seen by many as the greatest snooker player in history. O'Sullivan arrived on the professional snooker scene when he was just a teenager, and immediately caused a storm. His talent was never in doubt. When on form, he is unbeatable. But his public battles with alcoholism, drugs and depression have plagued him throughout his career. Which Ronnie will be on display at the Crucible over the next few weeks? Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Hannah Barnes and Ben Crighton.

We learned this week that Jane Horrocks, Jim Broadbent and Fearne Cotton are to voice a new run of the hit children's TV series Teletubbies. It's estimated that around a billion children in over 120 countries have watched Teletubbies but there have been no new episodes since 2001, and the imminent return of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po has made news around the world. But who, or what, are the Teletubbies? And why have they proved such an enduring cultural phenomenon?Presenter: Becky Milligan Producers: Ben Crighton and Hannah Barnes.

This week Comedy Central announced that South African comedian Trevor Noah is to take over from Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show.It was a surprise to many that a relative unknown was set to take on one of America's leading talk shows, but Noah's star has been rising fast in recent years.Already a well-known face on British TV and radio, thanks to his award-winning Edinburgh Fringe show back in 2012, the 31-year-old has certainly shown the confidence to take on one of TV's biggest jobs - critics might call it arrogance.Young, good looking, mixed race - Noah is said to be an ad-man's dream, and it's said Comedy Central will be looking to cash in on his global appeal. However, his reputation has already been slightly tarnished as the media began to dig into his Twitter feed and found some distasteful jokes.Noah said he shouldn't be judged on gags which didn't land, and his new bosses backed him up - but whether those same execs will be quite as forgiving once he takes the hotseat is yet to be seen.Trevor No

On Thursday evening seven party leaders will meet in an ITV studio for the much-anticipated general election debate. Some of them are - it's fair to say - rather less well known than others. Many viewers - in England, at least - will not know all that much about Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader. So, on Profile this week, Mark Coles has been finding out what makes her tick.Producer: Gemma Newby.

Italy's famous couture couple Dolce & Gabbana have fallen out with Elton John over off-colour comments they made about IVF babies and gay families. But they have no shortage of fans. Becky Milligan profiles the characters behind one of the world's greatest - and most valuable - fashion empires.Producer: Chloe Hadjimatheou.