Profile

As Glenda Jackson returns to the West End stage, Mark Coles profiles the Oscar-winning actor and former Labour MP, with contributions from her son Dan Hodges, Hollywood actor George Segal and legenda…

As jobs go, it's a daunting one. Three predecessors have already resigned. On Profile this week Mark Coles profiles Professor Alexis Jay, the fourth and latest person appointed to chair the independe…

Samsung started out as a tiny exporter of dried fish. Today it's one of the world's biggest tech giants; the family-run business accounts for about a quarter of South Korea's entire GDP.

This week Sam…

British Professor David Thouless won this year's Nobel Prize for contributions to the field of topology. Two other British physicists, Professor J. Michael Kosterlitz and Professor Duncan Haldane sha…

When Theresa May became Prime Minister she appointed Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy as her joint Chiefs of Staff. It's a role first imported from the US by Tony Blair, when he brought in Jonathan Powell…

The new President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is in the news this week because he's threatening to send home some of America's troops and "re-orientate" his country's foreign policy away fro…

Elon Musk is the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, and the co-founder of Paypal. He plans to colonise Mars. Last week that dream might have been scuppered as his SpaceX rocket exploded on…

Last October Seumas Milne, a Winchester- and Oxford-educated left-winger, was granted unpaid leave from his position at The Guardian to enter the world of political spin as executive director of stra…

Mark Coles speaks to family, friends and colleagues of cyclist Laura Trott - the first British woman to win four Olympic golds - to find out how, after winning her first bike race at the age of eight…

Poet, painter and virtuoso pianist, Stephen Hough has been described as a polymath. He learned to play on a piano that cost £5 from a local antique shop and went on to become a virtuoso to astonish t…

You may not have heard of Sonia Friedman, but she's one of the most important people in British theatre. She's produced many of the biggest stage hits of the past 15 years - including Jerusalem and T…

Edward Stourton profiles the Labour leadership contender, Owen Smith. MP for Pontypridd since 2010, Mr Smith is challenging Jeremy Corbyn, saying that he's not up to the job. A former colleague at …

With no leadership campaign - during which the public might have got to know her better - Theresa May has entered Downing Street with a remarkably low profile. Mark Coles has been talking to people w…

Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May are vying to be the next Conservative leader and Britain's second ever female prime minister. Mark Coles explores how a little-known junior energy minister was propelle…

This week the Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley gave evidence to a Business Select Committee inquiry into working conditions at his firm. In a rare public appearance, he admitted that the company had…