Profile

Mark Coles looks at the life of Leo Varadkar, head of Fine Gail, the country's governing centre right party and the newly appointed Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland.Varadkar has made history in Irish politics. The country's first openly gay leader and at 38, its youngest ever. He's the son of an Indian GP and Irish nurse, who followed in family footsteps to become a doctor. Aged just eight, he expressed his desire to become health minister, a position he would come to hold in his early political career.Interviews include: his oldest friend Andy Garvey, close friend Nollaig Crowley, former teacher John Rafter, Noel Whelan, a political columnist with the Irish Times & the Irish politician Paschal Donohoe.Producer Smita Patel Researcher Sarah Shebbeare Editor Penny Murphy.

Arlene Foster's Democratic Unionist Party now holds the balance of power, after elections this week. Some people have suggested that all the parties lost - but across the Irish Sea one party definitely won. Only with their votes can the Conservatives get things through the House of Commons. Which makes Arlene Foster possibly the most powerful woman in Britain. Mark Coles takes an updated look at the former first minister of Northern Ireland.Producer Smita Patel Editor Richard Vadon Researcher Jordan Dunbar.

Mark Coles profiles sculptor and installation artist Cornelia Parker, this year's official election artist. Parker's work has involved spectacular acts of destruction, from flattening brass band instruments, to dismantling old barns and blowing up sheds. As Parker roams the country observing the election campaign, Coles speaks to her friends and peers about how she went from a childhood spent in rural Cheshire where she struggled to fit in, to Turner Prize-nominated artist.

Mark Coles profiles the director David Lynch, whose classic TV series Twin Peaks has just returned to the screen after 25 years. Obsessed with drawing and painting from an early age, Lynch's mother didn't even allow him colouring books in case they halted his artistic development. Despite dropping out of art school, Lynch first made his name with surreal short films before directing the cult hit Eraserhead. There was further success with The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet before Twin Peaks brought his work to a mainstream TV audience. Alongside his film work, Lynch has also produced paintings, photographs of abandoned factories, musical collaborations, and even designed nightclubs. A continual stream of creative output fuelled by Transcendental Meditation.

Mark Coles profiles Robert Mueller who's just been appointed as special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the US election. Mueller retired as director of the FBI four years ago, but now finds himself centre stage again. The squared-jawed Princeton graduate was decorated for bravery during the Vietnam War before training as a lawyer. Dissatisfied with private practice, he found a government job as assistant US attorney in San Francisco - a move which marked the beginning of a steady climb to the top of law enforcement in America.Robert Mueller became FBI director one week before the 2001 World Trade Center attacks and over the next twelve years transformed the organisation, moving thousands of staff from criminal investigations into counter terrorism and security. Yet surprisingly little is known about him personally.

Former editor and columnist of The Sun Kelvin MacKenzie is to leave the paper after comparing Everton footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla. It's not the first time MacKenzie has attracted controversy. In 1989, under his editorship, The Sun published a story claiming that Liverpool fans urinated on police, pick-pocketed the dead and prevented policemen giving the kiss of life to some of the victims at Hillsborough. It proved to be, as the paper later admitted, the "most terrible blunder" in The Sun's history and one for which Kelvin Mackenzie would be personally blamed. There have been allegations of bullying in the workplace and humiliating colleagues. But, as Becky Milligan hears, he's also considered to be a brilliant editor with an instinct for knowing exactly what his readers want. So is there a softer, more sensitive side to the abrasive newspaper man?

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has been called 'the chief Eurocrat' by the British press and accused of looking to bully Britain during the Brexit negotiations. But what do we know about the man Theresa May has promised to be 'a bloody difficult woman' to?One of the longest serving democratically elected leaders in the world, Juncker was Prime Minister of Luxembourg for eighteen years. A workaholic, with a famously informal greeting style that sometimes involves affectionately slapping world leaders, Juncker has developed a political reputation as a negotiator, skilled at finding compromises between two sides.But in his spare time, he's a pinball wizard.

Aretha Franklin has won hearts - and 18 Grammy awards - with her astonishing voice. But this week a bust up with another iconic singer revealed her spikier side. Always a sensation on stage, there have been struggles off it. Mark Coles talks to people who grew up with and have worked with the Queen of Soul.

Welsh rugby union star Sam Warburton has been given perhaps the game's most prestigious role - captain of the British & Irish Lions - for a second time. Mark Coles talks to those who know him, as he prepares to lead the team against the mighty All Blacks.

On Profile this week, we look at the life and career of new US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.He flew to Moscow this week to urge Russia to abandon its support for Syria's President Assad following the chemical weapons on a town in northern Syria earlier this month. It seems he came away empty handed, with Donald Trump warning that relations between Russia and the US were now at "an all-time low". So who is Rex Tillerson ? Mark Coles gets to grips with Tillerson's past : his formative years in the Scouts, his time as a drummer at university, the four decades spent at oil and gas giant ExxonMobil where he ended up as CEO and his controversial business ties with Russia which now hang over his new role as America's top diplomat.