Profile

Chief executive of Easyjet, Dame Carolyn McCall, is one of the UK's most successful businesswomen. Initially seen as an outsider, she has won over staff and investors, piloting the airline into the FTSE 100.Over the past three decades, she's also run the Guardian Media Group, and brought her wisdom to the boardrooms of Lloyds TSB, Tesco, Burberry and New Look. Last year she was voted Britain's most admired business leader.An only child, Dame Carolyn was brought up in Bangalore and Singapore, before moving to boarding school in Derbyshire, and later meeting her husband at Kent University.Mark Coles finds out more about this high flyer from her school roommate, former colleagues Alan Rusbridger and Sir Michael Rake, and Easyjet pilot Captain Angus Hogg.Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Ruth Alexander and Sarah Shebbeare.

Mark Coles profiles the life of the Labour politician, Lord Dubs.Born in 1932, Alfred Dubs came to the UK as a 6 year old, from Czechoslovakia on the 'Kindertransport'. He studied at the London School of Economics and had a career in marketing, before working as a local councillor. He was elected as an MP in 1979. This spring he introduced an amendment, in the House of Lords, to the government's immigration bill. He called on David Cameron to allow 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children into the UK from Europe. This week, the Prime Minister agreed to allow some children to enter.Friends and political opponents describe Lord Dubs as persuasive and determined. The programme speaks to friends, tennis partners and those who've been dragged up mountains by him.Produced by Ruth Alexander and Sarah Shebbeare.

She's been described as a swearing, chain-smoking version of Mother Teresa. Mother-of-two Liz Clegg was once a firefighter in Devon who hung out at music festivals. These days she spends most of her time in France, raising funds and caring round the clock for hundreds of young unaccompanied children in the so-called Jungle in Calais. Her efforts have attracted international attention, with Clegg being invited to discuss her work in the US. Her admirers in the UK include the actress Juliet Stevenson.Becky Milligan speaks to Liz Clegg's daughter Inca, her childhood friend Rufus Norris and others to reveal how she became a surrogate mother to so many.Presenter: Becky Milligan Producer: Ben Crighton.

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 takeovers, falling out with his competitors along the way.The business has made Sorrell a wealthy man. This year his salary is expected to hit £70m, a sum which he has no qualms defending. Sir Martin believes he is "worth every penny".Mark Coles speaks to Sir Martin Sorrell's childhood friend Simon Schama, his wife Cristiana Falcone and his colleagues and competitors, to reveal how he became the world's most powerful ad man.Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Ben Crighton.

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 in Sheffield, his recent success nothing short of a Hollywood fairy-tale. Indeed, a Hollywood film is in the pipeline. But his rise hasn't been problem free - in 2007 he was convicted of assault after an altercation outside a pub, and last year he was fined £40,000, by his own club, for reportedly making a racist comment in a casino.Mark Coles speaks to Vardy's childhood friend Liam Muirhead, his former teacher Dr Chris Wall and one of his first football coaches Gary Marrow, about what has made him the player he is today.Producer: Smita Patel.

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 Talbot where previous owners have failed.Producer: Smita Patel.

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 describe Okonedo as a trailblazer.Producers: Smita Patel and Phoebe Keane.

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.Producers: Katie Inman and David Rhodes.

"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 elections. The results surprised many. But is her brand of politics sincere, or - as some say - pure opportunism? And how far could she take the AfD? Ed Stourton finds out.Producer: Wesley Stephenson.

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. With the 2016 American election looming, we profile a man who, as a teenager, used to tour the Deep South reciting the US Constitution by heart. Making his name as a hot shot young lawyer, Senator Cruz helped George W. Bush reach the White House by winning a court battle over the infamous Florida election recount. And as a rookie politician, he made headlines with a marathon 21-hour filibuster featuring children's stories by Dr Seuss.We hear from early backers and political opponents, those who shared Ted Cruz's school days and witnessed his early legal triumphs. With make-or-break Republican primaries coming thick and fast - and Super Tuesday having transformed the competition - how has a politician with almost as many enemies on his own side as among the Democrats come within sight of the White House? What impact has his Christian faith had on his politics? And can Senator Cruz become - as he dreamed as a teenager - the most powerful man in the world?