Profile

This week, with Republicans celebrating mid term election victories, Rand Paul - a Tea Party supporting ophthalmologist from Kentucky with only three years' experience in the Senate is fast emerging as one of the frontrunners to try to wrest the US Presidency back from the Democrats in 2016. Rand is part of a political dynasty although hardly from the Republican Party establishment. His father Ron - also a physician turned politician - ran as a Libertarian for the US Presidency twice on a platform championing free markets, small government and a ferocious determination to keep the state out of individuals lives. Rand shares many of his father's ideas but his challenge now is making them palatable to a majority of the Republican party and a majority of people in the country. Many ask if he could pose a serious threat to Hilary Clinton by greatly expanding the Republicans' appeal and reaching out to African Americans and young voters. Some praise Rand Paul for his unconventional yet pragmatic approach - TIME magazine recently called him "the most interesting man in US politics." But some see him as a wolf in sheep's clothing and a dangerous isolationist. In this edition of Mark Coles asks who exactly is Rand Paul - the man who eschews small talk but embraces loud shirts and turtle neck sweaters?

Film director Christopher Nolan's latest $160m blockbuster Interstellar opens next week. Mark Coles examines the more humble beginnings of his film making career at University College London and asks how he has achieved the enviable knack of delivering huge box office takings and keeping the critics happy.Producer: Ben Carter.

Migration Watch UK's founder Sir Andrew Green is to become a member of the House of Lords. Presenter Jo Fidgen talks to Sir Andrew's old friends and colleagues in an attempt to find out what motivated this former ambassador to Syria and Saudi Arabia become one of the UK's most influential voices on immigration.Producer: Laura Gray.

Writer Richard Flanagan is the 2014 winner of the Man Booker Prize. His novel "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" is a story set among prisoners of war, forced by the Japanese to work on the Thai-Burma "death" railway. Presenter Becky Milligan looks into Flanagan's life in his native Tasmania where he is a prominent environmental campaigner and a regular at the local pub. She talks to Flanagan's close friends and relatives including his brother Martin Flanagan, leading film actress Kerry Fox and publisher Nikki Christer.Producer: Smita Patel.

Douglas Carswell has become UKIP's first elected MP in Westminster. A free-thinking Eurosceptic Conservative, Carswell was never shy to criticise "our supine, spineless Parliament". Nonetheless his surprise defection in the summer shocked his friends and supporters. Ed Stourton asks what made him leave now and whether there's more to Douglas Carswell than jam-making and politics.

In January 2014 Benefits Street aired for the first time on Channel 4. The reality TV series, which documented the lives of residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham, was controversial right from the start. Ofcom and Channel 4 received hundreds of complaints.One straight-talking resident - Deirdre Kelly, also known as 'White Dee' - became the standout star of the show. Many of the headlines were negative and the mother-of-two found herself vilified, accused of being a scrounger and worse.But she received a warmer welcome on Celebrity Big Brother this summer and more recently this week at the Conservative Party Conference where she spoke at a fringe event hosted by a think-tank.So how did an ordinary woman from Birmingham, who has spent the last several years living off benefits, become so famous - and, potentially, influential? Mark Coles travels to Birmingham to find out.Presenter Mark Coles Producer Ben Crighton.

Ricky Tomlinson is a top TV actor with starring roles including Brookside and The Royle Family. But he has a controversial trade union past, and was once imprisoned for picketing during a strike. A new play about him has just opened. Mary Ann Sieghart discovers a powerful mix of politics and personal drama in his life and career.Producer: Ben Crighton.

How did Shane Smith - a hard-partying, tattooed former Ottawa punk rocker - turn a community magazine into an international multi-media empire?Mark Coles looks at the life of one of the founders of Vice, a man whose motto is: "We like our stories to punch you in the face."His company is the fast-growing enfant terrible of digital media. Renowned for its often controversial reports aimed at a young audience disillusioned with mainstream media, it seems that no subject is taboo. Scoops include an interview with a former Liberian warlord and cannibal, as well as a trip to North Korea with former basketball player Dennis Rodman to meet Kim Jong-un. Among Vice's often controversial documentaries from war zones was this summer's eye-opening report from inside the Islamic State. Vice may have been accused of 'daredevil' journalism but that hasn't stopped the likes of Rupert Murdoch heralding Vice a "global success" and buying a 5% stake in the company. Could Vice become the next CNN, as Shane Smith hopes?Presenter: Mark Coles Producer: Ben Crighton.

How did Jack Ma, a teacher with no business training, become one of China's - indeed, the world's - most successful entrepreneurs?The BBC's business editor Kamal Ahmed looks at the man behind the online retail giant Alibaba Group - a company described as a mix between Amazon and Ebay - which is due to list on the New York Stock Exchange later this month, making Alibaba one of the most valuable internet companies in the world.Jack Ma is no ordinary business leader. How many other global tycoons like to fill a stadium with their employees only to step on stage, be-wigged, to deliver not bland corporate messages, but Lion King songs?Producer: Ben Crighton Presenter: Kamal AhmedArchive clips from the film 'Crocodile in the Yangtze: The Alibaba Story' (by Porter Erisman).

Edward Stourton profiles Rona Fairhead, the woman nominated to replace Lord Patten as chair of the BBC Trust. She's a high achiever who excelled at school and in the world of business, but her nomination caught many by surprise. So who is she, and how will she fare in one of the BBC's toughest jobs?