Profile

With the Ashes underway, Mark Coles profiles the England cricket captain Alastair Cook. Born on Christmas Day in 1984, Cook's first career was as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral. A talented musician, he also studied the clarinet and the saxophone but cricket soon took over and he made his England Test debut at 21, scoring a century. He's hit more Test centuries for England than any other player but shuns celebrity and spends his spare time sheep farming.

This week the football world ascended dizzying heights of breathlessness over the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. But as one footballing titan steps down, another - a man who is, in some ways, the antithesis of Sir Alex - is about to step up to take on one of the highest-profile jobs in world football. Tim Franks profiles Pep Guardiola, and asks whether he could be Sir Alex's successor as perhaps the most successful manager in the game.

As she wages war against tax avoidance, Margaret Hodge - Chair of the Public Accounts Committee - is enjoying a blazing Indian summer in her political life. As Edward Stourton discovers, her political journey is set against the background of a turbulent personal life that began as the daughter of Jewish refugees in Egypt.

Alisher Usmanov has just been named the richest man in Britain. Born in Uzbekistan, Usmanov made his fortune in the collapsing Soviet Union. His empire has stretched from plastic bags to minerals, telecoms, Facebook and Arsenal Football Club. But, as Mark Coles reports, Usmanov's rise has not been straightforward, nor free of controversy.

Mark Coles profiles the long-serving and influential head of the FBI, Robert Mueller. Mueller took on the job one week before the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Now, as he approaches retirement, the FBI is again dealing with the aftermath of an attack on American soil.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.He transformed the FBI from an organisation that solves crimes into one that also seeks to prevent terrorist attacks. He's now the longest-serving FBI director since J Edgar Hoover. Yet surprisingly little is known about him.

Mary Ann Seighart profiles Elizabeth Llewellyn, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who had an obvious talent for singing from an early age. Her school-teachers in south London encouraged her to take lessons and go to concerts, and she won a place at the Royal Northern College of Music. But ill-health forced her to drop out. She then pursued an alternative career in IT recruitment, her talent lying dormant. But when, years later, she joined an amateur choir, her new colleagues urged her to take her voice more seriously. She auditioned for the Glyndebourne chorus and from that point on her rise has been meteoric.

Amazon first became the world's biggest bookshop and then went on to revolutionise shopping as we know it. What began in 1994 as a small start-up in a Seattle suburb has become arguably the most significant technology company on the planet. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, is now a billionaire many times over. Bezos rarely makes public pronouncements and avoids media interviews. Those who have worked with him describe him as a hands-on manager, who plans the grand strategy as a well as the tiny details. His wealth has given him the opportunity to pursue a passion for space travel. He has been building research facilities in a remote part of Texas for a secretive space programme. But who exactly is Jeffrey Preston Bezos?Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles the Reverend Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's Piccadilly, and a former Canon of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Many inside the Church see her as favourite to become the first female bishop of the Church of England, if the rules change.Lucy Winkett read history at Cambridge before studying theology, and then trained as a soprano at the Royal College of Music for a year, even though she'd already decided to enter the priesthood. She uses her musical and creative side in her ministry, too, and has been known to burst into a rendition of Aretha Franklin's Natural Woman while playing the piano after morning service.Her appointment to St Paul's was controversial at the time and was initially tough for Lucy Winkett. Some couldn't accept the presence of a woman priest, and refused to take communion from her. But today her supporters are, it seems, many.Producer Fiona Leach.

Chris Bowlby looks at the 22-year old Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen. He has the highest rating in the world ever and has been called the Mozart of chess.He is currently in London playing the tournament that will determine which top player gets to challenge the reigning world champion, Vishy Anand, for that title. Carlsen has been amazing the world of chess since he was a child. He became a Grandmaster after just four years of playing, when he was thirteen. He also achieved a draw against chess legend Gary Kasparov at that age. His talent and achievements later caught the attention of the fashion world, and he was asked to model for denim brand G-Star Raw, giving the image of chess a make-over in the process. He is said to have a photographic memory, but uses it to remember sports results and trivia more than chess openings. An instinctive and fast player, he also has extraordinary staying power and can change a game five hours in, when his opponents start to flag. Can this chess wunderkind now become world champion? And what is he actually like? Lesley Curwen talks to those who know him best, from his dad and his first coach, to famous chess players like Nigel Short.Producer: Arlene Gregorius.

Chris Bowlby profiles the British-educated Chinese property billionaire Zhang Xin, one of the most powerful women in business. She is in advanced talks to buy 40 per cent of Manhattan's iconic General Motors building.Zhang Xin stands out as the high-profile CEO of the prominent, upmarket property developer SoHoChina, which she founded with her husband. Unusually for Chinese billionaires, she is also a philanthropist and speaks out about issues ranging from democracy to smog, in the international media and on her micro-blog.A rags to riches story, she grew up in very modest circumstances, particularly after her Chinese-Burmese translator parents split up, and her mother moved her from Beijing to a tiny room in Hong Kong, where she worked in a factory.After saving up for the airfare to the UK, she was then educated at Sussex and Cambridge universities, worked for Goldman Sachs, and returned to China where she built up her business with her husband.What motivates this billionaire mother-of-two to carry on working, particularly as property developers are often reviled in China?