Profile

BBC Radio 4
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Mar 9, 2013 • 14min

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber, the 19-year-old Canadian pop star, is an internet phenomenon with 35 million Twitter followers. His first hit is the most-watched video in YouTube history.He has upset fans on his UK tour by keeping them waiting before taking the stage, prompting some to suggest that the pressure of such extraordinary fame, experienced at such a young age, is beginning to show.Although Justin Bieber came to fame as a musical prodigy, who found his audience through the internet, these days his power as a global brand overshadows his reputation as an artist.Business is playing a growing part in his activities as he branches into venture capitalism by buying stakes in tech start-ups like Spotify.
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Mar 2, 2013 • 14min

Beppe Grillo

Beppe Grillo has achieved a stunning success in the Italian elections with the performance of the new citizens' protest network - the Five Star Movement. He is its guiding star, a comedian-turned politician. The movement emerged from the web and took its argument into town squares all over Italy. The citizen activists oppose what they regard as the corrupted, self-serving traditional parties - the entire failed political establishment. The movement has connected with huge numbers of Italians who have developed a contempt for the governing elite. Producer Ian MuirCochrane.
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Feb 23, 2013 • 14min

Mike Ashley

Mike Ashley began his business career as a teenager with a single shop in 1980s Maidenhead. Now his international Sports Direct empire makes him millions. Among his more recent acquisitions was Newcastle United football club. Chris Bowlby searches for the secret behind Ashley's huge retail success, and discovers what happened when a southerner who hates publicity tried to win over the Geordie faithful.
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Feb 16, 2013 • 14min

Tom Ford

Designer Tom Ford has become a brand in his own right. Running his own label, producing and directing the film 'A Single Man' and dressing the stars are just some of his successes.Now as he prepares his first full scale catwalk show for London Fashion Week, he's credited with attracting record interest and unprecedented numbers of US buyers to the event.In the 1990s he turned around the fortunes of Gucci, the luxury fashion house and revolutionised the luxury brand market. Despite controversial advertising campaigns his unique designs attracted celebrity clients and financial success.With his collections under his own label now eagerly anticipated, James Silver looks for the secret of his success.Producer: Gail Champion.
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Feb 9, 2013 • 14min

John Brennan

John Brennan, President Obama's trusted counter terror advisor has been nominated to head the Central Intelligence Agency amidst a storm of controversy. Despite being a career CIA man for more than 25 years, he's now at the centre of American foreign policy dilemmas, including questions about the use of drones, waterboarding techniques and the future of the world's most powerful intelligence agency. A Catholic basketball player, turned academic and fluent Arabic speaker, Brennan has risen through the CIA ranks and has recently been involved in "virtually all major national security issues" alongside the President. As the Senate asks him to justify some of the agency's most controversial decisions, Jane Deith asks how he will lead the agency as it faces ever new security challenges.Reporter - Jane Deith Producer - Gail Champion.
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Dec 8, 2012 • 14min

Sir Philip Green

Sir Philip Green is one of the UK's most successful, and colourful, businessmen; his stores are estimated to make up 10 per cent of the high street and his wealth runs into the billions. This week he sold a stake in his flagship fashion chains Topshop and Topman for a reported £500 million. Lesley Curwen profiles the man who is perhaps the most successful retailer of his generation, with contributions from Sir Stuart Rose, Bill Kenwright and Kate Phelan.Producers: Ben Crighton and Hannah Barnes.
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Dec 1, 2012 • 14min

Nigel Farage

The UK Independence Party has been in the news a lot lately: two of its supporters in Rotherham had their foster children taken away from them because of their UKIP affiliation; Conservative Party deputy chairman Michael Fabricant suggested the Tories might be wise to enter into a pact with UKIP at the 2015 general election; and rumours surfaced of a possible defection of several Conservative MPs to the anti-EU party. And then, of course, there were three Westminster by-elections in which UKIP rattled the main parties. This week, Rosie Goldsmith profiles UKIP's leader Nigel Farage.
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Nov 24, 2012 • 14min

Lynton Crosby

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles the Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby.
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Nov 17, 2012 • 14min

Abu Qatada

Mark Coles profiles Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic cleric described by the Home Secretary as "a dangerous man, a suspected terrorist, who is accused of serious crimes in Jordan". Seen by some as Britain's most wanted man and Osama Bin Laden's right hand man in Europe , the Palestinian-Jordanian scholar arrived in the UK in 1993 seeking asylum and claiming he had been tortured in Jordan. This week, after serving seven years, without charge, in a British prison, a court ruled that he cannot be deported to Jordan where he's been convicted in his absence of involvement in terrorist activity. But who is Abu Qatada, a serious intellectual leader who believes in violent Jihad and accordingly to former Home Secretary David Blunkett, " a prime suspect" in the war on terror or as one friend tell us "a changed man"?
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Nov 10, 2012 • 14min

Nadine Dorries

Mark Coles profiles the controversial Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who has been suspended from her party for taking part in the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here".Dorries - a self-proclaimed council estate Scouser not afraid of speaking her mind - left school with few qualifications but went on to become a hospital nurse before setting up a successful company providing childcare services to working parents. Then she astonished her mother by entering politics.In the House of Commons Dorries has clashed with the Opposition and many within her own party over the issues of abortion and sex education. She has sparred with David Cameron, who she regards as a "posh boy", and been criticised - even by those who like her - of being too outspoken. According to Ian Birrell, a former Cameron speechwriter, the celebrity jungle will make or break Dorries. "She'll either do very very well at getting across the fact she is unusual for a politician," he says, "or she will rub everyone up the wrong way and be ejected within about 20 seconds. She will be a great success or a great failure - which I think is possibly the story of Nadine.".

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