Profile

Gerry Northam profiles Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, co-chair of the Conservative party and the first Muslim government cabinet minister. Producer: Gail Champion.

James Silver profiles Andy Coulson, who has resigned as David Cameron's Director of Communications, blaming coverage of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

As Colin Firth is honoured with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, Jonathan Maitland profiles the actor hotly tipped to receive an Oscar for his performance in The King's Speech.Colin Firth is famous for his eclectic roles and campaigning zeal. He first came to prominence in the BBC adaption of Pride & Prejudice. He played Mr Darcy, a performance he claims never to have watched in full. But his break was as a public schoolboy in Another Country. His real life was very different, he went to a state school in Winchester. At home, books and theatre were highly valued. His grandparents were missionaries which might help to explain his involvement in a number of charitable and campaigning organisations. He is particularly interested in supporting indigenous people, fair trade and foreign development. In the past he has supported Labour and came out - briefly - last year for the Lib Dems. His career has mixed serious roles in Tom Ford's A Single Man and Michael Winterbottom's Genoa with Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia and the reprisal of Mr Darcy in the Bridget Jones films. Profile talks to his parents, Shirley and David Firth, the actor, David Morrissey and director Sir Richard Eyre.Producer: Rosamund Jones.

Profile this week is Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg. With new investment by Goldman Sachs, the company is now valued at 50 billion dollars. But how much do we know about the man behind it all? Is he really the character portrayed in recent film, The Social Network? And what next for the 26-year-old now thought to be the world's youngest billionaire? Reporter: Morland Sanders Producer: Rob Cave.

The royal wedding this year will bring Prince William back to Westminster Abbey, the place where he first attracted global attention as the son mourning his mother's tragic death. Since then he has had to negotiate his relations with the Spencer and Windsor families, and follow the carefully constructed training of the man likely to be king. His time as a student, professional and military careers have all been steps on this path. So how difficult an inheritance has this been? And what does the preparation of William the young prince tell us about plans for the future role and image of the monarchy? In this week's Profile, Chris Bowlby considers the mix of family duty, personal choice and careful PR that has gone into the making of Prince William. Producer: Daniel Tetlow.

The numbers are staggering: more than 1 billion music video online hits, record sales of more than 50 million, number 7 on the Forbes List of the world's 100 most influential women. Not bad at all for 24 year old Stefani Germanotta, a girl from New York's Lower East Side whom the world now knows as Lady Gaga. In this week's Christmas day Profile, Stephen Smith follows Germanotta's story from rebellious, classically trained pianist to pop's newest and hottest icon.

Glenn Beck, the provocative tv and radio talk show host, represents the polarised politics of American media. Those who like him describe him as an 'inspiration' and those that don't call him 'toxic'. His TV show on Fox News averages a daily audience of two million viewers. Beck doesn't shy away from controversy, recently describing progressivism as "the cancer in America eating our Constitution" and referring to President Obama as having "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture". Along with Sarah Palin, he's often invoked as a spiritual leader by the Tea Party Movement Mary Ann Sieghart looks at the man who grew up in small town America as a Catholic, became a disc jockey in his home town of Mount Vernon at the age of 13, converted to mormonism and now runs a multimedia empire. .

Mary Ann Sieghart profiles Iain Duncan Smith whose Work and Pensions Department will be hit during next week's Spending Review. His proposed welfare reforms have been described as 'the biggest since the war-time work of Beveridge' and a white paper is expected after the Spending Review.Iain Duncan Smith started out briefly in industry after leaving the army where he served twice in Northern Ireland. His father was a famous World War II flying ace & his mother a ballerina. In the 1990s, he was best-known as one of the Tory party's most strident euro-sceptic MPs. His short two year leadership of the Conservative party was mostly unsuccessful. The "quiet man" was unable to unite his party. But it was during this time that Iain Duncan Smith began to see the need for welfare reform. After he was ousted from the leadership he set up the Centre for Social Justice and is credited with forming much of David Cameron's social agenda. Mary Ann Sieghart talks to his political allies & foes, long-standing friends and the people who began to change his political direction. Producer : Rosamund Jones.

For this week's BBC Radio 4 Profile, Mary Ann Sieghart focuses on Yvette Cooper, recently announced as the new Shadow Foreign Secretary.Yvette Cooper became an MP in 1997 and became politically close to Gordon Brown. She's held a number of Ministerial roles, introducing sometimes controversial legislation and facing controversy herself during the MPs' expenses investigation. She has juggled high profile jobs with bringing up three young children and she won this week's shadow cabinet elections - by a large margin. So how did Yvette Cooper manage to become so popular so quickly? And with this latest promotion, where might her political future take her in Ed Miliband's new Labour Party?

Brazilians go to the polls this weekend, to elect a new president, replacing the charismatic Lula da Silva. And, with Dilma Rousseff far ahead in the polls, it looks like the country could get its first female leader. It's been an amazing journey for Rousseff, the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant. In the 1960's, she joined a revolutionary urban guerrilla group after the military coup, and was imprisoned and tortured. She is now seen as Lula's successor, nicknamed 'The Iron Lady', though there are questions about her own public charisma and in which direction she will take this booming country of 200 million people. If she wins, she could become one of the world's most powerful leaders.