Profile

British blogger Eliot Higgins and his investigative website Bellingcat have been making headlines around the world this week with claims that they’ve uncovered the true identities of two Russian men suspected of carrying out a nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

Higgins – isn’t your typical journalist. A former video gamer, in the past he’s worked for a bank, an oil rig company even a lingerie firm.

Unlike old-school foreign correspondents, he uses ‘armchair analytics’ – what he calls ‘open source’ materials like Facebook, twitter and Google earth to try to uncover what’s really going on in far away conflicts.

Chemical weapons in Syria, the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and most recently the attempted poisoning of Sergei and Julia Skripal in Salisbury, he’s had one scoop after another.

On Profile this week, Mark Coles tries to discover more about the man.

His brother Ross Higgins, gives us his first ever broadcast interview.

Guardian journalist Luke Harding explains why he thinks Higgins is a pioneer, in digital investigative journalism.

And we hear from those who suspect Eliot Higgins is being used as a front

Producer Smita Patel

As the new series of Dr Who launches, Mark Coles profiles the life of new Dr Who script writer and distinguished children's author Malorie Blackman.

The former Children's Laureate has been called a “phenomenal author and a childhood hero” by rapper Stormzy and name checked on Tiny Tempah's hit Written In The Stars.

She has written over 60 books for children and young adults, plays the drums, speaks several languages and apparently Klingon.

Producers: Diane Richardson, Smita Patel and Jade Thompson.

“One of the greatest comebacks in sporting history”.

That’s how US journalists reacted to golfer Tiger Woods winning the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta last weekend.

Having struggled with injury and the fall-out from marital infidelity, Woods hadn’t won for five years.

Many thought he was finished.

This weekend, as the comeback kid joins the US Ryder Cup team in Paris, Mark Coles looks back on Tiger Woods’ life and career.

We hear from former friends and associates, his first ever golf coach as well as the man who taught him to dive.

There’s archive of the young Tiger Woods making his first ever TV appearance age two and his late father, Earl – the man credited with turning his son into one of golf’s greatest ever players.

And ‘the Voice of Golf’ - the veteran BBC commentator and player Peter Alliss gives us his unique take on the man many call the greatest athlete of the early twenty first century.

Producers Smita Patel & Darin Graham

BBC TV’s ‘Killing Eve’ is all the rage this week - a new drama about an MI5 officer trying to catch a Russian assassin which has earned near unanimous rave reviews .

On Profile, Mark Coles examines the life of the show’s creator – the actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

From childhood poetry about frogs to mooning on stage and ‘Fleabag’ - her award winning TV show about a sex obsessed singleton, we find out why Waller-Bridge seems determined to shock her audience.

We hear from her close friend & writing partner, her former English teacher and the author of the book ‘Killing Eve’is based on.

America is bitterly divided.

Should conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh be given a seat on the US Supreme Court ?

Opponents fear his appointment - if confirmed later this month - will shift the country's most powerful legislative body further right and turn the clock back on decades of civil and human rights reforms.

On Profile this week, Mark Coles looks at Kavanaugh's life and career. .

We hear from former college friends, colleagues who worked with him trying to get President Clinton impeached in the 1990s as well as young law students he mentors today.

From abortion to gun ownership, basketball, rap and spaghetti with ketchup... we get the lowdown on why Brett Kavanaugh is such a polarising figure.

Producers Smita Patel & Darin Graham

As political rebrands go, it's an unlikely one - say his critics.

The shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell - former hard man of the left this week playing peacemaker in a row between Jewish groups and Labour over the party's stance on anti-Semitism.

On Profile this week, Mark Coles goes in search of the real John McDonnell.

A journey which takes us from his working class Liverpudlian roots, his time fighting Thatcher at the GLC and into parliament where his hard left politics reviled New Labour and where two decades on he's got his revenge...reshaping the party in his own image after he helped elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

From bingo to making marmalade....we get the lowdown on John McDonnell.

Producers Smita Patel & Darin Graham

It's been a long time coming.

A sticker on the cover of Jamaican born writer Victor Headley's 1992 novel 'Yardie' said "soon to be made into a major movie".

Directed by British actor Idris Elba, the film - about violent Jamaican drug gangs operating in London in the 1980s - opens this weekend.

On Profile this week, Mark Coles finds out more about the man who wrote the original story.

Producer Smita Patel

In 2014, one of the oldest financial institutions in the City of London, Lloyd's, appointed its first ever female chief executive, Inga Beale. Next year, she will step down from the role.

A champion for diversity in the workplace, Beale has overseen big cultural and technological changes at the insurance market - some controversial. A drinking ban for Lloyd's employees during working hours made the headlines in 2017, as did a loosening of the famously conservative dress code.

She has faced other challenges during her leadership, notably Brexit and a "disastrous" 2017, which was one of the worst ever years for natural disasters globally. Big insurance pay-outs led to Lloyd's reporting a £2bn loss that year.

Inga Beale, one of the UK's few openly bisexual senior business leaders, did not follow a typical route to the top. She dropped out of financial services for a year to go back-packing in Asia and Australia, and is a former competitive rugby player.

Presenter: Mark Coles

The vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and YouTube star Jacob Collier has some very famous fans.

Music industry titan Quincy Jones described him as an absolute genius and asked to work with him.

But Jacob declined his invitation and suggested instead if they could just be friends.

He wanted to make his first album on his own terms. The gamble paid off as he went on to win two Grammy awards.

And now, at just 23 years old, he is performing his own Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.

Presenter: Mark Coles

Dominic Raab has been thrust into the key government role of Brexit secretary following the resignation David Davis.

The 44-year-old was tipped for high office from the moment he was elected to the safe Conservative seat of Esher and Walton in 2010.

His rise through the ministerial ranks has not been without controversy, with Theresa May accusing him of fuelling gender warfare by describing some feminists as "obnoxious bigots".

With just months to go to broker a deal with EU negotiators, not to mention steering Brexit through a divided Commons, the amateur boxer and karate black belt has got a real fight on his hands.

Presenter: Mark Coles