Iraqi army and militia forces are fighting to take back Tikrit from the so-called Islamic State. Pulling the strings on the Iraqi side is an Iranian: Major-General Qassem Suleimani, the 'shadow commander' who has been described as the single most powerful operative in the Middle East. As the leader of the foreign branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards - the Quds Force - Suleimani has emerged as Iran's leading foreign strategist. He has been arming and training Bashar al-Assad's military in Syria and leading the Shia militias fighting ISIS on the frontline in Iraq - where the US blames him for countless attacks on American soldiers. He has the ear of the supreme leader and has been influencing politics from Yemen to Bahrain. Mark Coles tells his extraordinary story.

Producer: Chloe Hadjimatheou

After a rocky campaign launch, the Green leader Natalie Bennett has been in the headlines this week. Mark Coles hears how she moved from journalism in provincial Australia to British politics, and has combined a love of cricket with feminist campaigning. How is she likely to fare amid the intense scrutiny of the coming election?

Producer: Chris Bowlby.

The casually-dressed Greek finance minster Yanis Varoufakis has, in challenging the eurozone, become - almost overnight - one of the most important politicians in Europe. In this edition of Profile Mark Coles hears how Varoufakis grew up under the Greek colonels but was shaped by life in Thatcherite Britain before embarking on his unusually restless international career in economics.

Producer: Chris Bowlby

Mark Coles profiles the former HSBC boss and trade minister Lord Green after an uncomfortable week in which revelations about HSBC's Swiss arm aiding tax evasion dominated the headlines.

Once lauded as Britain's ethical banker, the ordained Church of England minister now finds himself under fire from the press and politicians.

Producers: Keith Moore and James Melley.

Chris Bowlby profiles the veteran Labour MP and co-author of this week's report on hunger, Frank Field, who is one of the most unusual politicians in Britain.

Variously described as "independent-minded" and a "free thinker" Field has been in Parliament for more than 30 years, representing Birkenhead, which contains some of the most deprived wards in the country.

He had to fight off a hard left challenge from Militant at the beginning of his career and he has long been a campaigner against poverty. His radical views on welfare haven't always endeared him to his Labour colleagues but he is famous for the friends he has made across the political divide.

Most remarkably, perhaps, he was one of those who told Margaret Thatcher, shortly before she resigned, that it was time for her to go. We'll hear from friends, both Labour and Conservative, who speak warmly of a man of dogged determination and great personal integrity. But we'll also hear from critics who say he's not a natural team player who was failed in his brief period as a member of Tony Blair's first government.

Producer: Tim Mansel.

The presidential election in Afghanistan was drawn-out and controversial. The man who emerged as the winner is a United States-trained anthropologist who is described by friends as one of the world's leading intellectuals. Ashraf Ghani was born in Afghanistan, studied in Lebanon and the United States, and worked for years for the World Bank. As finance minister of Afghanistan he fell out with President Karzai and most of his colleagues - the same friends who point to his intellectual capacity and moral integrity also acknowledge his ferocious temper. Humility is another word that's often mentioned - it is said that he is never happier than when sitting cross-legged drinking tea with tribal elders in the Afghan provinces. But can he turn his intellectual vision into political reality at this vital moment of transition in Afghanistan?

Presenter: Becky Milligan

One of the less likely political partnerships of recent years has been that of the Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Hollywood actor and director Angelina Jolie.

They joined forces three years ago to campaign against rape as a weapon of war, and jointly hosted an international conference in London last summer.

This week Mark Coles profiles the woman who brought them together; a refugee from Bosnia who has just taken her seat in the House of Lords. She is Arminka Helic, for ten years a special adviser to William Hague.

Hague himself tells us how in 2011 Helic brought Jolie's film "In The Land of Blood and Honey" to him, a film that portrays the tactical use of mass rape against civilians. Helic told him it was a film he needed to watch.

Producers: Tim Mansel and Hannah Moor.

Grace Mugabe has been an almost silent figure at her husband, Robert Mugabe's side for almost two decades. Now she is starting to flex her own political muscles, which some are interpreting as a bid for the Presidency. But does she have the skill and the support to secure the top job and a Mugabe dynasty? In December she will head Zanu-PF's Women's League which will make her one of the most powerful people in Zimbabwe's governing party. Jo Fidgen questions how much 'soft' power she already has over her husband and whether she makes a credible political leader?

An insight into man of the moment, Benedict Cumberbatch. Code-breaker, physicist, Victorian sleuth. Overnight he became an object of obsession with a Cumber-cult following of adoring fans, spawning internet memes and slash fiction fantasies. What is it about Benedict Cumberbatch that makes the world go weak at the knees?

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.