Profile

Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour MP and the influential head of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, is in the hot seat as the committee
continues its ongoing investigation - dubbed ‘Scandelson’ scrutinising - into the circumstances behind Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
Born in Guildford in 1960 her mother was a teacher and her father an academic who would go on to be a UN Assistant Secretary General. When Emily was seven her father walked out on the family leaving her mother with no income and three children to look after. They were made homeless and moved to a council estate.
After A Levels she studied law and qualified as a barrister in the mid 80s and spent 20 years as a human rights barrister at the chambers of Michael Mansfield KC.
She was first elected as a Labour MP in 2005. She has since been re-elected 5 times and held a number of Shadow Cabinet positions including Defence, Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Attorney General. But when Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister to many people’s surprise there was no ministerial job for Emily.
Now, as chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, she has the power to scrutinise government decisions and appointments; a role that has seen her grilling members of her own party in recent weeks.
Mark Coles looks back on her life.
Contributors:
Michael Mansfield KC
Dawn Butler MP
Sir Jeremey Hunt MP
Lord Christopher Smith
Jim Thornberry
Archive :
Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer - 20th Century Studios / Wendy Finerman Productions / Sunswept Entertainment
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Tom Gillett and Nathan Gower
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Rosie Strawbridge

Kristalina Georgieva is not like previous heads of the International Monetary Fund. She grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Soviet bloc.

Born in Sofia in 1953, her father was a civil engineer and her mother a shopkeeper. Life was tough because her family weren't part of the Communist Party regime. Her father fell ill when Kristalina was young and she was just fifteen when she went to work at the local food market.

She studied economics at the then Karl Marx Higher Economic Institute and then in the late 1980s she headed to London to spend a year at the London School of Economics. Over the last 30 years she's landed top jobs at the World Bank and the European Commission. In 2019, she was appointed managing director of the IMF, becoming the first person from an emerging economy to lead the institution.

In the rare moments when she's not working, friends, colleagues and family paint a picture of a fun-loving woman who likes nothing better than dancing and singing.

Becky Milligan explores Kristalina's life and career.

Contributors
Dessislava Kinova - daughter
Iliyana Tsanova - friend and Chief Risk Officer at the European Commission
Lord Nick Stern - friend and environmental economist
Lord Mark Malloch Brown - friend and former World Bank Vice President
Ivan Krastev - friend and political scientist
Galia Mintcheva - special adviser

Archive
60 Minute interview - CBS
Face the Nation interview - CBS
IMF news conference - UN Audiovisual Library
Georgieva at Fortune MPW summit - Fortune Magazine
Producer: Nathan Gower
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound mix: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele

McFly front man and children's author Tom Fletcher has returned to his first love - musical theatre - penning the songs for Paddington the Musical which has just got its sticky paws on seven prestigious Olivier Awards.
Born in Harrow north west London, Fletcher took inspiration from a family love of musical theatre and it wasn't long before he was treading the boards, performing the role of Oliver in the West End at the age of 10.
He went on to the prestigious Sylvia Young theatre school where he also met his future wife Giovanna. In his late teens he auditioned to join the band Busted where he was briefly accepted before being told his services were no longer needed. But so impressed were the record label with his musical ability they decided to create another band and McFly was born.
He's also sold millions of books, many of which he co-wrote with bandmate Dougie Poynter.
Mark Coles looks back at Tom's life and career so far.
Producers: Ben Carter and Tom Gillett
Social media producer: Grace Braddock
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge

Viktor Orbán has been a powerful force in Hungarian politics for nearly 40 years, spending 20 of them as Prime Minister. This weekend he’s trying to win a sixth term in the top job, as voters go to the polls in parliamentary elections.
The story of his political career is entwined with the story of Hungarian democracy; at the end of the Cold War, a young Orbán emerged as both canny operator and gifted orator in the anti-Communist youth movement, Fidesz, steering it through splits and ideological shifts into government, first between 1998 and 2002, and then again from 2010 to today.
As a pursuer of self-described ‘illiberal democracy’ who casts the EU as his constant adversary, Orbán has become an icon for the global hard right and, to his critics, a borderline autocrat and populist.
Presenter Stephen Smith speaks to those who know him well to understand the personal side of this very political beast.
Guests:
Esther Pataki - former Press Secretary to Viktor Orban
David Campanale - Liberal Democrat activist, journalist and fellow of the Danube Institute
Zsuzsanna Szelényi - founding Fidesz member and author of Tainted Democracy:Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary
Nick Thorpe - BBC Budapest correspondent
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Ben Crighton, Nathan Gower
Editor: Richard Vadon
Programme Coordinator: Janet Staples
Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill

From over-worked medics to bent coppers, for the last 30 years Jed Mercurio has been responsible for some of the UK’s most successful TV series, including Cardiac Arrest, Bodies and Bodyguard. But Line of Duty is arguably his biggest hit, and recording has started for the much-anticipated seventh series.
The award-winning screenwriter, director and producer grew up in a working-class family in Staffordshire. His parents, Italian immigrants, were keen he fit in, but friends say Jed was unique from the get-go with big dreams and a determination to be the best.
He initially trained to be a doctor and demonstrated his sharp, witty writing in a medical school magazine. Half-way through his medical training, he joined the RAF and was taught to fly fighter jets, before pivoting to screenwriting.
Mark Coles looks back at his career so far.
Producer: Ben Carter
Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Justine Lang
Sound engineer: James Beard.
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele