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BBC Radio 4
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  • DOCUMENTARY
  • EVERY TWO WEEKS

An insight into the character of an influential figure making news headlines

  1. 6 HR AGO

    Zohran Mamdani

    The new Mayor of New York and at just 34, the youngest since 1892, is sworn in. He is the first Muslim and Indian American to lead the nation's largest city. Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda, Africa, to parents of Indian descent and it was a childhood filled with bird song and nature. He was seven years old when his family moved to New York, to Manhattan's Upper West Side and that's where Mamdani began to make his mark. He started making music as rapper, Mr Cardamom but after releasing only a few songs, it seemed politics was a better fit. Zohran Mamdani ran an impressive campaign, recruiting an army of volunteers 100,000 strong to pound the pavements and knock on doors. His social media videos in multiple languages credited with vastly increasing voter turnout from a range of South Asian communities. A left-wing democratic socialist, his message was laser focused on affordability; he promised to freeze the rents and make buses free, all paid for by a tax on New Yorkers making over $1 million per year. But now he's won the election can he actually deliver on those promises? Mark Coles hears from Mamdani's mother the filmmaker Mira Nair, colleagues and journalists to find out what shaped the man making history. Contributors Mira Nair - film maker, mother Hari Kondabolu - standup comedian, friend Prof Brian Purnell - chair of the Africana Studies Department at Bowdoin College Cassie Wilson - volunteer for Mamdani's campaign, content creator and comedian Jagpreet Singh - political organiser for South Asian communities in New York, DRUM Beats Nada Tawfiq - BBC Correspondent in New York Production Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Phoebe Keane, Ben Crighton, Natasha Fernandes and Tom Farmer Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound: Gareth Jones Editor: Justine Lang

    15 min

  2. 27/12/2025

    Karl Bushby

    Karl Bushby, the British man walking around the world, is almost home. The former paratrooper set off from Chile in 1998. He walked through the Americas, crossed the frozen ocean from Alaska to Russia, and last year became the first person to swim the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. These are all huge achievements in their own right but for Bushby they were just sections he had to complete to finish his epic journey. Originally scheduled to finish in 2006, Bushby is now 56 and still going. Geopolitics has played its part, with Russian and Iranian visa rejections some of the main causes of delay. He arrived in Budapest last month and with the English Channel being the only obvious remaining obstacle to navigate, he should be back in Humberside by this time next year. Stephen Smith finds out who he is and what's kept him going for so long. Contributors Jonny Beardsall - Journalist and milliner Keith Bushby - Dad Genevieve Gil - Friend Dimitri Kieffer - Crossed the Bering Strait with Bushby Angela Maxwell - Swam the Caspian Sea with Bushby Art Mortvedt - Friend Damaris Mortvedt - Friend Kevin Shoesmith - Journalist Production Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Ben Crighton, Alex Loftus and Mhairi MacKenzie Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Editor: Nick Holland Sound: Gareth Jones

    15 min

  3. 20/12/2025

    Mary Berry

    Dame Mary Berry has been teaching Brits to cook for more than half a century. Aged 90, she remains a staple on our screens at Christmas. Born in Bath in 1935, Berry was the middle child of two brothers. She struggled in school and studied Home Economics class instead of Maths. Berry left school with no qualifications but continued to pursue her love of cooking, training at the famous Le Cordon Bleu school in France. In 1971, she began her TV career with slots on shows like Collector’s World and Good Afternoon with Judith Chalmers, where she’d teach viewers how use newfangled items like freezers and tinfoil. Over the next four decades, Berry would go on to write dozens of cookbooks, feature in and present her own cooking programmes, and teach thousands to cook in her Aga lessons, which she hosted in her own home. But it was her role as a judge on Bake Off that introduced her to a new generation of viewers, and cemented her as one of the nations best-loved cooks. Stephen Smith looks back on her decades-long career. Contributors: Belles Berry – Mary Berry’s daughter Maragret Berry – Mary Berry’s sister in law Rosie Millard – Journalist Kirsty Wark – Journalist and presenter Candice Brown – Winner of the Great British Bake Off 2016 Production Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Tom Gillett, Mhairi Mackenzie and Alex Loftus Editor: Nick Holland Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound: Gareth Jones

    15 min

  4. 13/12/2025

    David Harewood

    David Harewood, who turned sixty this week, returns as Othello for the third time on stage. It’s a role he first took on in 1997, becoming the first black actor to play the part at London’s National Theatre. Growing up in multicultural Birmingham in the sixties and seventies, he was born to immigrants from Barbados. Described as gregarious by his teachers at school, Harewood showed an interest in entertaining from an early age and subsequently trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts. In his early twenties, he had a psychotic breakdown, something he spoke about in a recent documentary. A string of roles in TV and film followed. And then came his breakthrough role as CIA agent David Estes in the acclaimed hit US TV show Homeland. Mark Coles looks back at his career. Contributors Gary Turner – childhood friend Pete Mortiboys – school physical education teacher Jeremy Harrison – Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts (RADA) classmate and friend Afua Hirsch – broadcaster, journalist and author of the book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging Tom Morris – Theatre director and colleague Toby Jones – Actor and colleague Production Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Ben Carter, Laura Cain Editor: Nick Holland and Justine Lang Sound: Gareth Jones Archive Audio of David Harewood as Othello, 2025, Theatre Royal Haymarket, clean from trailer David Harewood: Psychosis and Me documentary, 2019, for BBC, production company: Films Of Record Limited

    15 min

  5. 06/12/2025

    Zak Brown

    Stephen Smith profiles the former racing driver and marketing guru who's turned around McLaren's fortunes and led them to Formula 1 glory. Born in California in 1971, friends and colleagues paint a picture of a fiercely competitive man with ‘noble intentions’. After dropping out of high school Zak Brown’s life changed after meeting former F1 world champion Mario Andretti when he was 15. He traded watches he’d won on the Wheel of Fortune game show to buy a go-kart. Brown won races as a driver but never really hit the big time. He then set up the world’s most successful motorsports marketing company before being lured to the F1 grid by McLaren in 2016. The team were in dire straits and in serious need of a cash injection. In less than 10 years, Brown has completely turned around the team’s fortunes and led them to back-to-back constructors’ championships. But will his refusal to favour one of his two drivers cost both of them the drivers’ championship? Contributors: Mackenzie Astin - childhood friend Mario Andretti - former F1 champion Will Buxton - former F1 commentator, journalist, broadcaster Ben Hunt - motorsport journalist and author of Forever Forward Lawrence Baretto - F1 commentator Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Mhairi Mackenzie, Ben Crighton Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound: James Beard Archive: The Bottom LIne, BBC 5LIve Wheel of Fortune - CBS Sky Sport

    15 min

  6. 29/11/2025

    Zarah Sultana

    The Coventry MP who left the Labour party and joined Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing ‘Your Party'. Zarah Sultana's husband and friends tell us how her upbringing shaped her politics and reveal her questionable taste in music. 'I think she would describe her taste as no taste', claims her husband Craig Lloyd. She was born in Birmingham to political parents who were both members of the Labour party. Her father even took her on a Labour party delegation to the occupied West Bank when she was a student, an important trip that inspired her to join those campaigning for a free Palestine and she's continued campaigning ever since. Her political career hasn't always been smooth sailing, leaving the Labour party over a row about lifting the two-child benefit cap. However her friends say she is driven by something deeper than her own career aims, she's trying to reshape British politics. Guests: Craig Lloyd, husband Sienna Rodgers, deputy editor of parliament's The House magazine Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill Georgie Robertson, friend and activist Barnaby Raine, friend and activist Production team: Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Sally Abrahams, Mhairi MacKenzie, Phoebe Keane and Tom Farmer Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele Sound: Gareth Jones Editor: Justine Lang Credits: Married At First Sight, CPL productions Ladybarn Primary School, Facebook

    15 min

  7. 22/11/2025

    Marjorie Taylor Greene

    Marjorie Taylor Greene is a darling of MAGA. But this week a disagreement with Trump over the Epstein files has seen him brand her as a traitor. Born in 1974 in the suburbs of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene had a conventional upbringing. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Business Administration, and later owned her family’s construction business and a stake in a CrossFit gym. But like so many Americans, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was a turning point for Marjorie Taylor Greene. In 2020, the newly-styled ‘MTG’ ran for election in her home state, winning a seat to the House of Representatives. Soon she was a recognised name on the national stage, known for her provocative style and endorsement of conspiracy theories. In the years since, MTG has aligned herself so closely with the president that some called her ‘Trump in heels’. But her campaigning for the release of the Epstein files has caused a rift between her and her one-time hero. Stephen Smith spoke to Professor Gina Yannitel Reinhardt, senior POLITICO staff writer Michael Kruse, QAnon expert Gabriel Gatehouse, political scientist Andra Gillespie and Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Patricia Murphy, about career, her life in politics and what this rift could mean for her future. Production Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Sally Abrahams, Phoebe Keane, Mhairi MacKenzie Editor: Justine Lang Sound: Rod Farquhar Archive CNN interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene, 16 November 2025 Bloomberg News: Marjorie Taylor Green speech in the House of Representatives, 4 February 2021 ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene Confronts David Hogg’, @marjorietaylorgreene6928, 21 January 2020 The Newsagents interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene, 6 March 2024

    15 min

  8. 15/11/2025

    David Hockney

    David Hockney is arguably Britain’s most loved living artist. He's known as a colourful character, not only because of his vibrant, colour rich paintings of Californian landscapes, glittering blue pools, and thick Yorkshire woodlands, but also his own carefully curated image from the 1960s- bright blond hair and oversized thick black round glasses. He was born in Bradford in 1937, and knew by the age of 10 he wanted to be an artist. He studied at the Royal College of Art, and by his mid 20s he was key player in London’s bohemian pop-art scene. He then moved to LA in pursuit of sunshine and inspiration. He delights in using new technology to create; from the polaroid, to the fax machine, and his iPad. Now, more than 60 years into his career, aged 88, David Hockney is not slowing down. His image has recently been depicted by drones in a light-show in the skies above Bradford, in a colourful tribute to the city’s most famous son. Becky Milligan speaks to his muse, the textile designer Celia Birtwell, art historian Marco Livingstone, dancer and contemporary Wayne Sleep and art critic Waldemar Januszczak. Production Presenter: Becky Milligan Producers: Ben Crighton, Mhairi MacKenzie and Marie Lennon Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Editor: Justine Lang Sound Editor: Gareth Jones Archive BBC Imagine…Summer 2009: David Hockney – A Bigger Picture (Coluga Pictures) BBC The Interview: David Hockney - A Life in Art (2025) “Joie de Vivre” clip courtesy of Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (2011)

    15 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

An insight into the character of an influential figure making news headlines

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 4
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2026
  • Episodes
    662
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
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