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Last year, long-standing Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell was forced to resign his new job as Chief Whip after being accused of calling police officers guarding the Downing Street gates "plebs." The so-called 'Plebgate' saga has hit the headlines once again this week after a committee of MPs summoned three senior police officers to explain their inquiry into the incident. While last year Andrew Mitchell was the focus of controversy, the Rugby and Cambridge-educated disciplinarian is now eliciting sympathy in many quarters. Becky Milligan looks at the life of a man caught in the eye of a political storm.Producer: Ben Crighton.

It's 40 years since the National Theatre was led by someone who wasn't a Cambridge graduate, but this week it was announced that Rufus Norris - who spent his late teens as a painter and decorator - would succeed Sir Nicholas Hytner as the theatre's director. So why is Norris such a popular choice for British theatre's top job? Mary Ann Sieghart looks at the making of a director whose work includes collaborations with Damon Albarn and the London Community Gospel Choir and a musical about a real-life serial killer.

This week saw the surprising exit from the English Defence League of its leaders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll. Instrumental in their decision to leave was Essex-born Maajid Nawaz, a former activist for the Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Arrested in 2001 for attempting to revive the group in Egypt, he served four years in a Cairo jail. Today, he has renounced his old beliefs and now runs the Quilliam Foundation, a 'counter extremism' think tank run by former activists. He has also been selected by the Liberal Democrats to fight a marginal parliamentary seat in 2015. Mark Coles looks at his life.Producer: Ben Crighton.