Profile Folgen

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. Others argue he's only been nominated by President Trump to ensure he can't be prosecuted for any perceived wrongdoing in the Russia collusion investigation. Nonsense, say his supporters. Kavanaugh, they insist, is a fair and decent man driven by law rather than politics. 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 Editor Penny Murphy.

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 Editor Emma Rippon.

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". A quarter of a century on, it finally has. 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. Described by a friend, as an 'enigma wrapped in a mystery'. We hear from friends who grew up with him in Jamaica, from his daughter Sol - who was just eight when her father wrote the book. And we find out why at the height of his success he fled to Africa for ten years. And what he makes of the new movie. Producer Smita Patel Researcher Darin Graham.