Profile Folgen

When Iran makes the news it is often that country's flamboyant and provocative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who finds himself under the spotlight. But the man who wields real power in Iran is not Ahmadinejad, nor was it any of his predecessors as president. Instead it is the man who has served as the head of the country's religious structure since 1989, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The Ayatollah owes his rise to power to two men - his predecessor as Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the previous president, Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ayatollah Khamenei has been a cleric for most of his life, beginning as a religious scholar in the city of Mashhad at the tender age of 11. He served several terms in jail as a result of his religious convictions during the secular dictatorship of the Shah. His rise to power began with the revolution of 1979 that turned Iran into the Islamic Republic. Khamenei became, first president, a post with relatively little power, and his election as Supreme Leader after the death of Khomenei was a surprise to all. Many believe this was engineered by Rafsanjani to allow Rafsanjani himself to remain in control.But Khamenei has gradually made himself the most powerful man in Iran - and he's done so by recruiting the Revolutionary Guard to his side. There are those who say that far from a religious dictatorship, Iran is in fact a military dictatorship. But Ali Khamenei is 72 and with 70 per cent of the Iranian population having been born since the revolution, it's not clear that the post of Supreme Leader will survive his death.Producer TIM MANSEL Presenter JAMES REYNOLDS.

With a year to go until London 2012 Shari Vahl profiles John Armitt CBE, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority and charged with delivering the £9bn project on time and budget.

There were cheers and jeers in the House this week when Elizabeth Filkin was named as head of the enquiry to advise on cleaning up the relationship between the Met and the media following the hacking scandal.As former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards she challenged vested interests at Westminster, until she was 'hounded out' by MPs in 2002 after questioning the probity of some of their number. She took on Keith Vaz - who this week chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee's questioning of recently resigned Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson - during her investigation into his links with the Hinduja family and accused him of deliberately trying to thwart her enquiries.Supporters describe her as "fair but firm... someone who cannot be bribed, bought or bullied."Filkin doesn't come with the typical background for a Government-appointed inquisitor. She is a former community worker, having worked in the London Borough of Brent back in the 1970s. She went on to to be an academic, as well as Chief Executive of the Citizens Advice Bureau.Now over 70, in recent years Elizabeth Filkin may have been out of the limelight, but as Shari Vahl reports, her antecedence suggests she's someone who wants to get at the truth - and isn't too concerned who she upsets along the way.