Front Row - 02/06/2009

Arts news and reviews.

Simon Russell Beale talks to Mark Lawson about playing George Smiley in The Complete Smiley, Radio 4 's new dramatisation of the John Le Carre novels, and about leading the British and American cast of two plays - The Winter's Tale and Tom Stoppard's new version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard - at the Old Vic Theatre in London. Both plays are directed by Sam Mendes in the inaugural season of The Bridge Project, which is set to combine UK and US theatrical talents in an internationally performed pair of classic plays each year from 2009 to 2011.

A new exhibition at the Design Museum in London bills itself as 'celebrating visionary design from London's creative mavericks'. Thomas Heatherwick, Ron Arad and Zaha Hadid are among the contributors to the exhibition which celebrates and examines the city of London and its wealth of talent in all aspects of design. On the outdoor terrace overlooking the Thames near Tower Bridge, Paul Smith, Wayne Hemingway and Neville Brody discuss their ideas for better urban living.

As the recession deepens and the supermarkets' battle for customers becomes ever more cut-throat, new Channel 4 series I'm Running Sainsbury's follows shelf-stackers who are given the chance to trial their own big ideas about how to give the supermarket the edge. Critic Rachel Cooke reviews.