Articles by Jo Foster

An innovative and inspirational campaign has been launched to recycle plastic into building bricks for schools. Each block, or Ecobrick, comprises a two-litre plastic drinks bottle packed full of non-biodegradable waste, such as plastic bags and crisp packets. It's very simple to create an Ecobrick by packing the waste into the bottle as tightly as possible, using a stick to push it down. Th...

Although there have been plenty of gardening programmes on television over the years, the nation's number one favourite is, undoubtedly, Gardener's World. With a history spanning over 50 years, this horticultural show continues to go from strength to strength. © NorthScape / Alamy Stock Photo Early beginnings Gardener's World was first broadcast on BBC television on 5 January, 1968...

The Surfers Against Sewage organisation is leading the fight against pollution in our oceans. Surfers are painfully aware of the uphill battle we're facing against the 12 million tonnes of plastic waste dumped in the sea every year. Environmentalists describe it as earth's "biggest ever challenge", as the plastic kills marine life and ultimately can enter our food chain, even ending up on th...

Rock band The Kinks were a product of London in the Swinging Sixties. Formed in Muswell Hill in 1964 by brothers Ray, 20, and Dave Davies, 17, they dominated the pop charts for more than three decades, before splitting up in 1996. Fans were delighted in June 2018 when the brothers revealed they were in the studio, working on new material. The boys were two of eight children, born to local wo...

Charity football match, Soccer Aid, returns to our television screens this June, promising to be bigger and better than ever. Here's all you need to know about this star-studded event. Soccer Aid origins Popstar Robbie Williams and his pal Jonathan Wilkes are the brains behind the creation of Soccer Aid, which began back in 2006. This friendly football match between England and an inte...

The long-running BBC TV series, Antiques Roadshow, gives members of the public the chance to have their artefacts valued by experts, as the show travels around the United Kingdom. It began as a one-off documentary in 1977 and is still going strong today, having spawned six spin-off series and similar shows in the United States and Canada. Antiques Roadshow has trundled on for 41 series and 8...

For the first time, plastic drinks bottles won't be available at this year's Glastonbury Festival in an effort to reduce waste. Festival organisers have partnered with Greenpeace to spread an important environmental message - plastic bottles won't be sold to the public, or available in the backstage, dressing room and catering areas. The major clean-up required after the annual festival hit ...

The prestigious Cricket World Cup 2019 is set to begin - bringing together the planet's top 10 cricket teams to compete for total prize money of $10 million. The tournament begins on Thursday 30th May, when England meet South Africa at The Oval in London. Hosted by England and Wales, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is the 12th such event. It is held every four years and the nations taking par...

Foghorn Leghorn, the famous rooster with the big, booming voice, was a familiar sight in the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons for around 20 years. Warner Bros' giant anthropomorphic bird starred in his first cartoon in 1946 and became one of the studio's most beloved animated characters. By 1964, he had featured in 29 cartoons and was notorious for his loud catchphrases and his habit...

Ancient sacred pools, known as cenote ritual pools, have become a divers' paradise in recent years, providing unique opportunities for a fascinating underwater experience. The most famous cenotes have been discovered at the historic Maya archaeological site, Chichén Itzá, in the Yucatán Peninsula. A cenote is used to describe a natural sinkhole, or pit, resulting from the collapse of limesto...