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Keith Chegwin just wanted to make people happy. Whether he was hurling buckets of green gunge at celebrities or howling with laughter at inane TV fun and games, Cheggers was the ultimate clown for the telly age. There was nothing he wouldn't do for a giggle. Friends said that even during his last days, before his death yesterday aged 60 from lung disease after decades of heavy smoking, he was still cracking jokes. But it was that desperate need to keep generating laughs with his wacky antics that would be his destruction. Eventually, the public tired of his 'hilarious' pranks and that shrieking laugh began to grate. With his TV career stumbling, he turned to alcohol to keep the fun alive — eventually drinking two bottles of whisky a day. The pressure destroyed his marriage to fellow presenter Maggie Philbin, pictured inset, with whom he had a daughter, Rose. Yesterday, in a statement on her website, Philbin wrote: 'Keith was a one-off — full of life, generous and with a focus on things that mattered — his family. But his madcap personality and hyperventilating laugh made him a natural for children's TV, which was undergoing a revolution in the early Seventies, led by Noel Edmonds's Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on Saturday mornings. The pair are pictured top right and with the rest of the cast, bottom right.

Landry Ntahe’s gang crushed one man’s toes with pliers and pulled out another’s teeth before ramming a metal pole down his throat. But Ntahe is now head of operations and company director of BCB ATM, which owns and operates 19 bitcoin cash machines. News that Ntahe, 28, was jailed for five years in 2009 comes days after police said drug dealers and gangsters were laundering money by using bitcoin – an online, person-to-person payment that bypasses banks and uses no physical coins or notes. The value of the currency has rocketed in recent months amid a frenzy of online speculation by investors. Ntahe’s ATMs are in corner shops and even a cannabis store in Croydon, south London, that sells drug paraphernalia, with shopkeepers receiving a percentage of a machine’s profits.

Good Health analysed 12 lunchtime options found on the high street revealing how some are loaded with sugar, fat and as many as 900 calories. Common pitfalls include ‘healthy’ veggie options that are anything but, and ‘grab bag’ crisps that are bigger than ones you’d put in a packed lunch. ANGELA DOWDEN shopped for lunch deals and asked Helen for her verdict. We then gave them a health rating.

The mercury is set to plunge well below freezing in parts of north Wales tonight as Britain braces for the coldest night for seven years — and Moscow will reach lows of just -4C (30F). Snow has already seen more than 2,000 schools yesterday and wreaked havoc on the country's roads and transport networks. It comes as Green Flag revealed that it received 13,800 calls by midday on Monday — more than three every minute and over double their usual number for a Monday at this time of year.

As snow swept across Britain last night, Heart of England NHS Trust, in the West Midlands, called on 4x4 drivers to help transport their staff to work through the wintry conditions. The trust, which represents hospitals in Birmingham and Solihull, appealed on Twitter: ‘Do you have a 4×4 and can volunteer to help our nurses get into our hospitals at good hope 424 7564 or heartlands 424 0483 pls give us a call. Thanks.’ Sutton Coldfield-based Good Hope Hospital serves the north of Birmingham and Heartlands Hospital serve the east of the city. Birmingham Children's Hospital also issued a plea for 4x4 drivers' help, which was shared more than a million times.

A major organised gang involved in drug smuggling, abduction and torture has been smashed following a vast police investigation. The group is thought to have been the ‘most sophisticated' encountered by police in Scotland and today the full extent of their criminal empire was exposed. Prosecutors said they were dealings in drugs, firearms, violence and dirty money. The list of crimes included the horrific abduction and torture of a man over an unpaid cocaine debt. The nine men have been remanded in custody and face lengthy spells behind bars when sentenced next month.

A desperate mother has issued an anxious warning to parents after her six-week-old baby's cold landed her in hospital in a terrifying ordeal. Beth Foster's daughter Myah (right) had the symptoms of a common cold, but as a responsible mother she kept a close eye on them. A week ago they went to the doctor and Myah was prescribed eye drops. But on Saturday, the young mother's nightmare began when she noticed her baby's breathing had become irregular and it transpired she has bronchiolitis. Beth (left), 21, from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, posted a gut-wrenching photo of her baby girl on Facebook along with a strong message to other parents.

Three British travellers zig-zagged across three countries in South America and necked three beers in just 56 minutes. Calum Foskett, 27, Jed Gibbs, 27 and Joe Oliver, 29, all from Bedfordshire, crossed the Amazon twice on a leaky boat and raced along dirt roads on motorbikes during their whistle stop bar crawl in Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Their three-country beer-stop set them back just £25 - roughly the same price as five pints in London.

Oliver Hall (left, before the infection, and right, in hospital), from Halesworth, Suffolk, died in hospital 24 hours after contracting the bacterial infection which mainly affects babies and children. His grieving parents, Georgie, 37, and Bryan Hall, 43, are now calling for all children to be vaccinated against the deadly strain of the disease. Their call piles further pressure on the Government to get all children protected and reiterates a landmark petition following the death of two-year-old Faye Burdett in 2016 which attracted more than 820,000 signatures. Vaccinations against meningitis B have been available for babies up to a year old on the NHS since 2015 but not for older children. (pictured inset with his brother Charlie)

Ebony Worthington (pictured left), 10, had to be taken to a specialist burns unit after taking part in the 'Aerosol challenge', which sees youngsters spray deodorant on their skin at close range for as long as they possibly can (effects pictured right). The youngster, of Farnworth, near Bolton, sprayed aerosol on her hand for a few minutes, leaving an angry red burn. The next day at school the mark on Ebony's hand had swollen up and looked infected, so her teachers rang her mother to refer her to hospital. She was rushed to hospital and referred to Manchester Children's Hospital burns unit where doctors were inclined to perform a skin graft. Her mother Kirsty Heathcote, 30, is frantic with worry and unable to see her daughter in hospital as she has a cold and can't risk exposing her to any germs, WARNING GRAPHIC: CONTENT.

A cruel pet owner in the West Midlands, who left his dog in such a neglected state it grew foot-long dreadlocks has been banned from keeping animals for life. Paul Padmore, 58, failed to ever brush or groom his Yorkshire terrier Poppy despite owning her for 13 years causing her coat to become severely matted and overgrown. Magistrates heard a member of the public called the RSPCA after becoming concerned for the poorly pooch as it could barely walk.

Desta Degol, 28, was working at the chemist in Praed Street, Paddington, at the time of the offence shortly after 6pm on May 17 last year. After losing her temper inside the store (inset) she whacked fellow worker Najat Hachchani, 62, over the head in the first of three random attacks. After leaving the store, she spotted stranger Giash Ahmed and punched him up to four times. Shocked pedestrians then followed as Degol (pictured left and right) went to cross the road, pausing at the island where she shoved Zhanerke Shangereyeva, 22, head-first into the path of an oncoming bus. Fortunately, the driver managed to make an emergency stop as the Chinese woman quickly rolled out of its way. A jury found her to be not guilty of grievous bodily harm by reason of insanity. Degol, of Tottenham, north London, was made subject to a two-year supervision order under the care of a community psychiatric nurse.

Joshua Ingram left his ex-girlfriend and her child terrified in an attack at her home in Grimsby in May. The town's crown court heard Ingram shoved the boy's head into a wall, put a knife against the mother's face and tried to smother her with a pillow. But despite apparently mocking his victim in messages posted online during the court proceedings (inset), he avoided a jail term and emerged from court laughing with friends.

In the early 1970s intricate model villages were a staple of many seaside towns up and down the country, with more than 60 attracting tourists from around the world. The decline of the domestic holiday resorts led to a vast number of them to close down in the 1980s and 90s since they were no longer profitable. The origins of the model village can be traced back to 7th century Japan when the Empress Suiko had a garden built with an artificial mountain depicting Mount Sumeru, the centre of the world in Hindu and Buddhist legends. The first recorded model village in Britain was in Hampstead, north London, at the private home of Charles Paget Wade. Keeping the tradition alive in Britain today is the iconic Bekonscot in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay and Legoland in Windsor.

Three people have been hurt after a house was blown to pieces by an early morning gas explosion that was so fierce it also damaged six neighbouring properties. An elderly man was dramatically pulled alive from the rubble (shown top and left) by rescuers, while the bedroom of a house next door was ripped away by the blast, injuring the couple living there (pictured before the blast, right). Jeanette Jasper, 79, is said to be in a serious condition in a major trauma centre in Coventry after she was crushed by a wall as she lay in her bed. Her husband John, 80, who was in the kitchen at the time of the explosion, has also been hospitalised. Pictures from the site, in the Birstall area of Leicester, reveal debris strewn across the street, windows blown out and door frames hanging off their hinges.

A beaming President Vladimir Putin shook the hand of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad before declaring that their military alliance had been a victory for the Syrian regime. Speaking during a visit to a Russian military airbase near Latakia, northeast Syria, Putin announced that he has ordered a pullout of 'a significant part' of Russian forces from Syria after helping Assad defeat the 'most battle-ready group of international terrorists,' apparently referring to ISIS. Putin and Assad watched a parade by Russian troops and met with air force pilots (bottom right) before a sit-down meeting (top right) during the Russian president's flying visit.

Huge crowds packed a public memorial in Zagreb, Croatia for a service to remember war criminal Slobodan Praljak whose final act was to kill himself in front of UN judges (right). Public buses ran free of charge to the ceremony for the wartime military commander, who swallowed potassium cyanide last month during a court hearing broadcast live around the world. About 2,000 people filled the main concert hall (left) where the memorial was held, while hundreds more crowded into the building's entry and hallways to watch on giant screens.

North Korean state media has made another dubious claim about Kim Jong-un's 'superhuman powers' after insisting the overweight tyrant had climbed an 8,000ft mountain. Pyongyang media said the 33-year-old had managed to scale Mount Paektu - a sacred spot for North Koreans - after walking 'through thick snow' to reach the summit. But pictures show Kim wandering around on the snow-capped mountain with hardly a bead of sweat and wearing spotless and shiny shoes.

Police in Brazil have been slammed after posing for selfies with a notorious gang kingpin accused of drug-trafficking, murders and extortion. Police in Rio de Janeiro captured Rogerio Avelino da Silva - also known as Rogerio 157 - on Wednesday, which was seen as a rare victory for authorities struggling to curb rising violence a year after the city hosted the Summer Olympics. But just days after the success, the police face an angry backlash for taking pictures with the suspected killer. The images, shared on WhatsApp and then across social media, show da Silva handcuffed next to officers with beaming smiles.

An investigation by Associated Press has found that rape of women and teenage girls by Myanmar's security forces has been' sweeping and methodical' with survivors recalling horrific tales, including such brutal gang rapes that pregnant victims have miscarried their babies and girls as young as 13 being abused at gunpoint. These sexual assault survivors, ranging in age from 13 to 35, from several refugee camps  in Bangladesh comes from a wide swath of villages in Myanmar's Rakhine state and described assaults between October 2016 and mid-September.