Big Ben | Celebrating the world-famous clock tower

Jim'll Fix It | The Chimes of Big Ben

A wish to see and hear Big Ben up close comes true.

CHANNEL | BBC 1

FIRST BROADCAST | 19 March 1988

DURATION | 5 minutes 49 seconds

FIRSTBROADCAST

1988

Synopsis

Jimmy Savile fixes it for an 11-year-old girl to climb to the top of the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster and hear Big Ben's chimes. On the way, she gets to look behind the clock face, see the machinery that makes the clock work and get a stunning view of London.

Did you know?

Big Ben's iconic good looks have often made it a star of the big screen. Some of the more quirky films to use it, or models of the clock tower, are 'Queen Kong' (1976), a spoof in which the giant gorilla hangs from Big Ben rather than the Empire State Building, and the Jackie Chan action comedy 'Shanghai Knights' (2003), in which a sword fight takes place around the tower.

Contributors

Jimmy Savile
Presenter
Christopher Chope
Contributor
Ron Haynes
Contributor
Tony Newman
Director
Roger Ordish
Producer

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Galleries

Close up of the inside of the Westminster clock face.

Big Ben

Photographs of Big Ben dating back to the 1920s.

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