Church Bells

This story tells us:

The traditional bongs from Big Ben are familiar to BBC Radio 4 listeners. However on Christmas Eve they might sound a little different after the BBC said it will broadcast the chimes from Rochdale Town Hall instead.

Big Ben, the great bell in Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, has been silenced – apart from national occasions – for over a year due to a multimillion pound four-year renovation project.

This ‘silence of the bongs’ – much criticised when the scaffolding was first erected – has meant that the BBC has had to broadcast a recording of Big Ben’s chimes before its main news programmes on Radio 4 at 6pm and at midnight.

Earlier this year Jake Berry, the Northern Powerhouse minister, came up with his own solution and urged the BBC to broadcast the chimes from the clock above Rochdale Town Hall, which has the same “Westminster chimes” as Big Ben.

Now Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC’s director general, has replied – and agreed to broadcast the bongs from Rochdale Town Hall before the news at 6pm on Christmas Eve.

In a letter to Mr Berry sent this week and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Hall said he “really liked” the idea, adding: “I’m delighted to tell you that Radio 4 will shortly be making a special recording of the Rochdale bells – and that they will feature at a very prominent moment in our schedule, just before the 1800 News on 24 December