LONDON -- Moving your clocks forward or back by an hour twice a year isn't a big deal, but that's not quite the case if you're the person responsible for setting the time on Big Ben.
The most iconic clock in the world, housed in Elizabeth Tower, comes to a halt for four to five hours twice a year during the changeover from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time and back again. The team behind the tourist attraction uses the opportunity to inspect the clock's mechanism and do essential maintenance.
But on Tuesday night's episode of BBC's Inside the Commons we learned exactly how they reset it.
You might think there's a high-tech process behind the big event. Think again. Big Ben's time is reset after a man picks up a landline and telephones the Speaking Clock, ensuring the chime is within one second of Greenwich Mean Time.
BT's Speaking Clock, which you get by dialing 123 from a landline, announces the time every 10 seconds. Calls to the clock cost dialers 38.9p (60c) per minute.
Despite all the access to computers, laptops and smartphones, lots of British people still pay money to hear the time; the Speaking Clock receives 30 million calls per year.
And now we know at least two of those are from the folks setting Big Ben.