Viewers watching the BBC news spotted that Big Ben seemed to be running 20 minutes late...

Big Ben has kept time for over 150 years and throughout two world wars, so perhaps it's no surprise that when eagle-eyed viewers spotted a discrepancy between the time on the clock face and that displayed on a BBC News bulletin, their first assumption was that the channel was faking its 'live' report.

But no, BBC News presenter Simon McCoy did some investigating and confirmed that, yes, Big Ben – which is currently undergoing extensive renovation work – was indeed running 20 minutes late.