One of the tower's most dramatic appearances was in the thrilling finale of the film The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), in which one of the characters clings precariously to the huge hands as he swings above the city.

Interestingly, Big Ben didn't actually appear in John Buchan's original spy novel of the same name, nor in Hitchcock's renowned 1935 film version. In the 1978 movie, starring Robert Powell as the main character, Richard Hannay, the plot does otherwise pretty much follow the book.

The Big Ben scene is believed to have been "borrowed" from the 1943 film My Learned Friend, starring Will Hay and Claude Hulbert - in the closing minutes, Hay, following a pursuit over the face and hands of Big Ben, is seen hanging from the clock tower. Credit for the initial idea must surely go to the US silent comedian Harold Lloyd, who is perhaps best remembered as the young man dangling frantically from a clock tower in the classic 1923 film Safety Last.

Another borrowed image crops up in Queen Kong, a spoof 1976 remake of King Kong, called Queen Kong, when Big Ben is substituted for the Empire State Building. Similarly, the climax of Konga (1961), another British version of King Kong, is played out in front of Big Ben.

Animation and TV

"Queen Kong"
©CINE ART PRODUCTIONS/DEXTER FILMS / THE KOBAL COLLECTION / BANGAY, JOE

Showdowns with a sword-wielding villain take place both inside and outside Big Ben in the Jackie Chan film Shanghai Knights (2003), where once again there's a familiar scene in which the baddie is seen hanging from the big hand. And at the end of the animated film Basil, The Great Mouse Detective, there is a chase high up in the inner workings of Big Ben as Basil searches for a young mouse's beloved toymaker father, who has been abducted.

The tower also featured several times in the 2005 series of Doctor Who - including an episode when a damaged alien spaceship plummets towards Earth, partially destroying Big Ben before hitting the Thames.

Perhaps one of the most popular Big Ben scenes comes in the animation version of Peter Pan (1953), when the children, along with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, fly round Big Ben and off to Neverland. Visitors to Disneyland, Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris theme parks can follow in their footsteps and experience the feeling of flying over London's famous landmarks, including Big Ben, on the ride Peter Pan's Flight.