Television Centre is the main headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The building is widely recognized, as it has featured as the backdrop of many programs and news items. It was officially opened in 1960 and was one of the first and largest buildings ever constructed for the transmission of television.

Tours which last about two hours are available that let you see into studios, visit BBC News, take a peek into a dressing-room and have a play in an interactive studio.

The architect, Graham Dawbarn, drew a question mark while pondering the design and realised it would be an ideal shape for the building. Its mainly circular design meant that cables laid to each studio from the central apparatus room were always the same length.

In the centre of the studios is a statue of the Greek sun, Helios, which symbolises the radiation of television around the world, along with two reclining figures symbolizing sound and vision.

The studios have produced such classic favourites as Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Blue Peter, Top of the Pops and Dr Who. Jeremy Clarkson drove a tiny Peel P50 car down the corridors of the BBC for the Top Gear motoring show - he could be seen tootling past in the background of a BBC news broadcast.

Security is extremely tight after a car bomb exploded outside the television centre in 2001. The attack was attributed to dissident Irish Republicans. It was speculated at the time that the Panorama programme that named those suspected of involvement in the Omagh bombing was the motive for the attack.

In 2007 English Heritage made an application for the central building, the canteen and the scenery workshop to have listed status to prevent it being pulled down. In the same year, due to a funding crisis, the BBC announced it would be selling the television centre in the near future, but present economic conditions have postponed this plan.