and that is what they've been repainted in. this restoration project was originally budgeted at £29 million. the total bill is now set to exceed 80 million. as you peel off the layers of this building, you find more and more that needs to be done. when we're taking out one piece of stain, adjacent stains often needed to be replaced. it's one of those things, until you can get up close to it, it's very difficult to see the scope of repair. the pandemic also brought work to a halt for several months, so the tower�*s been covered up for longer than expected. it's sad that i can't see it, you know — just, we're here for one night and then... big ben's, like, covered. yeah, it's covered. we've been here for two years. we haven't seen it open. it looks ugly, doesn't it? yeah, no, we need it back. i mean, already, you can kind of see the restoration. with the clock mechanism out of action, a computerised system has meant that, on special occasions, big ben has still been struck. we're standing in the belfry of the elizabeth tower