LONDON — In the marble halls of Broadcasting House, home of the British Broadcasting Corp. for nearly all of its 64 years, unprecedented questions are being asked.

What is the BBC and what is it for?

Now the world's largest and most diverse programmer, the BBC gave the world "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and Kenneth Clarke's "Civilization."

It broadcasts to the world in 33 languages plus English, and kept Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev informed when he was held prisoner in his Crimean \o7 dacha\f7 during the attempted Soviet coup in August.

But the BBC, dependent on a TV license fee that is not keeping pace with inflation, faces financial pressures and competition from new broadcasters.

"The BBC has a major problem if it wishes to maintain its current range of public service broadcasting within a static income," Michael Checkland, the corporation's director-general, said in a recent interview.

The BBC's Royal Charter is up for renewal in 1996, and Checkland has created a panel to review operations and draw up a plan for the BBC for the next century. The panel is to announce its initial proposals next summer.

Checkland retains a bullish vision of BBC's role at the heart of British broadcasting.

"If Britain is to have a strong broadcasting industry, it must have a strong center. There is only one strong center around and it is not going to be 15 independent ITV companies; it is the BBC," he said.

The BBC operates two TV and five radio networks, 37 local radio stations, the international World Service radio and World Service TV.

The "Today" morning news program on Radio 4 is required listening, and an important podium, for Britain's news makers.

The BBC has a staff of 25,000 and a budget of nearly $2.5 billion.

It also has critics, some of them in Parliament, who believe the BBC does many things that might be done as well by private broadcasters.

"As more commercial broadcasting comes on stream, I cannot see the justification for the BBC to carry the amount of broadcasting it does at the moment," said Roger Gale, chairman of the Conservative Party's informal media committee in the House of Commons.

He believes the BBC should dump soap operas such as "Eastenders" and "Neighbors" and talk shows such as "Wogan" and concentrate on one public service TV channel and one radio station, carrying news, sport, films and documentaries.