LONDON – The woman who became the “Voice of the Tube” has been sacked after allegedly criticising London Underground.
Voiceover artist Emma Clarke, 36, is the woman millions of Tube travellers hear warning them to “mind the gap”.
Ms Clarke upset her paymasters by allegedly saying she did not use the Tube because it was “dreadful”.
London Underground said it would not be offering her further work but Ms Clarke said she had been “wildly misquoted”.
She told BBC News: “What I actually said was that travelling in a Tube train would be dreadful for me, listening to my own voice and seeing the haunted faces of commuters being subjected to me telling them to ‘mind the gap’.
Ms Clarke also made a series of spoof announcements on a website promoting her voiceover work.
An LU spokesman said: “It’s not because of the spoof announcements. It’s because she has criticised the Underground system.”
“Some of the spoof announcements are very funny. But Emma is a bit silly to go round slagging off her client’s services.”
In one announcement, Ms Clarke, a mother of two who has worked for the Underground since 1999, says: “We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly.”
TravelMole tried to check out Ms Clarke’s website (http://www.emmaclarke.com/) but received the following message:
“Hi – thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, my site is currently overwhelmed by the sheer number of people wanting to download MP3s of my spoof Tube announcements. Please check back in a day or so.”
According to Wikpedia, the phrase “Mind the Gap” is well known enough for London Underground to print it on t-shirts and other souvenirs sold to the public.
The phrase also inspired songs of the same name by Judge Dread, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Osamu Kubota, and Matrix.
Composer Robert Steadman wrote an experimental composition entitled Mind the Gap for cello orchestra, which depicts a journey around the Circle Line of the London Underground beginning and ending with the performers shouting “Mind the gap”
