Voice of the Tube fired

With the recent introduction of the pleasant automated voice announcing TTC stops in Toronto, it is interesting to read that the voice actor behind the familiar London Tube announcements has been fired sacked. She was let go because she posted a series of spoof announcements on her website (listen to them here).

The spoofs by Emma Clarke, one of the country’s most successful voiceover artists, included a reminder to “our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly” and an appeal to the passenger in the red shirt to stop “staring at that woman’s chest”.

But Transport for London decided that it was the end of the line after Ms Clarke, a 36-year-old mother of two who is trying to build a career in comedy, told a newspaper that she never used the Tube any more because it was “dreadful”.

A TfL spokeswoman said: “Some of the spoof announcements are very funny, but Emma is a bit silly to go round slagging off her client’s services. London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Ms Clarke are experiencing severe delays.”

Clarke claims that she was misquoted and that she was saying “how dreadful it was to always hear my voice on Tube trains” — she has a blog and you can read her account of events here. Down here in Toronto we are familiar with the TTC’s own record of humourless officiousness — but now some comfort can be found in that it can be blamed on British colonialism. Though even the spokesperson for the TfL appears to have a sense of humour about the sacking.

Photo by DigitalUrban.