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Mind The Gap: Voice of London Emma Clarke Underground Silenced

TO London’s beady-eyed Tube dwellers, Emma Clarke is The Voice.

And now she has been sacked after allegedly criticising London Underground.As the BBC reports: “Ms Clarke, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, upset her paymasters by allegedly saying she did not use the Tube because it was ‘dreadful’.

LU 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’.

“I would find it quite an uncomfortable experience in the same way that when I call a company when I’m their on hold voice and it’s me saying - please press 2 for accounts - it’s a creepy experience to be honest.”

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.”

But it is a crap service…

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.”

She said she was “disappointed and perplexed” that LU had not contacted her but instead had decided to dismiss her via the media.

“I can’t get in touch with anyone at LU to explain I was wildly misquoted,” she said.

“Mind the gap,” says Emma Clarke. “And watch out for the militant workers, filthy carriages, dark stairwells, piss-soaked seats… etc. etc…

Anorak

Posted: 26th, November 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (9) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink

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mike in Melbourne Australia) says:
November 28th, 2007 at 1:20 am

I work in PR and to me this has done the Underground no favours. Of course as they have a captive market they propablably don’t care too much. Even if what they think she said was true - she says it wasn’t - it raises the issue for everyone who indeed does think the tube is crowded sweaty and horrible. Better to smile and let the issue go away than unleash a maelstrom of global negative coverage, I say!

Phil Williams, (in Australia) says:
November 27th, 2007 at 11:44 pm

How funny is this!!!.
This made the morning news here in the Convict Colony.
Nothing like a good laugh to start the day – Sensational!
What is wrong with the Stuffed Shirts at Transport for London?
Methinks there maybe an element of truth in the spoofs that have hit a raw nerve with the bureaucrats.
The pompous sods in their glass tower need to build a bridge and get over it .
Learn to laugh at yourselves and not take things so seriously.
Emma …You go girl!!!
I can just hear the next send up – “Would the overpaid, underworked toff in the suit get of his fat backside and take a look at what goes on in the real world”

Tracy says:
November 27th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

I don’t think she was deliberately insulting the LU - ANY subway experience can be a nightmare, especially if it’s the wrong time of day. I’m visiting London in March (I go every year) and I will be horrified if I hear some “strange” voice. I think everyone should pester them until she gets her job back! She didn’t do anything wrong.

Wilma Fingerdo says:
November 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

Emma; You are about to become famous throughout the English-speaking world! I hope you make LOTS of money from your voice and your humor, both of which the world needs a great deal more of !!