sunflower

LONDON (AFP) - The woman known as "the voice of the Tube" on London's underground has been sacked after criticising the network and making spoof announcements including making fun of US tourists, officials said Monday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Emma Clarke has for the last eight years been famous as the voice warning travellers to "Mind the Gap" between the train and the platform, and to "stand clear of the closing doors."

But the 36-year-old, a professional voice-over artist, annoyed her employers with a series of light-hearted spoof announcements posted on her own website, at www.emmaclarke.com.

In one she says: "We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly."

In another she announces that the passenger pretending to read a paper but actually staring at a woman's chest should stop, since he was "not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert".

In addition Clarke, who lives in Highgate, north London, said she used to use the Tube herself but no longer does so because it is "dreadful."

A London Underground spokesman said the problem was the criticism rather than the spoofs. "Some of the spoof announcements are very funny. But Emma is a bit silly to go round slagging off her client's services," he said

"London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Ms Clarke are experiencing severe delays," he added, according to the London Evening Standard.

Clarke told the daily she was surprised by the decision. "I don't feel that I have been slagging them off -- that was never my intention. It was just a bit of a laugh," she said.

But said a Tube spokesman: "We won't be providing her with any more work. It's not because of the spoof announcements. It's because she has criticised the Underground system."

Here's what got her into trouble in the first place:

http://www.emmaclarke.com/fun/mind-t...-announcements

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell

************************************

The owners of this country know the truth. It's called the American Dream....'cos you have to be asleep to believe it.

George Carlin

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...m8fo8ne6xy.gif