Hidden Stories

Following true London tradition, I spend most of the time on the tube platform looking at my shoes or phone. There's a different voice, like one from another era, saying "Mind the Gap" at Embankment and I vaguely wondered why. The recording was made decades ago and was phased out across the underground until Embankment was the last station. The actor that performed it passed away and his widow, who used the station often, stopped to hear his voice each time, until, one day, "he wasn't there". The warning message had been modernised and staff had been unable to copy the iconic announcement to the new digital system. After the story emerged and technical wizardry, the message was reinstated. While on the station, I was entertained by a group of well spoken first year senior school boys comparing the TV programmes they were allowed to watch. Favourite snippet. "mother forbids that. Frightful lot of sex." The Mind the Gap man would have been impressed