MIND THE GAP

A few years ago, a distressed woman stood on the platform at Embankment Tube station in London. Trains passed, but she didn’t get on. She just stood and listened as the announcements played, “Mind the gap”. She approached the staff and asked why the voice had gone. Which voice, they wondered. Then she explained that she meant the man who usually said, 'Mind the Gap’. The voice had changed. Someone different was saying those words. The staff explained that the announcement system had been updated and a new actor had been used to voice, “Mind the gap.”They asked why it was so important. "That voice was my husband," she replied. The woman was Dr Margaret McCollum, and the voice was her late husband, actor Oswald Laurence, who had died a few years earlier. She had found comfort in hearing his voice making the announcements while she waited for her train, but no...