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Millions of London commuters hear their voices every day – but little is known about the people who voice London's famous Tube announcements.

Whether it is on the Underground or suburban rail network, the soothing tones broadcast over the train tannoy have become some of the iconic sounds of London’s transport system.

But what is it like to be one of the voices behind the announcements?

“It’s surreal,” said Emma Clarke – who is one of the Mind the Gap voices on the London Underground, making announcements used on the Central, Bakerloo and Victoria Lines.

“My friends ask 'are you ever tempted to sneak behind someone on the Tube and speak into their ear?'”

Ms Clarke, 46, from Cheshire, was given the sought-after gig 17 years ago and her voice is still used across the Tube network today.

“I recorded it in 1999, it was just a three-hour session. It was easy to record but it took them a long time to decide,” the former actress told the Standard.

“They tried out three men and three women and they sent out samples to focus groups to see which voices people preferred.

“The voices were given code names, and mine was Marilyn. I wonder if they had called me Brenda if the commuters would have warmed to my voice as much as they did.

“But I got the gig. I’m so lucky.

"I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel to be given such incredible opportunities and to have work which has such a lifespan.”

For Julie Berry - the voice of the Piccadilly line - she still hears herself frequently, living near Tube stop Barons Court.

She also voices several other commuter lines including Southeastern, Greater Anglia, c2c and the crisis-hit Southern Rail.

“I do Southern Rail, so am probably not very popular at the moment although it’s nothing to do with me,” she told the Standard.

“I also do somewhere up in the north west. Someone tweeted me the other day to say they heard my voice as they left London and when they arrived.”

Ms Berry, who is in her 50s, said she often gets embarrassed if she’s on the line.

“It’s okay, but I get very embarrassed if I’m on the Piccadilly line with friends.

“I was on the Piccadilly line with a great friend and a friend of his and he said 'listen to the voice, it’s Jules'.”

She originally recorded the line’s announcements more than a decade ago but has since had to update it when the Heathrow Express and Terminal Five were added to the line.

The voiceover artist started out as an actress after training at the Guildford School of Music and Drama before teaching at theatre school.

But she said: “When I got to about 30 I wanted to do it for myself. A friend of a friend said 'I know somebody who is looking for a voice for the trains'.

“I was in the West End in the theatre and had done radio plays on Radio 4 and Radio 3. In an actor’s life, sometimes you have to grab what you get.

“My friend said the trains were looking for a female voice which is friendly and authoritative.”

In the early days of voice recording she said the phrases were incredibly broken up and it would “literally be word by word”.

Central line voice Ms Clarke practiced relentlessly for two years before bagging her first commercial voice job aged 18, recording every day from 7.30am to around 5.30pm for other voiceover work including radio, commercial and corporate recording.

“When I ring up a company and hear myself speaking, that’s such a surreal experience,“ she said

More recently she has become the voice of the spaceship in this year’s Hollywood film Passengers starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.

“They asked for me specifically to try out for it. They filled out the contact form on the website, I thought it was a joke. They then phoned me and said the director was familiar with my stuff.

“I recorded an audition with just three words and then about three weeks later they said I have got the gig. It was all recorded in my studio in Altringham, Cheshire.”