The voice that came back to the platform

On the London Underground, the phrase 'Mind the gap' has been ringing out for more than half a century. At Embankment station, the Northern line still used an old recording: the voice of actor Oswald Laurence, taped in the late 1960s.

Oswald died in 2007. His widow, Dr Margaret McCollum, then discovered a peculiar comfort: she would go down to Embankment, sit on a platform bench and let the trains go by, just to hear him. Sometimes she would deliberately linger, waiting for the next announcement.

In November 2012, the announcement system was upgraded and Oswald's voice was replaced by a digital recording. Margaret wrote to the Underground asking for, at the very least, a copy of the audio so she could listen to it at home. The staff did something better: they retrieved the original recording and returned it to the loudspeakers at Embankment. Only there, on his platform of all these years.

Today, if you pass through that Northern line station, the voice warning you about the gap is Oswald's. Other passengers hear a safety announcement. Margaret hears her husband, punctual every few minutes, telling her to be careful.