Speak Easy

A little voice told me my ‘time’ had come...

- Sara Mendes da Costa

Hello,’ I said in my best voice, while gripping my phone a little too tightly. ‘At the third stroke, it will be 12.36 and 30 seconds.’

It was 2006, and for the first time, applications to be the voice of the Speaking Clock had been opened up to the public.

Friends had encouraged me to give it a go.

I wasn’t a stranger to using my voice as a tool.

I’d successfully run my own telemarketing company for years until giving it up to pursue my dream of becoming a novelist and voice-over artist.

Special

Starting out, I did mostly radio adverts and some TV documentaries.

The Speaking Clock, though, that was something really special. 

All I’d had to do to apply was ring a number and do a time check.

And for every person who called, £1.50 went to the charity Children in Need. 

I knew thousands of people would call. 

Not just to donate to charity. 

But also because the Speaking Clock is a genuine British institution.

Slim chance

When I was a child, it was the first telephone call I was ever allowed to make.

It was thrilling to think that, all these years on, perhaps I might have the chance to become the Speaking Clock myself, even if the odds were against me.