Please, mind the gap: The people behind Britain's most iconic voices

The man behind the monotone voice of the speaking clock – who is he? All is revealed in a portrait of Brian Cobby – who also voiced the countdown in the TV show Thunderbirds. Cobby is sitting at his kitchen table in Brighton, surrounded by clutter, with a large clock on top of a TV set behind him. He took over from Pat Simmons as the first male voice of the speaking clock on 2 April 1985.

This is one of nine portraits taken by the photographer Laurie Fletcher, who wanted to put faces to some iconic but anonymous voices. The portraits are on display, accompanied by their familiar announcements.

"I was sitting on the Tube imagining what the woman behind the precise voice of London Underground's 'Please mind the gap between the train and the platform' looked like," Fletcher says. "When I went to meet Emma Clarke – the voice of London Underground – she was worried about people's perceptions of her if I took a photograph, because voice-over work is often ageless."

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Fletcher photographed her subjects in their homes. "Phil Sawyer, the voice of every UK mainline railway station, was hard to find. Nobody knew who he was," she says. Sawyer's voice is used for automated information systems, such as when a train is delayed. "I took a shot of him at home in Bolton with his family. I discovered that his wife is the voice of some Underground lines. They are a family of voice-overs."

The first portrait in her series was of Cobby, taken in 2006. "The sound of the voice and the look of the person are almost always different," Fletcher says. "But he was the most similar to his husky, theatrical voice. He is quite regal".

She was surprised when she met British Telecom's apologetic voice of misdialled numbers, Pat Whymark, pictured in her garden in Norfolk. Her voice is on many BT services, including directory enquiries, customer services and faults. "She is ethereal; not what I expected after hearing that prim and proper voice. I thought she would look more like a headmistress. In real life, she's also a composer."

Fletcher located the man behind the distinctive narration of Channel 4's Big Brother, Marcus Bentley, whose portrait was taken as he was moving house in Canterbury. "He often overhears people mimicking his notoriously heavy North-east England accent."

Particularly moving was meeting James Alexander Gordon, who reads the classified football results on Radio Five Live. He's pictured at home in Reading. "He was paralysed with polio and spent much of his childhood in hospital. He learnt to pronounce words in such a distinguished way from RAF Wing Commanders who were in the same hospital after the Second World War. "

Andy Freidlander, who warmed up the crowd as stadium announcer at the FA Cup Final this year at the new Wembley, has also been the voice of rugby internationals at Twickenham for eight years, and of other sports events. He's standing in the corridor at home in south-west London. The American-born Randall Lee Rose – the voice of British cinema trailers – is gazing out of a window at home in Colchester. "I'd imagined a big, robust guy because of the way his powerful voice comes across in trailers, not this gentle, quiet man."

Marcus Hutton, the voice of the National Lottery draw, is pictured leaning against his front door in Brighton. He played Nathan Cuddington in Channel 4's Brookside from 1998-2000 and does narration for the Discovery Channel.

"These people are unveiled in my portraits. Nobody usually wants to see their faces," Fletcher says. "To put a face to a voice is flattering."

From the Speaking Clock to Big Brother, click here to listen to Britain's iconic voices.

The exhibition, Sorry We Cannot Connect Your Call, is at Host, London EC1, to Friday 7th September (020-7253 2770; www.hostgallery.co.uk)