Well known announcer, actor and voice artist Ella James was watching an old episode of Four Corners when she heard her own voice as part of the audio.

She couldn’t recall having participated in the ABC doco about the Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins affair, much of it shot in and around Parliament House, Canberra. Yet, it was definitely her voice coming through the TV’s speaker.

It was during a reconstruction of events that the camera moved into a Parliament House lift. As the lift approached the first floor, an authoritative yet velvet-toned female voice announced, with total accuracy, “First Floor.”

Ella was unaware  that her voice was being heard in Australia’s top seat of power. What’s more, people always followed her advice, without question.

Is she being paid royalties for it? Ahhh, no.

“A lot of voice over work is a one off payment and particularly back in the day when I recorded that. It went into multiple elevators,” says Ella on her Facebook page..

This is another one of those classic wishes that start: ‘If only I had a dollar for every…’

Peter Saxon – Managing Editor