The winter break is an audiovisually dense period for most of us. Have your eyes grown tired of the telly’s blinding glow? Have you run out of new things to watch? If this is the case, don’t fret! Audio fiction is the perfect antidote to your entertainment fatigue.

Podcasts used to be something to fall asleep to – now I’m more likely to be kept awake by listening to my latest download. Recently, I’ve been hooked by audio fiction – an underrated podcast genre (in comparison to true crime or talk shows). It’s like serialised TV for your ears, except that it’s free, portable, and full of innovative, independent content. Fiction that can be consumed via headphones places you within a soundscape, creating an especially intimate experience. The lack of visuals is exploited by creative sound effects that can suggest more elaborate spectacles than CGI could ever achieve, or can even play narrative pranks on the listener. To get you started, here are some recommendations – categorised by the Cambridge courses that they most align with. Happy listening!

“Audio fiction is like serialised TV for your ears, except that it’s free, portable, and full of innovative, independent content”

Engineering, Natural Sciences and Computer Science: Wolf 359

An engineer, a scientist, a soldier, and a glitching AI struggle to survive together on a dilapidated space-station despite their clashing personalities. From modest beginnings, Wolf 359 becomes a grand, character-driven space-opera which ambitiously experiments with recreating cinematic effects - such as smash cuts, montages, and tracking shots - on audio. It’s a classic of the genre, and for good reason.

Psychology: The Bright Sessions

Framed as therapy session recordings with troubled clients who happen to have supernatural abilities, The Bright Sessions pairs a grounded sci-fi mystery with thoughtful discussions of mental health, informed by the writer’s professional psychologist sister. Powers are portrayed through smart writing rather than special effects, enabling the show to organically grow from a low-budget bedroom production into a successful franchise spawning multiple spin-off series and novels.

Theology: Forgive Me!

Exploiting the drama of the confession booth, this comedy places you in the shoes of a priest who learns about his new parishioners from what they choose to tell him, and God, from behind a screen. The writers draw on their childhood experiences of Catholicism to humorously explore the current state of modern faith.

“The Bright Sessions has grown from a low-budget bedroom production into a successful franchise spawning multiple spin-off series and novels”

Economics: Wooden Overcoats

The highly-strung undertaker Funn twins are anything but rational actors, and when a charismatic newcomer launches a rival funeral home, their frantic schemes to undermine his business fuel a fast-paced and surprisingly bittersweet audio sitcom. The absurd comedy is heightened through auditory running jokes for each character and a cast with perfect comic timing.

Architecture: Victoriocity

Unconstrained by a visual effects budget, Victoriocity boasts a spectacular, steampunk-inspired setting: the monstrous megalopolis of Even Greater London. Who wouldn’t want to listen to the adventures of a mismatched detective-duo against such imaginative backdrops as the Thames Glacier or the Lost City of Cambridge?

Classics: Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later

Created by a Classics graduate frustrated by the UK government’s handling of Brexit and Covid, this audio take on the Roman epic (with shades of Yes, Minister) reimagines the fraught dynamic between a Boris Johnson-like Mark Anthony and a nerdy teenage Gaius Caesar as they struggle to govern in the chaotic wake of Julius Caesar’s assassination.

History: The Magnus Archives

Archiving has never seemed so terrifying – creator Jonathan Sims deliberately fuses fact and fiction through recounting supernatural records that he ‘found’ in the archives. Each episode cleverly develops something as mundane as a fear of spiders into an eerie horror story, whilst uncovering the overarching threat that is targeting Jonathan himself.

English: Arden

Arden presents a (fake) true-crime podcast, complete with fake ad-breaks, but the mics also capture the backstage drama of solving the mystery which, in each season, is inspired by a different Shakespeare play. In that spirit, the show juxtaposes slapstick comedy with harsh critiques of the true-crime genre. Arden’s second season ingeniously transposes Hamlet to a declining ranch community in modern-day Montana, and the result may just be my favourite Shakespeare adaptation ever.