Experimental fiction podcaster from Peterborough wins top award in New York

The comedy fiction writer and audio performer has just been handed a top industry award for his inventive show ‘Imaginary Advice’.

Having begun 10 years ago, the monthly podcast features more than a hundred drama episodes described as “experiments in audio fiction”.

One June 11, his work was recognised at a red-carpet ceremony in New York City when he was awarded the Tribeca Independent Audio Fiction Award for a piece called ‘They Will / They Wont’ – created in collaboration with writer Joe Dunthorne.

“It was amazing to receive this kind of recognition and great that Tribeca have a category for independent podcasts like mine,” said Ross, 45. "Every month I write and release a new episode. Some are short-stories, some are monologues, some are essays on storytelling, and some are unholy combinations of all three. Each one is its own standalone thing, so you can listen to the episodes in any order.”

Imaginary Advice boasts impressive production values, incorporating lots of original audio and music to create the desired atmosphere – with Ross visiting areas of the city to capture authentic sounds.

"You will sometimes see me out on the Embankment holding my microphone yelling things or recording foley sounds of squeaky elevators in the shopping centre,” he laughed. “The recording process can be very embarrassing, but it all makes sense when you hear the show! I also work regularly with composer Jeremy Warmsley.

“It's not exclusively a comedy podcast but there's a lot of humour in the show. I like experimenting with different ways of making stories and telling stories.”

Recent podcasts include a heist story where Ross used Wikipedia’s ‘random article’ button to pick a heist crew.

"I found six famous people through Wikipedia, then invented a heist that played to their specific skill-set,” he explained.

“On another recent episode, I made a ‘Walkthough guide’ to a fictional videogame called ‘A Christmas Carol (SNES 1993)’. It is like the kind of thing people watch on Youtube, but as a podcast. So you're listening to me ‘playing’ through a made-up old SNES game – but there's layers of secrets within the game that slowly turn the story into something else.”

The podcast now has a growing, global following – with Ross regularly hearing from fans of the show as far away as New Zealand, the US and Italy.

Having written for film, radio and stage over the years, he now has plans to write a horror film screenplay – with help from his listeners.

“This idea is a bit of a passion project for me,” he explains. “I have a second podcast called Untitled Horror Screenplay, which is only available to supporters who donate money to Imaginary Advice.

"On this second show, I pitch a new idea for a horror film every month and then get listeners to vote for their favourites. By the end of this year, my plan is to pick the best horror idea overall and then actually write the screenplay. It's not a project that has any official movie backing, I just wanted to write a horror movie and this is a fun way to work on it. I find it's best just to launch into a creative project and not wait around for someone to give you permission (or money) - which is very much the podcaster ethos, to be honest!”

Ross started Imaginary Advice when he moved to Peterborough from Cambridge, creating and editing it from his home in the city. He’s now keen to attract more listeners from Peterborough and connect with the local podcast community.

"I’m also often on the lookout for voice actors that don’t mind me dropping a script on them at short notice and saying ‘read that’,” he laughed.

• Imaginary Advice is available to stream through iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud.