BAFTA win for Sound Technology graduate

A Sound Technology graduate from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) has received one of the British film and TV industry’s top awards, a BAFTA. 

Joe Beal, who graduated in 2012, was part of the Boom Post team to win best Sound: Fiction for Slow Horses (Apple TV+). Joe says: “We were thrilled to win the BAFTA for Sound Fiction, it’s great to see the hard work and attention to detail in the studio pay off. It was a tough category with some fantastic sounding shows nominated, so we’re really pleased to have walked away with the win.” 

Joe Beal was supervising sound editor on Slow Horses and accepted the award on behalf of the sound team. 

Joe was one of two Sound Technology graduates nominated for the award with Tom Melling (2017) shortlisted for his work on The Witcher (Netflix). 

Jon Thornton is Director of the School of Creative Technologies, Design and Enterprise and taught both Joe and Tom. “This is a fantastic and well deserved result for Joe and the whole sound team – and really shows that the determination and hard work he has put in since graduating has well and truly paid off.  

“It was also great to see LIPA alumni feature in two out of four of the nominations in this category. There can only be one winner – but big congratulations to Tom Melling and The Witcher team for their nomination too.”

Joe has just completed work on the new Netflix thriller Eric and is currently mixing the latest series of Slow Horses. “We’re into series three now and the show runs very smoothly, so the main challenge is trying to keep it sounding fresh and inventive, and to not rely on your old established ideas every episode.”   

Find out more about LIPA’s BA (Hons) Sound Technology.  

Image: Joe Beal accepting award at the BAFTAs. Photography: Jeff Spicer/BAFTA/Getty Images