HAMPSHIRE sound recordist Maurice Hillier has received television's highest accolade - a Bafta for his work with the BBC.

The veteran technician from Romsey scooped the award for his part in the making of Warriors, a drama about British soldiers in Bosnia, starring Hornblower actor Ioan Gruffudd.

He saw off the challenge of both Great Expectations, and Queer as Folk in the Best Sound (Fiction/Entertainment) category.

"I was quite nervous watching the other awards go out before us, but hearing your name read out at the Baftas is such a great privilege," he said.

Maurice says winning the award was the last thing on his mind.

He added: "You can never really know if you're going to win, and you don't make a film to win the award. The judges seemed to like the realistic documentary style of the film."

Achieving this meant extremely harsh working conditions. Maurice explained: "Most of Warriors was filmed on an old Russian training base in the Czech Republic in February and March of last year. This meant temperatures of -18C. The weather was so extreme that I had to use old reel-to-reel equipment because my digital recorders wouldn't work."

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