Timehost: Hello everyone! Thanks for coming to our TIME chat with the time-travelling Bowler family, the stars of the PBS hit series The 1900 House. We're going to be joined very soon by the Bowler parents, Joyce and Paul...and Bowler kids, Kathryn, Hilary and Ruth. The Bowler family spent three months living in a house restored to reproduce the life, ambiance and amenities of the turn of the century.

Timehost: The Bowlers are here! Welcome to the chat.

Joyce Bowler: Hello!

sobriquet_films asks: How were you chosen as the family to live in this house?

Joyce: We answered a tiny advertisement in the Sunday newspaper, and then we were selected from 400 applicants. We were visited by the crew and filmed at home, and the children had to write and draw pictures about why they wanted to do it. So did Paul and I. It was very lighthearted, and we didn't think we had a chance.

honey_crash asks: Where is the house exactly?

Joyce: The house was in Charlton, in southeast London, very near the Millennium Dome.

sobriquet_films asks: So did cameras follow you around? How did that interfere in the way you'd normally act?

Joyce: I don't think it did. We didn't know how to act in front of cameras. We weren't acting. We were just being ourselves. The crew were really nice, funny people. And we just learned to ignore them. Which sounds impossible, but it just seemed to happen. I think if we'd been trained actors, it would have been dreadful. We would have been trying to go for the right camera angle, but we didn't know about any of that.

zooey_franny asks: What has been the hardest part about the 1900 House experience?

zooey_franny asks: What's been your favorite part of living in the 1900 House?

Kathryn Bowler: The hardest part for me was having to stick it out three months. Three months isn't a very long time in real life today, but in Victorian life it was a long time. The best part, I think was performing at the Players' Theater in London with Mum.

Hilary Bowler: My best thing was probably getting into the house at the start. That was really, really fun. The worst part was when Dad kept shouting and throwing temper tantrums.

Paul Bowler: I think my best part was when I went into the house. Everything I imagined was in sepia, and suddenly it was all full of color. The worst, I think, and I think everyone would say this, was when we had to leave.

Ruth Bowler: I think the best part was probably when I received my camera to take pictures of the family with. My worst part, I suppose, was when we left the house.

moonchild7000 asks: Was anyone in the family apprehensive about committing themselves to this experience?

Ruth: At the beginning, Hilary decided she didn't want to go into the house. We all thought it might be fun to live as the Victorians.

Hilary: At the start, as Ruth said, I didn't want to do it, But when they came around to interview us, I decided it would be really good fun.

bturtle_17 asks: What did your classmates say to you at school?

Hilary: When we were at the 1900 House, we went to the school in the area, in London, and none of them knew about it. We had to explain it to them.

Joyce: They all thought you were a bit mad, didn't they?

Hilary: Yes.

Kathryn: My friend Sharon came to visit us in the house, and she walked in, and she came to stay with us. She didn't like it very much, but she did stick it out. I think she was very proud of us for doing it, but she didn't enjoy it very much. She didn't have to stick it out for the three months, either.

GuruGary asks: Did you feel like you were actually living in the 1900's ever? Or did it feel more like an exercise in endurance and using primitive gadgets and appliances?

Joyce: The producer kept telling us it wasn't an endurance test. As the time went on, it became more important to us to really pretend that it was 1900. That was the only way for us, it was our coping strategy. We had to ignore 1999. Knowing that there were alternatives, made it very difficult to stay true to the experience. So we had to pretend that it was 1900. We could do that when we were indoors, but it wasn't so easy when we stepped outside.

woodspritefaery asks: What kind of preparation did your family go through in order to be ready for the 1900 House? Did you do lots of research or what?

Joyce: The production company said to us that they didn't want us to do research. They said if we had, we would have appeared to be too clever, too smart -- and weird, really. It's not normal to know that much about life in 1900. And the viewers would have gotten bored with us very quickly. We did go to Shuggorough Hall, and it's a stately home. It's actually the ancestral home of Lord Litchfield. And we used all the kitchen appliances, should we say. We did the ironing, and the washing there, using Victorian equipment. Unfortunately it was all in fantastic nick (translation: "condition"), much better than we were about to receive. We got the cheap end of the range. And that was the top end, so it didn't help much.

banshee962 asks: Elizabeth talked about how she came from a long line of cleaners and she could relate to what her great gran had gone through. Did you find any connection to your ancestors during this time?

Joyce: One of the most important things for me is that I felt I made a connection with the woman who lived in the house in the year 1900. I felt I owed her a great deal. I felt that I should try to do my best, just out of respect, really. She became real and not just an historical figure. My dad found some old photographs of my great grandmother and brought them to the house to show us. And that was wonderful for me.

Paul: I just felt like Joyce had some research to do, and she did it very well when she was there.

brown_eyed_babe3000 asks: Was it uncomfortable dressing in the clothing of that period?

Kathryn: The answer to that is definitely yes. The clothes that mum and I had to wear were extremely uncomfortable. We had to wear at least 3 or 4 layers of clothing every day. Including a corset. Which meant that you couldn't lie down. You had to sit up straight, and it actually made me sick once. It made you sick because it limited the amount of food you could eat at any one time.

Paul: I think I had the best clothes going. I had a uniform to wear. which was very smart. And I had a Norfolk suit, but I still had several layers of clothes on underneath. So for the time of year it did get quite warm, and lots and lots of buttons to do up.

Hilary: The clothes that we wore quite loose but we had to wear a lot of them. We didn't wear as many as Kathryn and mom did, but we did wear quite enough to get hot. We were a lot more flexible than mom and Kathryn.

Stamm444 asks: Buying and preparing food must have taken a lot of the Victorians' time - have you used their recipes?

Joyce: It was a bit of a shock having to plan a menu so far in advance. And having to start the evening meal first thing in the morning. I went shopping every day, but I actually enjoyed it. For a Victorian lady, it was good exercise and social contact. Managing the range...and managing to produce any food at all, was quite a challenge, and I felt good about myself. We discovered after the experience that vegetarians were not considered such cranks as everyone would lead you to believe. In 1900, there were lots of vegetarian societies, including a vegetarian cycling club, of which I would have been a member It was recommended for reasons of thrift, really, not animal welfare, which is different from how we view it today.

subuhi_3000 asks: Did you find life harder or simpler back in 1900, according to your experience?

Joyce: It was harder physically. And for us modern people, it was harder mentally. I think it may have appeared simpler because we had less distraction but it was tough. It was very tough

Paul: I think what you had to do was you had to slow down. Whereas today, we're in a faster environment. Which is what it made it look easier. But everything we did we made that day.

Stamm444 asks: Which modern appliance did you miss the most? The TV? Fridge?

sasagirl asks: When you first came back to 2000, what was the first thing you really ran for?

Paul: The first one, was I missed the telephone and the communications aspect of our time. And I think the first thing I wanted to do was switch on every electrical appliance.

Hilary: I missed the most -- my CD player, so I could listen to my music and relax But what I did when I got back was turn on all the light switches so I could see if the lights worked.

Kathryn: I think the thing I missed the most was my razor so I could shave my legs. The first thing I did was take a nice hot shower away from the rest of my family. Timehost: Has the reaction to the show been different between English and American audiences?

Joyce: We're not really quite sure what the American reaction is. Everyone says it's big, and a success, but we don't really know what that means. In England, it was more successful than people imagined it would be. We became very minor local celebrities. We haven't seen any press clippings from America, so we'd love to see how it's going down there. We hope everyone's going to buy the book.

woodspritefaery asks: Do you ever find yourself using the 1900 method for doing anything now that it is over?

Paul: I do not shave with a cutthroat razor.

Joyce: I do not put on a corset Ruth does not a potty under the bed. Honestly, no. We discovered we are modern people, and do not want to go back in time We're glad we time traveled home. I'd like to be a stay-at-home mum again, though. I hate going out to work.

apple_girl_13642 asks: What things did the children do in that house?

Hilary: First of all, Kathryn and I played cards every night. That's all we'd do. Then we found some games in a cupboard. Some anagram games. I painted pictures of the house.

Ruth: I got given a doll to play with. Her name was Adele. I used to just go out into the garden and play with Victorian tea sets just like little Victorian girls.

jackb1492 asks: Because of slowing down your lifestyle, did you feel that you had more time for family than previously and has that changed your lifestyle now?

Hilary: I think in the house we did slow down and that gave us a lot of time to be with our family. Ruth, Kathryn and I shared a room, which I'm not exactly sure pulled us together or pulled us apart. It has changed us. I think weĠre a better family.

Paul: Yes, it has slowed me personally down. I find that we do have a lot more time for the family and with the family as well.

moonchild7000 asks: If you could pick one thing that you learned from your experience traveling to the 1900's to use in the 21st century... what would it be?

Paul: These are questions for masterminds!

Hilary: I've learned not to annoy my dad ever again.

Paul: I would make sure that I listened to what my children are saying to me, and that I understood their meaning.

Joyce: That's an enormous question to answer. I learned things about myself as a person that I didn't expect to. I think it all boils down again to time. And to what Paul was saying. That we need to explain and listen to people. And it seems that human contact has been eroded by other things we fill our lives with. We cut ourselves off with personal CD players, television, and so many distractions that we think keep us happy and improve communications. But you can't beat a good ol' face-to-face sit-down conversation. Preferably around the dinner table, preferably in comfort, sitting down and talking to each other.

moonchild7000 asks: I'm still in the process of watching the series... curious though... what did you use to wash you hair after you had poured the store bought shampoo down the drain?

savana_16_f asks: What happened when you bought the shampoo?

Joyce: I thought I'd get away with it, really. But inside me I knew I couldn't go three months hiding bottles. And I couldn't live a lie. So I confessed, and became true to 1900 again. I had some fabulous and wonderful recipes for washing hair. I wrote to loads of people asking for help. I used egg and lemon. Borax and camphor. I used loads of things. Spirit soap or soap spirit, I can't remember which one it's called. And pure soap, which was awful. And herbal infusion. That's just rosemary -- and it didn't work.

Timehost: Well we're about out of time...any last thoughts about the overall experience?

Joyce: I hope that people learn from this series not to take history for granted, and to question the history they've been taught in school. I hope that it will give them a hunger to investigate their own family history. I hope the series goes some way to kill off the terrible stereotype of Victorian England which we still have.

Hilary: Seeing myself cry on camera and be angry at the camera is almost unreal. But I did feel those feelings when I was there, and I think that's what's so good about the program. We're not acting.

Paul: My thoughts -- thank you very much to everyone who watched. We were a normal family in an abnormal situation.

Kathryn: I want to thank everyone for watching, and I'd like to thank the rest of the family for sticking with it and for not walking out.

Ruth: I'd like to say thank you to my family as well. I'd also like to do it again, to a different time period. I'd like to go back to Roman times.

Timehost: Thank you so much for joining us!

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