Chat Ed : And here they are everyone! Give them a warm welcome

tegs : Hello
angelarichardson : Helloooooooooooooo

Michael Hymers : Good evening everyone, this is Michael signing on ;)
Kirstie Hymers : Hello it's Kirstie here
Lyn Hymers : Hello everybody I'm here too!

Chat Ed : Here's the first question:
Emma Hurrell : A fantastic series. Well done for sticking it out. Was the andersen shelter as cramped as it looked and what was the longest time you had to spend in there?

Michael Hymers : The shelter was very cramped, but at least it was dry and we spent all night in the shelter on several occasions and Lyn and Kirstie would sleep sitting up because there wasn't room for everybody to lie down at once. Ten and a half hours was the longest time we spent in there continuously.

kimgandy : Lyn, have you ever been face to face with 'the War Cabinet' and if so what did you say, or what would you say to them if you came face to face?

Michael Hymers chuckles
Lyn Hymers : I've only come face to face with one of the War Cabinet and as she was the authoress of the book, I felt it would be rude to comment. Lyn Hymers laughs

morph with flu : did you have to do anything that made you want to pull out of the series right then and there?

Lyn Hymers : No I can't think of anything.
Michael Hymers : No we weren't asked to do anything that made us want to pull out at any time.

Sharon : Were you ever embarrassed about having to go out in the streets dressed in all your 40's gear, and were the kids ever teased at school because of it

Kirstie Hymers : At first I was embarrassed and as far as I'm aware the children were never teased at school for wearing the 1940s clothes.

Joyce Bowler : What did you get to keep from the house? What would you have liked to keep- if anything!!

Lyn Hymers : Hello Joyce, nice to converse at last, I would have liked to have kept the whole house actually, but I actually only got to keep my pinny.

alex wafford : In moments of stress, how did you cope with the film unit in your face?

Lyn Hymers : We never felt that the film crew were in our face. There were only 2 people in the house a cameraman and a sound man and they were very unobtrusive.
Michael Hymers : They became like family really.
Lyn Hymers : They were family, yes.

becca : Was anything edited from the broadcast that you would particularly have liked included?

Michael Hymers : It's difficult to say. There was something like 400 hours of footage shot and having to condense that down it would be hard to pick out any single thing that was left out that we felt should have been left in. We are all pleased with the end result.
Lyn Hymers : I think everyone should see all 400 hours personally!
Lyn Hymers chuckles

traceyq : As a lover of long, hot baths, I can't imagine how you coped with having so little water to wash in, and what were the 1940's cosmetics like?
helena : lyn, how on earth did you manage to sleep with those things in your hair, they looked very uncomfortable!

Lyn Hymers : A hot bath was never an issue - there was no bubble bath - we were in fear of air raids and you just got used to it. The cosmetics were wonderful, far superior to anything you could get today. The dinky clips in my hair.. again we were so tired that I could have slept with anything in my hair.

Annabelle : Hello Michael and Kirstie: Did you regret getting rid of the rabbits so early on, when food became much more difficult to get hold of?

Kirstie Hymers : I didn't regret it, I would have rather have gone hungry than eat them.
Michael Hymers : I feel the same. In 9 weeks we wouldn't have got hungry enough to eat the rabbits.

kevlar : are there any modern conveniences that you especially missed that you thought you wouldn't?

Kirstie Hymers : Yes, one was a telephone the other was Tampax!
Michael Hymers : I missed modern razor blades. I forgot how uncomfortable old razors are. Oh and soft toilet paper.
Lyn Hymers : I missed hair dye, that was all.

sara : Kirstie, I am a single mum with two boys the same age as yours. Has the 1940 experienced changed your relationship with them? They really did seem to have a fantastic time!

Kirstie Hymers : My relationship hasn't changed, I'm just even more proud of them than I was before. And yes they really did have a good time.

Beth : I notice your own home is very '40s' style. Is there anything you will change now after living in a 'real' 1940s house Michael?

Michael Hymers : No, I'm quite happy with the house as it is. Each room is decorated in a different era and we're quite happy with everything in the rooms as they are. The only thing I regret is not being able to put an Anderson shelter up and not being able to afford to buy Bramar House.

Amanda : did you end up feeling resentful of the normal world going on around you

Michael Hymers : No, I felt no resentment whatsoever as were having a better time.
Lyn Hymers : Not at all.

liz : do you feel it would have been easier if there had been another family doing the 1940s house with you?

Michael Hymers : It would have been more realistic perhaps. One thing that was missing was the war time spirit, but the neighbours did rally round and we have remained close friends with the couple that you saw in the programme this evening.

Michelle Malc : Have you kept in touch with the Bramar House neighbours?

Lyn Hymers : Yes, all the time, we are still very close friends.

dave batstone : Did you really enjoy the music of the 40s, do you still listen and have you any favourites

Michael Hymers : I've always been a Glenn Miller fan, I have several Glenn Miller 78s and listen to them in my dining room on a gramophone.
Lyn Hymers : My favourite was the last song on the Women at War episode which is by Fred Astaire and I can't remember it's name!
Kirstie Hymers : 1940s music is not really my type of music.

Chriskez : Were you able to keep up with current affairs, and how did this affect you when you were away from your own environment?
AK1 : Could you listen to the radio all the time or were there only selected broadcasts?

Michael Hymers : We were only allowed to listen to selected broadcasts played for a max of one hour every evening. I did everything I could to minimise my exposure to modern news. The house itself was totally isolated from the year 2000, we had no contact at all with modern affairs.

JohnC : What was the highlight of your time in the '1940's house?'

Michael Hymers : It's difficult to pick out a single moment, everything about it was so wonderful, but I guess I would have to say sitting in the Spitfire.
Kirstie Hymers : Again I would say it was seeing my dad and the children sat in the Spitfire.
Lyn Hymers : For me it was meeting the people that we met whilst we were in the 1940s house that were able to relay their stories to me.

Kirsty : What was your biggest 1940's mistake?

Kirstie Hymers : I think mine was trying to mow the lawn and dropping the lawn mower on my foot.
Michael Hymers : Mine was putting the keys to the house through the letterbox at the end - I should have kept them!
Lyn Hymers : Coming home.

AK1 : Did you have any books in the house, if so what were they about?

Michael Hymers : We had several books, very interesting informative books, mainly those that were there to help us how to discover to do things, Popular Gardening, Good Housekeeping...
Lyn Hymers : Rabbits for Food!
Michael Hymers : Yes we soon got rid of that one. But generally informative, helpful books.

Peter J : Do you think that you could have gone on for another few months, or had you had enough of it at the end?

Lyn Hymers : I could have gone on for the rest of my life.
Michael Hymers : Yes I could quite happily have stayed there for many years.

Gail : what was the first luxury you submitted to when coming back to the year 2K?

Kirstie Hymers : A pizza and chips!
Michael Hymers : I'm afraid that I also succumbed to the pleasures of pizza and chips. In fact Lyn is the only one who has refused to have take-away's and has kept to it.
Lyn Hymers : For me, flip flops!

Emma Manville : How did you really feel when the end of the war was announced?

Lyn Hymers : Numb. I just didn't know how to react. We had such a hard time. It didn't seem to give me any cause for celebration.
Michael Hymers : I felt I would be looking forward to a more enjoyable time in the house but we left so soon after it ended so we didn't really get the chance to enjoy it in peace time.

Mr Ross Burt : In hindsight, is there anything you would have done or learned before you went to the 1940's house?

Michael Hymers : Yes it would have been easy to read up on everything as soon as we knew. But we made a joint decision not to as we felt it may dilute our experience of learning.
Kirstie Hymers : I would have learnt how to bake a cake.

Chat Ed : Okay, we're running out of time unfortunately, so the last couple of questions are coming up...
Kathryn : Lyn, you looked really upset at the very end - were you scared of going back to 2000?

Lyn Hymers : Not scared. I just didn't want to. I didn't think our way of life now was as good as my perception of life in the 1940s.

Chat Ed : And finally:
Michael29 : What is the most valuable thing you gained from the experience?

Michael Hymers : Erm... an understanding of the hardship and suffering that ordinary people went through.
Kirstie Hymers : I've got complete admiration for the older generation.
Lyn Hymers : An understanding of my parents generation.

Chat Ed : That's all we've got time for! Thanks so much Lyn, Michael and Kirstie, hope you enjoyed it! We sure did :) For your information everybody - there's a video & book to accompany the 1940s House series, which are available in the Channel 4 shop: www.channel4.com/shop and the House itself is viewable at the Imperial War Museum through June!

Lyn Hymers : Thank you everybody for your interest it has been amazing.
Michael Hymers : I second that. Thanks for your questions, hopefully the show has enlightened an awful lot of people or at least started meaningful discussions about life on the home front in the 1940s. Fewer and fewer of the generation that experience the period first hand are around to pass on their recollections.
Kirstie Hymers : Goodbye and thanks.

traceyq : thanks a lot for the insight.
Karen : Thanks for the chat! very interesting - good luck Lyn, Michael & Kirstie
Murray1 : Thanks & Byeeeeee!
David Bond : Please pass on congratulations to the Hymers for a great experience for us all.
maisie : best wishes to you all, you are a lovely family
keith johnston : GOOD LUCK HYMERS!
Pat Hampson : congratulations we are proud of how you have handled it
Matt Lodge : thanks for chatting and giving us an interesting insight into 1940's life
number2boy : it was a good laugh wasn't it?!!!!!!
John : Thank you all very much for the chat. It was a pleasure to watch.
Rachel : We enjoyed you sense of humour, thank you
beatlefan : look after those lovely little boys and good luck for the future
Karl Svenson : I enjoyed this - Thank you 'The Hymers Family'
Michelle Malc : W'll meet again, dont know where, dont know when...
ros : Goodbye and thanks for the memories from one who was there!

Michael Hymers leaves the room
Kirstie Hymers leaves the room
Lyn Hymers leaves the room