FOURTEEN years after the television series which made her and her family familiar to countless viewers, Debra Griffiths remembers it all as if it was yesterday.

The newly-elected Cardigan town mayor says people still constantly remind her of ‘The Coal House’ the Bafta-winning reality TV series that chronicled her family’s struggles to live in 1927.

In 2007, Debra, her husband, Cerdin, and their three children, Steffan, Angharad and Gethin, turned the clock back 80 years.

Stripped of all modern conveniences, they spent a month living at a coal house in Blaenavon, as life would have been on the south Wales coalfields of the 1920s.

Cerdin, a lorry driver, became a miner, Debra, a carer support worker, was a housewife and their Welsh-speaking children were placed in a school where the preferred language was English.

“How the time has gone so fast and all my children have grown up and left home,” Debra told the Tivy-Side this week.

“I was very emotional when we left our little coal house, because we came so close to our neighbours and got used to doing things like they did in those days.

“It really makes you appreciate what we have today.

“And, believe me, when we filmed The Coal House it was a real-life experience - no hidden treats, cars or hotels.

“It was as you saw it - hard work and scrimping for the last piece of crust sometimes, but you came to appreciate the little things in life.

“Family was important and how the children had to adapt to not only life in 1927, but the schooling! A huge shock to the system.

“We were there for a month – from mid-October to mid-November. And it was freezing!

“But I'm so proud of my family for going back to live the life of 1927. We've even written two books about our experiences - it was an amazing part of our lives.

“I miss the coal house. Life now is too busy for people to actually have the time even to have a conversation or just to relax.”