to think that the BBC are morally wrong to do this?

[OhYouLuckyDuck]

On Back in Time for the weekend the family take out the piano and replace it with a television. They are then shown smashing the piano. I am incensed at the waste and the message that this sends out to people that it's OK to throw away perfectly good stuff that can be used still.

[hiddenhome2]

Was it a functional piano?

It might have been just for show and a rubbishy one. There are a lot of them around.

On the whole though, it's just unpleasant vandalism to smash stuff up

[BelfastSmile]

Agree entirely. It also says "I don't want this, so no one else will".

[UndramaticPause]

It was functional. It really upset me too but I'm a musician and to me that's akin to smashing up a small child

[Trills]

Most likely it was not "perfectly good".

Objects are destroyed in order to make TV shows all the time.

Some objects are created specifically in order to be filmed being destroyed.

[OhYouLuckyDuck]

Yes, it was certainly a functional piano.

[araiba]

get over yourself

[OhYouLuckyDuck]

Oh, and the presenter's justification "It's what they did"

You can say that about lots of things that weren't ok, it doesn't make it OK to do it now.

[Greydog]

I saw that on the trailer and thought I'd give the prog. a miss - the first one wasn't up to much, and I agree with the OP - there was no need to do this.

[Schoolchauffeur]

I thought it was a shame too, but having actually tried to get rid of a piano I have some sympathy. Had a reasonable condition piano to sell a few years ago. Tried advertising it for sale at a bargain price, tried giving it away - still no takers. Tried various schools/ local groups/ residential homes- everyone either had one or had no room for one. Eventually had to pay someone to take it away who admitted that he would probably have to break it up!

[UmbongoUnchained]

You haven't lived till you've smashed up an old piano!

[Trills]

Nobody was hurt.

It's just an object.

Do you object every time something is broken on TV?

[hiddenhome2]

It was functional? Well, that's a shame then

I paid £50 for my first piano. It was a total donkey, but I loved it and got to grade 3 in 18 months.

[Cheby]

Old pianos are basically worthless second hand. You have to pay people to take them away usually. I imagine it was something like that.

[hiddenhome2]

How many people here who don't object are musicians?

[PelvicFloorClenchReminder]

That upset me too, I did an actual 😱 face.

[Cadenza1818]

Really upset me too but I'm a pianist so I'm excused!

[UmbongoUnchained]

I'm a musician hidden

[OhYouLuckyDuck]

We have an old piano, it was from an old woman's home who had kept it because her children had learnt to play on it and she wanted it to go to a home with children. My two have both learnt to play on it and I'd hate it to be smashed up.
(disclaimer, I may be over thinking this, my grandfather and his father were both piano makers)

[thecitydoc]

whether something is morally wrong depends on your morals. There was a time when everyone had the same morals, based on Judea/Christian ethics. Today people's morals a varied but not sure if breaking up a piano is or ever was morally wrong - certainly a waste

[hiddenhome2]

I wouldn't like anybody to smash up my piano

[tomatodizzy]

That is a senseless waste and a symbol of a throwaway society. I find that sad and who ever said that just because they used to do it doesn't mean it is ok to do it now is spot on. Shocking. We bought a cheap piano in the UK for £50 took it to Brazil and gave it to a local group that teaches drama, dance and music to poor children. They had it fixed up really well and it is serving a worthwhile purpose. Piano's in Brazil, even crappy ones are still a fortune and luxury that few can afford. BBC should be ashamed of themselves.

[SaltySeaBird]

I'm not a musician and it upsets me to think of a piano being smashed up!

[limitedperiodonly]

I've never got over the Italian Job in 1969 where the Mafia bulldoze an Aston Martin and two E-type Jags over a cliff. Earlier they destroy a Lamborghini Miura in an explosion.

I would have had just one of those.

I don't care about an old piano that they probably couldn't give away. It happens.

[UmbongoUnchained]

I had to smash it up because I moved to a house that had no room for it. And it's really really hard to get rid of pianos these days. Nobody wants them!

[VelvetSpoon]

My mum and her siblings chopped up the family piano in the 1960s so they could replace it with a record player, and have more room for dancing.

The piano was a Steinway and a wedding present to my nanna. However no one else in the,family played, and most people at that time had neither room for a piano nor any interest in owning one.

I appreciate it might seem odd to us now, but it was something that very much happened at the time, I don't think pianos had much value. Conversely all household appliances seem to have been kept/ repaired for decades, whereas now most of us just buy a new washing machine, tv etc.