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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

114 replies

OhYouLuckyDuck · 13/02/2016 11:24

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.

OP posts:
hiddenhome2 · 13/02/2016 11:27

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 Sad

BelfastSmile · 13/02/2016 11:29

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

UndramaticPause · 13/02/2016 11:29

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 · 13/02/2016 11:29

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.

Original poster
OhYouLuckyDuck · 13/02/2016 11:30

Yes, it was certainly a functional piano.

OP posts:
araiba · 13/02/2016 11:30

get over yourself

Original poster
OhYouLuckyDuck · 13/02/2016 11:30

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.

OP posts:
Greydog · 13/02/2016 11:32

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 · 13/02/2016 11:32

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 · 13/02/2016 11:32

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

Trills · 13/02/2016 11:33

Nobody was hurt.

It's just an object.

Do you object every time something is broken on TV?

hiddenhome2 · 13/02/2016 11:33

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

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 · 13/02/2016 11:34

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 · 13/02/2016 11:34

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

PelvicFloorClenchReminder · 13/02/2016 11:35

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

Cadenza1818 · 13/02/2016 11:35

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

UmbongoUnchained · 13/02/2016 11:35

I'm a musician hidden

Original poster
OhYouLuckyDuck · 13/02/2016 11:36

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)

OP posts:
thecitydoc · 13/02/2016 11:38

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 · 13/02/2016 11:39

I wouldn't like anybody to smash up my piano Sad

tomatodizzy · 13/02/2016 11:41

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 · 13/02/2016 11:43

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

limitedperiodonly · 13/02/2016 11:43

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 · 13/02/2016 11:43

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 · 13/02/2016 11:47

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.