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Witness History

Heathers: The making of a cult classic

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1989, a dark teen comedy exploring self-harm and suicide flopped at cinemas.

Heathers would have to wait years before achieving cult status through home video tape releases.

Its stark portrayal of teenage life launched an age of more radical teen movies.

Actress Lisanne Falk played one of the ‘Heathers’, a titular trio of girls who ruled their school, until someone started taking them down.

She tells Drew Hyndman about Heathers’ journey to cult classic.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

11 climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2.

0:06.4

It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history.

0:09.9

Rock falls, avalanches.

0:11.6

Huge pieces of ice.

0:12.9

All are big enough to kill you.

0:14.3

He just flew out into Devoid, and he was gone.

0:17.3

How did it all go so wrong?

0:19.2

And is it really worth risking death to feel alive?

0:22.2

Why would somebody pay to go to a place called the death zone on vacation?

0:27.3

Extreme.

0:28.3

Peak Danger.

0:29.3

With me, Natalia Melman Petrazella.

0:31.7

Listen to the full series now.

0:33.3

First on BBC Sounds.

0:39.0

You're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Drew Hindman.

0:45.6

I'm taking you back to 1989 and the release of a dark comedy that would go on to become a cult

0:52.3

classic and change the way teen movies were made.

0:55.5

And just to warn you, this story includes references to suicide and self-harm.

1:02.5

Grow up, Heather. Believe me, is so 87.

1:06.1

I just killed my best friend.

1:08.3

And your worst enemy.

1:10.0

Same difference. Heather Channel is not your everyday suicide. And your worst enemy. Same difference.

...

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