Heathers: The making of a cult classic episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 7, 2025 · 9 MIN

Heathers: The making of a cult classic

from Witness History · host BBC World Service

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.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 7, 2025

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