Are these plants dead?

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Im new to the world of gardening, having never had a garden before. I bought these heathers (I think) a few months ago and they were beautiful, lush and green until about a month ago when they started going green and then yellow and now brown. Can they still be saved? Somebody local who works at the local garden centre has advised for me to cut them right back but I don't want to if there's any chance of reviving them with some feed or a gentle trim.

They need to be trimmed right back so they grow back healthier

The one on the right is clearly not dead. They look as if they’ve been frosted, which would be unusual for a heather, most if which live on chilly mountain tops.

cut back anything which is dead. Dead stuff will have stems that are brown all through. Live stems have a ring of green.

Prune off the brown foliage completely then trim the green back a little. It would be better to plant these heathers so that the roots are protected by the soil during very cold weather. Add compost as you plant them and water well.

@Season0fTheWitch is right of course, but if you don’t want to cut back (not to the base, cut back by a third to a half), there is no point in leaving dead stuff on them

Looks like frost or they've been sprayed with a chemical. Trim them back lightly to take off the dead bits and they might be OK.

Also looks like ornamental box hedging rather than Heather although I can't enlarge the photos on the app. Have you had much frost?

They're also too big for those pots, and rootbound.

Where did you buy them? Some Garden Centres offer a 'warranty' so it could be worth going back to place of purchase. Obviously, do this before you start hacking them back.

Some more photos:

They were bought from someone locally who was moving house and didn't have space for them.

I'm worried about hacking the brown bits off because they'll be lopsided. I could get them planted into the ground but will need to find a sunny spot for them. There's been frost and light snow here (London) but I didn't think I needed to protect these since I thought they were hardy plants. I should've copied my neighbour and covered everything in bubble wrap :(

they look like box.

box plants are really suffering from 2 big problems: a fungal disease and a moth.

sadly it's unlikely they will recover.
you could try re-potting and cutting back as pp describe.

if you like topiary look at other plants. cottoneaster is a good one. as are some dwarf conifers. have a look at a garden centre.

Leaves don’t look rounded enough for box.

OP you don't have to trim the dead bits off. But they won’t ever become not-dead.

They're not box, but I think they may be some sort of conifer - if they are, they don't regrow on dead wood, so I think they've mostly had it I'm afraid.

They're not box; they look like heathers to me. (Are they in ericacaceous soil? If not, they won't be very happy and it won't help). I'm not in any way knowledgeable about heathers (other than the soil thing!), but it's always surprised me how much a good hard cut back actually helps most plants. Especially anything that is suited to topiary. You can be far more brutal than you think.

You need to cut all the dead bits off anyway, even if it makes them lopsided. Being lopsided doesn't matter, you can take them out of the container and replant at a different angle.

I suspect that they got too dry at the roots. We have just had one of the driest Februaries on record, and I had to water quite a few potted things several times.

I wouldn’t give up on them until I’d repotted them in much bigger pots to give the roots lots of room to move.

Part of the Heather foliage has died back because the plants are in pots rather than in a garden border. Although Heather is fairly resistant to cold and frost, the roots in a pot are vulnerable and can die, as has happened here.

Although they’ll initially look unbalanced when trimmed back, new growth will appear and they’ll look fine again.

Dig into your soil, adding ericaceous compost and keep well watered.

If you’d like to keep them in pots, choose a much bigger one and keep the plant roots away from the sides of the pot. Next winter, put the pots in a sheltered place in your garden and/or wrap the pot with fabric and/or put the pots in a greenhouse or porch.

They’re definitely heathers, not box.

Thank you everyone. I've had someone (lady who works at the local gardening centre) come over and trim them back a bit- I'm sad to see them much smaller and a lot browner than they ever were.

@Honeysuckle16 I think putting them in the ground might work better for me. Would they need a sunny spot or will they do well in the shade as well?

The red arrow is where the shaded spot is which is quite sparse atm and I think these would look good there. However it's very dark there and doesn't get much light.

The orange arrow is where we get the most light.

Would help if I attached a photo:

Heathers are usually native to heaths and moors - very open habitat, so they need sun, really, and wouldn’t do very well in shade.

@NanTheWiser- thank you. The gardening lady is coming over again next week. I'll ask her to bring over some larger pots with her.