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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The episode begins with the MI5 agents locked down during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I’ve ever seen because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Still absolutely terrifying 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – overwhelmed by debt to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Whenever you assume it can’t get any worse, it deteriorates. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it’ll have you standing up the whole episode, permeated with worry. It all ramps up when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense as when I first saw the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s confidential aide and reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to pursue re-election. Excellent TV. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died of natural causes, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The final scene of the final episode of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow stops the car. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with yet another of his crew working with the government. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Continue. It halts. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season