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The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

The show kicks off with the intelligence unit locked down while undergoing a drill concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a catastrophe taking place outside, and intensifies as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there among intense episodes. I was throughout the episode actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to get their truths out there. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble in his job and domestic life – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks due to his addictive betting, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it does. There is a chance for salvation by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand for the full show, filled with nervousness. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The start of the British program Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, enter the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Continue. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I kept late hours to see this show at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season