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The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

The episode begins with the Spooks team confined as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse 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 letting them go and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield shown in the series which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Remaining completely frightening 35 years later.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The season one finale of Severance deserves a top spot as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, taking such risks with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise the whole episode, permeated with worry. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the program was incredibly anxious. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela difficulties are arising with yet another of his crew cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It halts. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)

I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season