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The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the intelligence unit restricted as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, his decision is predictable.

The 1984 production Threads

The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series which underscored the actuality and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot as a tense chapter. I was throughout the episode actually sitting tensely, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season caused my heart to pound. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the wanton self-destruction I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. 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. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

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. It all ramps up as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You then spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Excellent TV. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, enter the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, had all been defeated. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Think about the small elements.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It stops. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan locating the survivors, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season