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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The episode begins with the intelligence unit locked down during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or allowing them to leave and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads (1984)

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, permeated with worry. It all ramps up when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment 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 have seen has been as tense compared to my initial viewing the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The episode starts with the aftermath of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unequaled.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, enter the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Think about the small elements.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Don’t stop. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode in the early morning. It was extremely gripping following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the subdued noises – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season