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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team locked down during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or allowing them to leave and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which emphasised the reality and the casual, straightforward government details that aired. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show quite literally on the edge of my seat, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – was like an eruption.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, taking such risks with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe the situation cannot deteriorate further, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the concluding part of the season. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I have seen has been as tense than the first time I watched 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 escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Excellent TV. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The beginning of the UK show 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 knows something is off. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to take off her suicide vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased of natural causes, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Think about the small elements.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It stops. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (ended on a cliffhanger). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the subdued noises – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season