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The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and gets worse as the boss appears to be infected, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or letting them go and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield from the programme which emphasised the reality and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to get their truths out there. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they unintentionally hit 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 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to run for another term. Superb programming. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and knows something is off. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy arrives at her residence to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we view the installment through the lens 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 – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. 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 in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season