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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team locked down as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, 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 decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. As this is Spooks, the outcome is expected.

The 1984 production Threads

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and bleak government data. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. 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 at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a gamble on the pound which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates once Jeremy and Mark find themselves 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 West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

No other viewing has been as gripping compared to my initial viewing the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s private assistant and reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to a practically unendurable point, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy comes into her home to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The concluding moment of the last installment of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Keep going. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth around 20 minutes subsequently.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode in the early morning. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan discovering the characters, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season