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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

The show kicks off with the MI5 agents confined during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and escalates as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to choose between firing at them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot among intense episodes. I spent the entire episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, exerting with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. 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 had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – 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. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. Redemption seems possible by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness 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 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 can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Superb programming. Never bettered.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The concluding moment of the last installment of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “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 sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with yet another of his crew working with the government. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (ended on a cliffhanger). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season