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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a catastrophe taking place outside, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. Given it’s Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads (1984)

Threads was low budget yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to get their truths out there. The ultimate peak – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Installment five in Industry’s third series had my heart racing. I needed to stop and stand and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt from unscrupulous lenders owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances 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 alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes but he misses the opening, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise for the full show, permeated with worry. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it can be!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw 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 reaches a crescendo with a situation in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Excellent TV. Unequaled.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and senses something is wrong. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until yes, the vest is diffused.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with yet another of his crew working with the government. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It ceases. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I remained awake to view this installment during the night. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season