🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The episode begins with the MI5 agents locked down while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to choose between firing at them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, his decision is predictable.

The 1984 production Threads

The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield from the programme which emphasised the reality and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Still absolutely terrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there among intense episodes. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I needed to stop and stand and exit the space repeatedly because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is brutally attacked. Whenever you assume the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he squanders the opportunity, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

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, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

No other viewing has been as gripping than the first time I watched the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy comes into her home to realize her mom has deceased 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 see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony looks up. Continue. It halts. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.

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

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season