🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the intelligence unit confined during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads from 1984

The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times due to the immense extent of the wanton self-destruction I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances with a bet on sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol 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 but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it’ll have you standing up the whole episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

No other viewing has been as gripping as when I first saw the second season finale of The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Excellent TV. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and senses something is wrong. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died of natural causes, which is the most unusual type of death in this supernatural show. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing with yet another of his crew cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. 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 looks up. Keep going. It stops. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (ended on a cliffhanger). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season