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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The show kicks off with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads (1984)

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The concluding高潮 – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – buried in financial obligations to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is severely assaulted. Every time you think the situation cannot deteriorate further, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode contains such levels of cringe that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they unintentionally hit and later efforts to get rid of it. You then spend the rest of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it is possible!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

No other viewing has been as gripping as when I first saw the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the repercussions of the secrecy regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He spots a Muslim woman going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy comes into her home to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The concluding moment of the last installment 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 foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. 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 stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It ceases. My spirit fell around 20 minutes subsequently.

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

I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season