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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the MI5 agents restricted during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to choose between firing at them or permitting their exit and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, his decision is predictable.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and dismal official figures. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there among intense episodes. I was throughout the episode actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Installment five in Industry’s third series had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the reckless self-harm I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt from unscrupulous lenders owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, does tons of drugs and drink and experiences wins and losses, is brutally attacked. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. Yet the installment Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine 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 is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Excellent TV. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The start of the British program Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to an almost unbearable degree, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The final scene of the final episode of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing with yet another of his crew working with the government. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season