🔗 Share this article ‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most nerve-wracking TV episodes you’ve seen Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003 The show kicks off with the intelligence unit confined during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place 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 two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to opt for either shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. As this is Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses. Threads from 1984 The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later. Severance – The We We Are (2022) The season one finale of Severance deserves a top spot as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption. Industry – White Mischief (2024) The fifth episode of Industry’s third season had my heart racing. I had to pause and get up and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, 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, gets beaten to a pulp. Whenever you assume it can’t get any worse, it does. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the concluding part of the season. Absolutely had to relax following that! Peep Show – Holiday (2007) Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise for the full show, permeated with worry. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be! The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001) Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The episode starts with the aftermath 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 about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Excellent TV. Never bettered. Bodyguard – episode one from 2018 The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, enter the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed. The 2001 Buffy episode The Body Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother. The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America The concluding moment of the last installment of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks the vehicle. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later. The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth I remained awake to view this installment in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the establishment of antagonist Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season