🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

The episode begins with the MI5 agents locked down as part of a simulation relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme which underscored the actuality and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Still absolutely terrifying after three and a half decades.

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 remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while yelling at the Innies to get their truths out there. The ultimate peak – “she survives!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it worsens. Redemption seems possible at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, permeated with worry. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I have seen has been as tense than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Excellent TV. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The concluding moment of the last installment of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Think about the small elements.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Keep going. It stops. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I stayed up to watch this episode in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season