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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The episode begins with the Spooks team restricted during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as reports reveal a catastrophe taking place outside, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between 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

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen because of the stark reality and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to reveal their realities. The final climactic moment – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. 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 faces serious trouble at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, gets beaten to a pulp. Each instance you believe the situation cannot deteriorate further, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I have seen has been as tense than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak with a situation in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to run for another term. Excellent TV. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and knows something is off. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. 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 from 2007

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 – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all vanquished. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Remember the little things.” 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 problems are brewing with yet another of his crew cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks her car. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It halts. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (ended on a cliffhanger). 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