‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ Your most nerve-wracking television episodes ever
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003
This installment starts with the MI5 agents locked down while undergoing a drill concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As the situation develops, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to opt for either shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.
Threads (1984)
The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.
Severance – The We We Are (2022)
The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.
Industry – White Mischief (2024)
Installment five in Industry’s third series 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 deep shit in his job and domestic life – up to his eyeballs in debt to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume the situation cannot deteriorate further, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation at the end of the episode 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 contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates once Jeremy and Mark find themselves having to lie about the dog they unintentionally hit 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 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s personal secretary and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed.
The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and knows something is off. The bomb squad is alerted, enter the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001
Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this supernatural show. The episode has no background music, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)
The concluding moment of the last installment of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It stops. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan locating the survivors, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
