🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

The show kicks off with the intelligence unit confined while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a catastrophe taking place outside, and escalates as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.

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 actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly due to the immense extent of the reckless self-harm I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – up to his eyeballs in debt to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Every time you think the situation cannot deteriorate further, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects in the concluding part of the season. Absolutely had to relax following that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. Yet the installment Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it will make you rise the whole episode, permeated with worry. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, 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 installment begins with the consequences of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and escalates to a高潮 involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and knows something is off. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to remove her explosive vest. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy comes into her home to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The ultimate sequence of the series finale 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, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Continue. 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 in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season