‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most nerve-wracking episodes of TV ever

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

The show kicks off with the Spooks team locked down while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The tension ratchets up as reports reveal a catastrophe taking place outside, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads (1984)

Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to get their truths out there. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Installment five in Industry’s third series made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders owing to his uncontrollable gaming, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, resulting in dreadful effects during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves having to lie about the dog they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s personal secretary and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series 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 heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Continue. 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 so intense after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The victim’s POV shot and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season