‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ The most nerve-wracking TV episodes ever

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the MI5 agents locked down during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a catastrophe taking place outside, and intensifies as the boss appears to be infected, 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. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads from 1984

Threads was low budget yet among the scariest shows I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot among intense episodes. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, exerting with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it worsens. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. Yet the installment Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it’ll have you standing up the whole episode, permeated with worry. It all ramps up as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it turns out to 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 demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and reaches a crescendo with a situation in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Excellent TV. Unequaled.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The concluding moment of the last installment of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Think about the small elements.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It halts. My spirit fell around 20 minutes subsequently.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season