‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ Your most gripping TV episodes of all time

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the Spooks team locked down as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as messages indicate a disaster happening externally, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.

The 1984 production Threads

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have viewed due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago following the initial broadcast; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

Episode five of the third series of Industry 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 was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which could lose his company millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is brutally attacked. Every time you think the situation cannot deteriorate further, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with 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 turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense as when I first saw 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 with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and knows something is off. The bomb diffuser experts are called, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

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 overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It ceases. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I remained awake to view this installment during the night. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (ended on a cliffhanger). 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