‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ The most gripping TV episodes of all time
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
The show kicks off with the MI5 agents restricted as part of a simulation relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.
The 1984 production Threads
Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.
Severance – The We We Are from 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, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.
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 wanton self-destruction I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – buried in financial obligations to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it does. 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. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!
Peep Show – Holiday from 2007
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves having to lie about 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 turns out to be!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
No other viewing has been as gripping compared to my initial viewing the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s confidential aide and escalates to a高潮 involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, enter the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused.
The 2001 Buffy episode The Body
Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s shock of discovering 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 if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks the vehicle. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Don’t stop. It halts. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the establishment of antagonist Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
