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'I hid behind a chair': Your favourite TV thrillers that scared you stiff
'I hid behind a chair': Your favourite TV thrillers that scared you stiff

Metro

time09-08-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Metro

'I hid behind a chair': Your favourite TV thrillers that scared you stiff

While most associate the realm of horror with films, TV has proven it's more than capable of giving us the heebie jeebies too. Plus, with endless episodes, shows can keep the scares coming even after the credits roll on the small screen. There are certain scary shows that obviously come to mind – The Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks – but we've tried to find some offbeat picks that might not make the top of people's all-out scary lists, but deliver bumps and jumps nonetheless. We asked Metro readers – as well as us here at the TV team – to share the shows that have scared them stiff and these are the ones that they recommended… Among the shows that have come highly recommended by Metro readers is Quartermass, which David Nicholls said forced him to 'hide behind a chair to watch it'. We also have I Know What You Did Last Summer, from Alex Alysson's recommendation and Julie T Potter suggesting Wolf Creek, writing: 'Can't wait for the next one,' alongside a hiding emoji. Cheryl Bucchi recommended the true crime drama/docu-series Helter Skleter, writing: 'Just as it ended the ceiling light 'shade' fell down with a crash……scared the crap out of me!!!!!' Paul Armer added: 'A toss up between The Acolyte and the Willow series. I think Willow just won. Major car crash TV.' Metro TV Editor Sabrina Barr shares her pick… I've been obsessed with Stranger Things ever since it premiered in 2016. It combined several of my favourite things – the 80s, the supernatural, a group of go-getter kids teaming up to save the day. But season four horrified me beyond my wildest imagination when it aired in 2022. As soon as we all set eyes on Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), he was gruesome to behold just from his appearance alone… but when he murdered his first victim Chrissy (Grace Van Dien), I was as gripped as I was mentally scarred. Witnessing Chrissy slam into the ceiling above her as every single one of her bones began to break, and then witnessing her brain explode as Eddie (Joseph Quinn) screams in terror, will be etched in my mind for all of eternity. If that's how Stranger Things launched season four, I can't wait to find out how Netflix is going to wrap up the masterpiece series this year with the fifth and final outing. This is one from the archives, specifically the 1970s, but is actually available to stream over on ITVX if you have a subscription to its premium service. With only four episodes, Quartermass packed a fairly quick punch and has since earned a cult TV status. That might have something to do with the subject matter. Set in a near future where everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of a cult (get it) called Planet People, the series follows one Professor Bernard Quatermass, of show title fame. He travels to London looking for his granddaughter, only to be savagely attacked there. He's saved by one Dr Joe Kapp, who he tells of his search for his granddaughter. But with no leads on the horizon, they leave the city only to encounter Planet People. As weird as it sounds. Deputy TV Editor Tom Percival shares his pick… A misspent youth watching horror movies means it's pretty hard to get under my skin, yet the little known BBC 1 thriller Apparitions managed to hit a nerve. The show follows Father Jacob Myers (Martin Shaw) a Catholic priest and exorcist who finds himself on the trail of a demon with a penchant for skinning its victims. Apparitions is a compelling series about faith in the face of pure evil featuring a demon less interested in projectile vomit and far more intrigued by the sound of screams. As shocking as the gore and violence is, though, what makes Apparitions truly terrifying is its unflinching depiction of Hell as a place so foul and fetid even Satan's infinite legions of the damned are desperate to escape the stench of brimstone and wails of agony. This one definitely has a more out-and-out fear factor, based on the cult 90s film that scared an entire generation senseless as a group of friends were terrorised by a mystery stalker. The 2021 TV show adaptation offered a modern update on the film, but those familiar with the original will still recognise the premise. A group of teenagers are a year on from graduating high school and a fatal accident that happened that night, when they start to be picked off one by one – Final Destination-style – by a mysterious killer. This was a standalone season, with eight episodes, all of which are now available for a weekend binge over on Amazon Prime Video. Senior TV Reporter Rebecca Cook shares her pick… This decision is largely down to one unbeatable episode, which I am willing to throw down the gauntlet here and say is the scariest episode of television there is (caveat: of the episodes of television I have in fact seen). You might have guessed it, but it is indeed season four's standalone, standout masterpiece Hush. An episode which is almost entirely absent of dialogue and one which introduces all-timer creepy villains. Once you've seen them, it's hard to forget about them. (Particularly when the lights go out at night.) They are the Gentlemen. A horrifying cohort of floating bald men in suits. On paper it doesn't sound like much, but seek out the nightmarish episode and see the well-dressed demons for yourself. Of course, there are other scary episodes of Buffy out there – Same Time, Same Place with its very-real depiction of what being flayed might look like, immediately comes to mind – but this one takes the creepy cake. Even if you're not planning on watching Buffy as a whole, I urge you, watch Hush! This one might be the most frightening of all the suggestions, because it's rooted in the real life events around Charles Manson. The 2020 docu-series Helter Skelter: An American Myth focused on the Manson family murders, with new interviews and images, as well as archival footage to tell the story of the heinous Tate–LaBianca murders. The series scored a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is available through Apple TV Plus. The Metro reader may also be referring to a similarly named 1976 series on the cult leader, which was a true crime dramatisation. Starring George DiCenzo as prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and Steve Railsback as Manson, this miniseries was based on Bugliosi's bestseller of the same name and fed the continued fascination with these gory crimes. For extra context: 'Helter Skelter' refers to The Beatles song, which is said to have inspired Manson's crazed delusions of a pending 'race war' – or at least inspired him to use this as a fear-mongering tactic to control his followers. TV Reporter Asyia Iftikhar shares her pick… The first season of BBC drama The Fall has everything going for it with its star-studded cast including Gillian Anderson as DS Stella Gibson and Jamie Dornan as serial killer Paul Spector, who proves almost impossible to track down. Although it sounds like your run-of-the-mill British crime thriller, it ended up being such horrifying viewing that I have never forgotten how wretched I felt first watching it (there's one scene that lives rent free in my mind due to its excruciating tension). Nevertheless, I found myself determined to finish the show and see the killer put to justice. I was completely reeled me in – hook, line and sinker. It is a difficult watch, on many levels, but the quality of the writing, acting and plot still surpasses many of the thrillers we see today, in my opinion. Inspired by the 2005 film of the same name, which also has a decent fear-factor claim, Wolf Creek sees a visit Down Under take a terrible turn. A vicious serial killer called Mick Taylor is targeting tourists and when he attacks a family in the Outback, 19-year-old American Eve (Lucy Fry) is the only survivor. Eve goes full John Wick to avenge her the deaths of her loved ones and sets out to hunt down the killer. On Google, viewers have hailed the horror as 'phenomenal' but warned it was 'not for the faint-hearted.' The six-parter is all on Channel 4 for you to go binge right this moment (after you've finished reading this, of course). TV Reporter Milo Pope shares his pick… The thriller/horror genre and I enjoy a complex, if not twisted and slightly demented relationship. Whenever those moments arrive, where the main protagonist always decides to walk down the abandoned alleyway or enter the haunted, grungy, dark basement despite the fact that they should very much not be doing so, a bizarre, paradoxical chemical reaction happens inside me where everything is telling me to walk out of the room, but my eyes cannot be peeled from the screen. The Last of Us season one, bar that truly magical third episode (if you know, you know), pretty much evoked that feeling out of me in I'd say every scene possible. Despite the fact that I adored the series, I found myself pleading with the show's creators: 'Why can't Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay just spend an episode inside a safe, protected room?' 'Why are they having to constantly fight for their lives and escape by the skin of their teeth every time?' 'And why do they have to take the most dangerous routes imaginable on their journey'. I don't know! But I'm not complaining either. A reboot of Ron Howard's magical quest film of 1988, which also starred Warwick Davis, you might remember this because it was quite dramatically cancelled in 2023. More Trending Dramatic in that Davis – who played titular sorcerer Willow Ufgood – was not happy about it, and made that known after the axe had fallen on the Disney+ show and they pulled it from the service. But what was the show all about? Described as an 'epic period fantasy series' by Disney, you might not expect this to be the thing that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but this is a magical world where mystical creatures of every fear-level can flourish. View More » So when an unlikely group embarks on a dangerous quest to places farflung from their home, they have to face inner and outer demons alike. Which show do you most want to watch? I Know What You Did Last Summer Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Cancel your weekend plans and binge this 'creepy' supernatural drama for free MORE: Why was Gina Carano fired as Mandalorian actress settles lawsuit? MORE: Netflix fans can still watch 'most harrowing film ever made' that inspired walkouts

One Day author DAVID NICHOLLS on whether he'll ever write a sequel
One Day author DAVID NICHOLLS on whether he'll ever write a sequel

Daily Mail​

time28-06-2025

  • Daily Mail​

One Day author DAVID NICHOLLS on whether he'll ever write a sequel

When David Nicholls' editor read the first draft of his latest novel You Are Here, one of his notes was, 'I think there's probably three days too much walking in this.' It was maybe inevitable feedback. The book – published in paperback on Thursday – is about two strangers, Michael (42) and Marnie (39), who walk together along the Coast to Coast, a 192-mile stretch from St Bee's Head in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. That's a lot of trudging, and Nicholls' editor is 'not a great walker'. So some changes were made, removing the 'geography teacher sort of details'. (Nicholls concedes that 'not everyone is as interested in the switch from granite to limestone as I am'.) The result is a novel that is funny and clever, with the perfect amount of walking. Nicholls, 58, is a big walker. He has done 'bits' of the Coast to Coast, but says that, actually, it's not his favourite route. ('There are nicer ways to cross the Dales. I love the Dales High Way, for instance.') The most miles he's done in a day is 30 – after a march across the North York Moors. His step count can sometimes reach 45,000 and, on average, he moves at a 'steady' pace of three miles per hour. He has kit, too: a compass he was given by that walking-sceptic editor ('I hardly ever use it, but I have it!'); a pair of 'proper Italian boots that I really love'; a handheld navigational tool to download routes in advance; and a paper map. He also has walking-related apps, including AllTrails and Outdooractive, but prefers to bury his phone right at the bottom of his rucksack and not look at it. The editor who bought Nicholls the compass also got him a waterproof notebook, which he keeps in his pocket. 'I always think I'm going to sit on a mountaintop and compose something wonderful. No, it all happens when I come back – at my desk, warm and dry.' Nicholls grew up in Eastleigh, Hampshire, the middle child of three. His father was a maintenance engineer in a cake factory, his mother worked for the council, and nobody did much walking. As a teenager Nicholls began going 'for long, soulful walks along the Water Meadows in Winchester'. (He was, he says, 'a pretentious 18-year-old'.) He has a son and a daughter with his partner of more than 20 years, Hannah Weaver, and they have attempted various family walking holidays. 'We had a couple of very, very, very wet trips to the Yorkshire Dales.' But the proper, solitary, 45,000-steps-a-day sort of walking began 11 years ago, after his father died. 'I just felt I needed to go away and spend some time by myself,' Nicholls says, 'and my family were very understanding.' He had always liked the look of the stretch of Northumbrian coast that you see from the train window if you're travelling from London to Edinburgh. So, he went there. 'I wasn't expecting any kind of miracles to happen,' he says, 'but I just wanted some time.' He walked for four days, ten hours a day, alone. 'It was the longest time I'd been by myself in ten years.' There were no miracles, but he loved it and has been 'ticking off' routes since. (He thinks he's done 15 in a decade.) Because he doesn't like being away from home for too long, his walking is in England and he favours the North. His attitude is 'fair weather: I don't camp. I never do anything that's really, seriously in the wilderness. Often, I can hear an A-road. I've never been inclined to…' a dark pause, '…mountaineer.' But there are physical benefits to these trudges. 'I've always hated all sport. If anyone kicks a ball towards me, I immediately panic. Walking is the nearest I get to a physical activity that I actually enjoy.' Nicholls is also an insomniac, and walking 'is the thing that's guaranteed to make me sleep all the way through'. Sometimes he walks with his partner and he mentions a recent father-and-son walking trip to the Three Peaks in Yorkshire, but mostly Nicholls walks alone. The balance between solitude and loneliness is a lot of what You Are Here is about. Nicholls is preoccupied with it himself. 'I live with my family, but I guess I felt that after Covid I'd found ways to enjoy time by myself, so much so that I sort of stopped seeing my friends and became a bit nervous about going out for dinner and catching up. I had to give myself a bit of a talking-to,' he says. 'I had to decide to make an effort. 'In your teens and 20s, you really want to know everyone and meet everyone and talk and share and listen to stories. And I think that dwindles as you get older – it becomes much harder to rediscover that pleasure. So I guess the book is about two people who have found a way to make [loneliness] work, but who are then reminded of the value of connection.' Nicholls edited You Are Here in 2023, as the Netflix adaptation of his novel One Day was being made. (He wrote the penultimate episode and was an executive producer.) 'In the day they were filming Dexter clubbing in Brixton in 1993, and in the evenings I was editing this book about walking the Coast to Coast path in middle age. But Michael and Marnie are the same age as Emma and Dexter are by the end of One Day, so there's a kind of continuity to it.' Nicholls has written six novels (his fourth, Us, was longlisted for the Booker Prize) but One Day is what he's best known for. He's not grumbling. The book has sold more than six million copies and that success is 'thrilling'. And, 'if writers often get a bit grumpy about film adaptations [of their novels]', he won't bother with that either. In 2011, One Day was turned into a film he wrote the screenplay for, and last year there was the Netflix behemoth. 'I was offered two lines in the final episode. A man walks into Dexter's café and says, 'This used to be a fish shop.' They said, 'Why don't you do a little Hitchcock cameo?' I firmly turned them down. Honestly, they would have had to use CGI.' (Nicholls worked as an actor in his 20s and says he was no good – 'I could really only play clerks and servants' – but also understudied for a main part in The Seagull at the National Theatre with Judi Dench, so he can't have been bad.) One Day's concept came from a moment in Tess Of The D'Urbervilles when Tess considers – and don't read this if you somehow don't know the end of One Day – her 'death date', or, as she thinks about it: 'a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there'. So when I ask if there was ever a version where Emma didn't – look away! – die, he replies: 'Nope! It was about the one day that is your death day. That was always the idea.' Would he write another storyline that sad? 'You know, I think One Day is probably a younger man's book. It was always meant to have a big, lush, kind-of operatic ending. I'm probably writing in a slightly more restrained way now. I still love big, emotional books, but when I think of that story, I see it as the work of a younger writer. Not in a bad way, in a way that probably I'm a bit too self-conscious to recreate.' He adds, decisively: 'I know that I'll never write a sequel.' (Sorry, Netflix.) Still, 'getting older, I'm sure mortality is a subject that could come up again'. After our interview, I email Nicholls to ask if he ever thinks about his own 'death day'. He replies: 'Yes, I'm afraid I do think about it a lot. In my 30s, even into my 40s, it barely crossed my mind but now I'm reminded of mortality every time I glance in a mirror. I find myself thinking, how many more summer holidays? How many more books will I be able to read? My only response is to be enraged with myself about wasted time, scrolling on the internet when I could be working or reading or speaking to friends. I have to get on with things now.' He adds: 'All of which makes me great fun to live with, I'm sure.' Nicholls turns 60 next year, so I ask what he is going to do to celebrate. 'Well,' he says, 'I'll probably go for a walk.'

BBC Sounds announced as the official fringe festival partner for Crossed Wires 2025
BBC Sounds announced as the official fringe festival partner for Crossed Wires 2025

BBC News

time29-05-2025

  • Business
  • BBC News

BBC Sounds announced as the official fringe festival partner for Crossed Wires 2025

BBC Sounds has been announced as the official Fringe Festival partner of Crossed Wires Festival – the UK's biggest podcasting celebration which will take place in Sheffield from 4 to 6 July 2025. Over three jam-packed days, BBC Sounds will invite podcast and radio fans to experience live recordings and special sessions in the old Cole Brothers Department Store in Barkers Pool, Sheffield. The famous Grade II listed building – which originally opened in 1963 – will be transformed into a vibrant BBC Sounds hub for the weekend, reimagining the historic retail space for an entirely new purpose. Inside the venue, visitors can listen to special live recordings of popular podcasts including Football Daily, Newscast and Evil Genius, all of which will air later in the year on BBC Sounds. Literary lovers can settle down with Sara Cox and bestselling author David Nicholls for a special edition of Radio 2 Book Club, and for Radio 4's Rewinder Greg James will be joined by a special guest to dig deep into the BBC Archives and uncover an array of audio gems - including some with Sheffield connections. Fans of Radio 4's investigative series will be able to go behind the scenes of their favourite narrative podcasts with Gabriel Gatehouse (The Coming Storm) and Sue Mitchell (To Catch a Scorpion), whilst Frank Skinner will bring top comedians to Sheffield for two special recordings of One Person Found This Helpful. And to celebrate 100 years of the Shipping Forecast, Radio 4 announcers Lisa Costello and Viji Alles will take us behind the scenes of the beloved radio broadcast. For those looking for a moment of tranquillity, there will also be an immersive session of music and mindfulness with Radio 3 Unwind. Outside the venue, the BBC Sounds Garden will offer a relaxed, open-air listening experience, where visitors can settle into a deck chair, slip on some headphones, and enjoy their favourite audio in an outdoor setting. Jonathan Wall, Director of BBC Sounds says: 'We're delighted to join forces with Crossed Wires as the official fringe festival partner. Delivering value for audiences all over the UK is a big priority for us, so to be able to bring this level of talent and creativity to Sheffield - and for free - is really exciting. These will be memorable live shows and experiences that money can't buy. Crossed Wires is exactly the kind of event we want to be part of.' Tickets for the BBC Fringe are free and the line up goes live on Friday 6 June at 11am. You can reserve seats for individual shows via the external Crossed Wires website. Do note that entry on the day will be first-come, first-served, even with a ticket, so we recommend arriving early to secure your place. The festival will take place from 4 to 6 July 2025. The BBC Sounds Garden The BBC Sounds Garden will offer a welcoming space where you can lose yourself in the audio you love. Settle into a deck chair or bean bag, slip on some headphones, and enjoy a moment of calm with live radio, on-demand music, or your favourite BBC podcasts. You'll find the BBC Sounds Garden in Barkers Pool, right across from Sheffield City Hall and beside our Fringe venue in the Cole Brothers Department Store. There's also a photo booth where you can snap some shots with friends and family. AT2

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