Cooper head butts himself

Twin Peaks, picked by Holden_on

Just when you think everything has gone well Cooper is out of the Black Lodge, Annie is saved, Windom Earle defeated (albeit by Bob!) it all goes wrong. Cooper goes to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He starts to grin, squeezes the toothpaste into the sink, rears his head back and head butts the mirror. In between the cracks in the mirror, Bobs face is staring back at him.

The West Wing, picked by NonOxbridgeColumnist

It has to be the season one finale of The West Wing, leading up to the assassination attempt and its two cliffhangers in one episode. The cold opening (six and a half minutes by itself) takes you up to: I saw something ... and then you spend 30 minutes or so watching the previous 24 hours before lurching back to the present. Those last five minutes, with foreknowledge of something, seeing things youve already watched from a different angle (most wonderfully Sams smile at Toby after the take-off sign, which brings me to the verge of tears just writing about it), are stomach-churningly tense. Ive watched it eight times and I still feel queasy. Its absolutely masterful writing.

24, picked by StanleyGoodspeed

The best ending of a 24 episode was when Jack Bauer had to execute his annoying but totally innocent and good-guy-in-the-end boss Ryan Shapiro in a scrapyard on the orders of the series villain, otherwise he would release a bio weapon. I kept thinking something or someone would save the day, or it was just a test to see how far Bauer would go. But it happened and the episode ended with a blank screen and no end credit music.

Doctor Who, picked by chriskilby

The Master, nicking the Doctors Tardis and stranding him at the end of the universe with hungry cannibals banging at the door in Utopia, still takes some beating. Also, Edge of Darkness: GET ME PENDLETON!

Battlestar Galactica, picked by ExileCuChulainn

Battlestar Galactica (the new one) when the battered fleet jubilantly arrives at Earth. Adama announces to the survivors that their journey is finally over. A party travel down to the surface, landing in the ruins of a large city. They are left speechless when they find Earth to be a desolate, radioactive, lifeless world, destroyed by nuclear conflict thousands of years previously.

The Walking Dead, picked by mattblack81

The Walking Dead where Negan had them on their knees. You knew someone was getting beaten to death but you had to wait months to find out who. Because of the comics, there was lots of speculation but even when you think you knew, there was another twist.

The Bridge, picked by Literally

I liked the second series of The Bridge. When Saga realises Martin killed Jens, we expected this would be the time for her to realise how much she likes Martin and understands his reasons but she arrests him.

Dallas, picked by GonePhishing

The JR thing was massive it even spawned T-shirts with I Shot JR on them. Esther Rantzen and the Thats Life! crew milked it for an age, doing weekly trawls of high streets in search of grannies opinions. But it was at a time when there was very little TV choice. We had two and a half channels and not 24/7. Most telly finished at about midnight and didnt kick off again until about 9am, 11am at the earliest in BBC Twos case. The BBC drama budget was about 5 an episode, so anything from the States was considered huge.

Blockbusters, picked by DiagostA 1985 edition of Blockbusters we were left on a Friday tea time cliff edge after time had run out and it was flashing for both white and blue hexagons in a deciding game. A very tense weekend in our household was had.

The rest is here:

From Doctor Who to The Walking Dead: your favourite TV cliffhangers - The Guardian