World War II with Tom Hanks review – one of the largest documentaries in human history

This 20-episode take on the second world war, helmed by the Saving Private Ryan star, is a vast creation. But it still manages to wind up feeling basic – despite its great archive footage

World War II with Tom Hanks opens with a sales pitch, for World War II, by Tom Hanks. “The second world war,” says he, eyeballing us in medium closeup with calm paternal authority, “is the largest event in human history. No part of the globe is unaffected. The second world war changed everything. For all of us.”

Hanks is the narrator and is at the beginning and end of each of the 20 instalments, the on-screen master of ceremonies for a series that is up there with the largest documentaries in human history. Its 20-episode run invites comparisons with ITV’s monumental 1973 classic The World at War, which sprawled across 26 episodes. The new series persists in telling us that we are, together, tackling the big one. After Hanks’s introductory spiel, there is a montage that recurs at the start of subsequent episodes, with contributors underlining how massive the war’s impact was.

World War II with Tom Hanks aired on Sky History and is available on Now.