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

W orld 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. So why does the series not feel epic? Why does it struggle to elevate and move us with the awesome sweep of history? Perhaps it’s partly because Hanks and co are right about the sheer scale of the subject, to the point that 20 episodes aren’t enough. In the triple bill that kicks the show off, events that zip by slightly too quickly include Hitler’s rise to power, the Germans’ unexpected use of the Ardennes forest as a route to France in 1940, and the Dunkirk evacuation. Every aspect has had books the size of breeze blocks written about it; the TV version must summarise. But it’s more that World War II with Tom Hanks has been made in the 2020s, not the 1970s, with all that entails. The World at War was built on a stunning array of interviews with first-hand witnesses, many of whom were speaking for the first time and imparting details that viewers could not already have known.

Key points

• 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…
• 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.