World War II with Tom Hanks is coming to Sky
Sky HISTORY has confirmed that WORLD WAR II With Tom Hanks will premiere on Tuesday, 26 May at 9pm
Sky HISTORY has confirmed that WORLD WAR II With Tom Hanks will premiere on Tuesday, 26 May at 9pm GMT. The channel will launch the landmark series with three consecutive episodes, followed by two new instalments airing weekly. The premiere forms part of a global rollout across 200 territories and 40 languages, bringing the series to almost 400 million households worldwide.
The 20-part documentary reconsiders the Second World War from a modern perspective, presenting an intimate and far-reaching account of how the conflict shaped today’s world. The series is executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman in collaboration with Nutopia and A+E Factual Studios™ Group, alongside Pulitzer Prize®-winning historian Jon Meacham, and in association with Motion Entertainment, a WPP Media company.
More than eight decades on, World War II remains the most destructive and consequential conflict in history. WORLD WAR II With Tom Hanks delivers a definitive retelling, drawing on rarely seen archive footage, powerful narrative storytelling and analysis from leading historians around the globe, including experts from the UK. Narrated by Hanks—whose longstanding passion for the period has shaped some of the screen’s most acclaimed portrayals of the era—the series traces the complete trajectory of the war.
The documentary charts events from Germany’s invasion of Poland through to the collapse of the Axis powers, encompassing the brutal campaigns fought across land, sea and air — from Stalingrad and Normandy to the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific theatre. It examines the immense human toll of total war, including the Holocaust, resistance movements and life on the home front, while also uncovering the covert battles of espionage, intelligence and industrial power that influenced the war’s outcome.
By interweaving the decisions of key wartime figures — including Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Erwin Rommel, Joseph Stalin, Hideki Tojo and Adolf Hitler — with the lived experiences of soldiers and civilians across continents, the series builds to the emergence of the atomic age and the geopolitical tensions that followed, transforming former allies into Cold War rivals and reshaping the modern world.
Subscribe to get more TV news in your inbox.