World War II with Tom Hanks

[Neilster]

I've just started streaming this in Australia and I'm pleasantly surprised. Some have complained that it's American-centric but I expected it to be more so. Hanks is typically excellent as a narrator and the experts are generally very good. There's quite a lot of footage I hadn't seen before and there's some tasteful film restoration and the odd colourised photo. Honestly, no series is going to tell me much about WW2, so the new footage and good photos are appreciated.

If you haven't seen it, give it a go. At 20 episodes, it's long enough to not miss out too much and the analysis is generally solid.

[OldSarge]

I watched the entire series, and I thought it was very well produced. A rare thing for "The History" channel these days as they seem to have been caught in the reality TV/ancient aliens and other forms of junk programming. So, for them to air an actual history series is quite remarkable by itself.

I agree that there were a number of clips of footage that I hadn't seen before. Tom Hanks was a good choice for the narrator, and I have several books written by a few of the show's experts, notably books by Antony Beevor.

It was well done for the most part. I'm not sure what constraints they were under (i.e. time and budget) so they may have had plenty of material that just had to be cut. Overall, it covered the main areas and presented something unique in the wasteland that is modern day TV programming.