White House Plumbers: How to watch the HBO Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux Watergate series in the UK

Stream White House Plumbers on Sky Atlantic with NOW later this year.

With Veep’s David Mandel by the camera and Woody Harrelson (True Detective) and Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) leading the cast, it’s not surprising that HBO’s White House Plumbers is one of the most anticipated TV shows of the summer.

Telling the incredible true story of President Richard Nixon's political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), the satirical drama is a timely look at the kind of political plotting and covert operations that really happen outside of public view.

The series premieres in the US on HBO in May and will be released in the UK on Sky Atlantic with NOW shortly after.

Here's everything you need to know about White House Plumbers, including the cast, the true story and how to watch it in the UK.

White House Plumbers trailer – First look

The official trailer for limited series White House Plumbers, which will be coming soon exclusively on Sky Atlantic and NOW, was released on 30 March.

The five-part series comes from Emmy winners David Mandel (Veep), Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck (Veep), and stars Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy.

White House Plumbers UK release date

White House Plumbers is released in the US on 1 May on HBO.

The UK release date will be shortly after in May on Sky Atlantic and NOW.

White House Plumbers cast

• Woody Harrelson - Plays E. Howard Hunt
• Justin Theroux – Plays G. Gordon Liddy
• Lena Headey – Plays Dorothy Hunt
• Judy Greer – Plays Fran Liddy
• Domhnall Gleeson – Plays John Dean
• Toby Huss – Plays James McCord
• Ike Barinholtz – Plays Jeb Magruder
• Kathleen Turner – Plays Dita Beard
• Kim Coates – Plays Frank Sturgis
• Yul Vazquez – Plays Bernard “Macho” Barker
• Alexis Valdés – Plays Felipe De Diego
• Nelson Ascencio – Plays Virgilio “Villo” Gonzalez
• Tony Plana – Plays Eugenio “Muscolito” Martinez
• Zoe Levin – Plays Lisa Hunt
• Liam James – Plays Saint John Hunt
• Kiernan Shipka – Plays Kevan Hunt
• Tre Ryder – Plays David Hunt
• David Krumholtz – Plays William O. Bittman
• F. Murray Abraham – Plays Judge Sirica
• Rich Sommer – Plays Egil “Bud” Krogh
• John Carroll Lynch – Plays John Mitchell

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux lead an impressive cast in White House Plumbers, which includes Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development) as Hunt and Liddy’s wives.

Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka, Severance’s Yul Vazquez, Star Wars star Domhnall Gleeson and The White Lotus’ F. Murray Abraham are among the large ensemble of recognisable faces in the series.

What is The White House Plumbers plot?

White House Plumbers is the behind-the-scenes story of the Watergate scandal and the role of political operators E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, who accidentally topple the presidency they were trying to protect.

The series begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, respective former CIA and FBI agents, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak.

The show’s official synopsis adds: "After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the Committee to Re-Elect the President, plotting several unbelievable covert ops – including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex.

"Proving that history can sometimes be stranger than fiction, White House Plumbers sheds light on the lesser-known series of events that led to one of America's greatest political crimes."

"In most of the Watergate movies ever made, basically the burglary is the opening scene," director David Mandel told IndieWire.

"You see flashes of the burglary, and then it’s people in the Oval Office, [President Richard] Nixon, and the reporters at the Washington Post. This is a limited series where it is 100 percent about the burglary.

"We’re going to meet these guys before the burglary, and we’re going to see the effects of the burglary on their lives. This is the story that none of these other [stories] bothered with, to some extent."

Is White House Plumbers based on a true story?

The White House Plumbers recounts a shocking chapter of American political history, which connects with the more famous and well documented Watergate Scandal.

The ‘Plumbers’ were a White House team set up following the leaking of the Pentagon Papers - a classified report into the US involvement in the Vietnam War - and tasked with ensuring no more classified information found its way into the newspapers.

E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy’s first task was to burgle the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in an attempt to discredit the man who had leaked the Pentagon Papers.

Despite botching the burglary, Hunt and Liddy would continue their clandestine operations and ended up getting involved in the Watergate scandal, which brought down Republican President Richard Nixon.

Liddy and Hunt both ended up in prison for their involvement in Watergate.

After they were released, Liddy went on to have a controversial career in radio. He’s previously been played on screen by John Diehl in Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995) and Shea Whigham in 2022 TV series Gaslit.

Hunt remarried and when released moved to Mexico for five years, before returning to settle in the US.

Hunt was portrayed by Daniel Jenkins in Gaslit, Ed Harris in Nixon and Daniel Jenkins in The Irishman.

Hunt died in 2007 and Liddy died in 2021.

How to watch White House Plumbers in the UK

Stream White House Plumbers on Sky Atlantic with NOW later this year.

The channel is available to BT TV customers with a NOW Entertainment package on channel 342/357 HD.

You can watch the channel live and also catch up on classic series and new box sets of Sky Atlantic shows.