A review of the first episode of BBC Two’s The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors, which traces the 600-year-old story of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors (BBC Two) was a disappointment. It is a brilliant idea to tell us, at this point in history, about an empire that spanned 600 years and three continents, and try to explain its significance to events unfolding in the modern world.

But Rageh Omaar used that phrase – 600 years and three continents – on three separate occasions in an opening episode that felt as if it was constantly clearing its throat, waiting to get started.

The entire thing felt more like a holiday travelogue than a historical study, relying on staple images – Rageh walking down modern streets; Rageh swaying on boats; Rageh gazing at sunsets – rather than insight. At times, the contrast between picture and thought was risible: a shot of the Alexander McQueen branch in modern Turkey hardly illuminated trading practices in ancient Constantinople.

This was a great pity because when the programme actually did its job and got on with telling us its story, it was utterly compelling. A wide range of excellent experts took us from the Ottomans’ origins as fierce nomadic warriors and fearsome horsemen to the point where Mehmet II conquered Constantinople by the extraordinary act of making his men lift his ships out of the waters of the Bosphorus and carry them on planks to the walls of the city.

They helped us to understand the way in which these Muslim conquerors accepted and welcomed Jews and Christians into their cities in the interests of commercial success, while at the same time charging them more tax. Their habit of taking young Christian girls as concubines meant, as Omaar pointed out, that “Christian-born slaves became the mothers of Sultans”.

A vivid picture emerged simply from their words. The pictures felt like a distraction – though I would like to watch the Turkish soap opera about the Ottomans, Magnificent Century, that is currently entrancing 200million viewers across the world. The glimpses we saw of it looked much more fun than this.

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Rageh Omaar visits the Ottoman bath house ruins in Greece during BBC Two’s The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors