Secrets of the Arabian Nights, BBC Four

Everybody knows One Thousand and One Nights, even if they don’t know they do. Ever been to the panto to see Aladdin? Watched Sinbad the Sailor on stage, or Sheherazade at the opera or ballet, or perhaps watched one the many film versions of The Thief of Baghdad? Yes to any of those and you’re a fan of possibly one of the greatest series of stories ever told.

Richard E Grant, a rather pleasing actor and a thoroughly nice chap, presented this documentary because, he said, he wanted to know why the book he loved as a child still has such a hold on our imagination. Of course any idiot could answer his question - because it’s really rather good - but then that would have made this programme redundant, and prevented yet another in the series of celebrities travelling to nice places to present documentaries on serious subjects, made with licence-fee-payers' money. Call me a curmudgeon, but what’s wrong with experts presenting programmes on subjects they know a lot about?

One Thousand and One Nights (or The Arabian Nights), for those who have never had the pleasure, is about a Persian king who discovers his wife's infidelity and decides that all women are not to be trusted. He marries a succession of virgins and then executes each of them the next morning, before they can dishonour him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins and Sheherazade, his daughter, offers herself as the next bride. On her wedding night Sheherazade begins to tell the king a tale but does not end it, so he postpones her execution to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins a new one and the king postpones her execution once more, and on it goes for 1,001 nights.

The tales are based on stories from the Middle East, Central Asia and North African countries, handed down orally and given wider audiences as merchants travelled across those lands and beyond on ancient trade routes. Scholars believe they date back more than a thousand years and were first mentioned in recorded history in the 10th century, but it wasn’t until French Arabist Antoine Galland wrote them down that they reached Europe.

Grant explained how the court of Louise XIV went mad for them (to the extent that Galland almost certainly made some of them up to keep up with demand), and the tales crossed the Channel in 1706, when they were given their first English publication. Charles Dickens, we were told, referenced them widely in his works, but only one - A Christmas Carol - was quoted.

Grant travelled from Cairo to Paris and back to Cairo via, you’ve guessed it, “a magic carpet” to interview various experts, including Marina Warner and, er, Paul O’Grady - a former drag queen and one of the UK’s greatest panto dames - who explained the historical context and modern relevance of the tales.

Grant also spoke to Egyptian writer and publisher Gamal al Ghitani, who received death threats when he recently published a new edition of the tales. What followed was a wonderfully luvvie exchange in which Grant banged on about "layers within layers” using the ancient Cairo buildings - with their brick, plaster, wood, cement, etc - they were standing among as a metaphor for the tales’ subtexts, while Al Ghitani looked on thoroughly and comically bemused.

Maybe Grant really is an expert on The Arabian Nights, but his enthusiasm and fondness for the book wasn’t enough to sustain this hour, and I’m not sure I learnt any secrets. I longed for someone who actually knew what they were talking about - Professor Marina Warner, for example - to be given the airtime to tell us something we didn't know, but then she’s an expert and not a celebrity. I’m off to read the book again.

• Watch Secrets of the Arabian Nights on BBC iPlayer
• Find The Arabian Nights on Amazon
• Find Richard E Grant on Amazon