Customer Reviews
Brother Cadfael, Set 2 - By: B. Chandler, 10 Aug 2007 
The Virginin the Ice
"Between friends there is no owing."
Once again there is a mystery with many threads overlapping. Father Cadfael uses intuition & a great deal of forensics to sort out what really happened.
You guest it; Sister Hilaria is foundin the ice & the last time she was seen was with Brother Oswain of who is delirious from an encounter with bandits. Two kids are missing & a mysterious woodsman (with a sward) is creeping around. Things only get more complicated. In the process of sorting this out Father Cadfael leaves words of wisdom as "There is no shamein tears when they are worth shedding."
The identity of the mysterious woodsman holds great significance.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Devil's Novice
"Evenin the worst deed there is some good."
You know this is going to be a good one when it starts out with a bloody face staring at you. Later there is the bragging priest & you know if he is not the one to die that he should be. And what is with the soon to be bride playing on both sides of the fence?
A new novice that speaks strangelyin his sleep, a missing king's chaplain who should have staidin the cars or rather not go out alone, & a mystery wild man is just the right mix for a murder mystery.
Once again Cadfael uses forensics, logic & intuition (with a little last minute information) to smoke out the truth & bring the culprit/s to justice.
You will suspect everyone up to the end.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Peter's Fair
In the final reckoning we are all traitors to our hearts.
There is to be the annual St. Peter's Fairin which vendors from all over come to hawk their wears. The town merchants are required by law to close for this time. Not satisfied with this law the merchants threaten Abbot Radulfus (Terrence Hardiman) & get told that he has no choicein the matter.
This leads to a scuffle between the merchants & the visiting vendors. In the morning a wine merchant's body seems to be watered down with a hole & no tong. Abbot Radulfus charges Cadfael to find out if it was the Abbots fault for refusing to share with the towns people.
Naturally things get complex. There are crosses & double crosses, beautiful girls & suspicious sheriffs. This may even lead to a rift between the Sheriff Hugh Beringar & Cadfael (old friends.)Cadfael uses forensics, intrusion & logic to help solve the mystery.
Sir Derek and the Chronicles of a Truly Rare Benedictine. - By: Themis-Athena, 07 Sep 2006 When the decision was made to produce for TV several episodes from her mystery series about Brother Cadfael, that 12th century crusader turned monk turned detective who has been, ever since his creation, one of the most compassionate & unusual sleuths of literary history, novelist Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was not entirely happy. In fact, as the series' star, Sir Derek Jacobi, explainsin the extra footage provided on the now-released DVDs, Ms. Peters had very mixed feelings about giving up her brain child & entrusting it to other people who went about cutting & adjusting everything, from the storylines themselves to the way the protagonists speak & even the Chronicles' sequence, to the necessities & limitations set by the new medium. But she eventually acquiesced & at one point promised that "the next one I write, I'll make sure it's easier for you all to film."
While the thirteen episodes that were eventually produced are, thus, not entirely true to the individual Chronicles they are based on, they are closer than many other movie or TV versions of famous works of literature. Most importantly, they maintain not only the core story lines but also the historical authenticity, atmosphere & spirit set by Ms. Peters's booksin a marvelous fashion. And Sir Derek Jacobi brings both the wealth of his experience & skill & all of his own shrewdness, intelligence, sense of humor & empathy to the role of the medieval Benedictine sleuth & thus truly becomes Cadfael -- for the thousands of new fans who are discovering the series through its enactment for TV just as much as for us who loved the books before they were ever transposed to a visual medium. A tremendous cast of supporting actors rounds out an overall excellent production; to mention just a few, Julian Firth as the ambitious & narrow-minded Brother Jerome, Terrence Hardiman as Abbot Radolfus & Sean Pertwee (and later Eoin McCarthy) as Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who joins Cadfaelin his investigations whenever, as is so often the case, these transcend the world of monastic life & require the administration of secular justice as well as clerical insight. Several episodes also feature noted guest stars.
The episodes are not entirelyin the same order as the books; however, as most of the cross-references between the books have been eliminatedin the screen versions, this is no great harm (although the lacking cross-references are probably one of the things avid readers of the books will find missing). The DVDs also provide background information on Ellis Peters, Sir Derek Jacobi & a number of the individual episodes' other actors.
Summary of the episodes containedin this set:
"One Corpse Too Many" (second Chronicle): King Stephen lays siege to Shrewsbury Castle and, finally victorious, orders the surviving defenders to be executed. But then there's an extra corpse, who clearly wasn't executed. Whodunnit -- & why?
"Monk's Hood" (third Chronicle): Cadfael's & Shrewsbury Abbey's honor is at stake when a guest is found poisoned by Cadfael's own potions ... & the sheriff's sergeant over-eagerly jumps to the wrong conclusions.
"The Leper of St. Giles" (fifth Chronicle): A leper's grim fate is unexpectedly intertwined with the story of an orphaned heiress, due to be wedded for money's sake to a despicable old baron, & her lover; who is everybody's favorite suspect when the groom turns up dead.
"The Sanctuary Sparrow" (seventh Chronicle): A young singer is accused of robbery & murder and, hunted by a mob, seeks shelterin the Abbey.
Episodes containedin other sets:
Second Set:
"St. Peter's Fair" (the fourth Chronicle);
"The Virginin the Ice" (the sixth Chronicle);
"The Devil's Novice" (the eighth Chronicle).
Third Set:
"A Morbid Taste for Bones" (the first Chronicle);
"The Ravenin the Foregate" (the twelfth Chronicle);
"The Rose Rent" (the thirteenth Chronicle).
Fourth Set:
"The Pilgrim of Hate" (the tenth Chronicle)
"The Pilgrim of Hate" (the tenth Chronicle)
"The Holy Thief" (the nineteenth Chronicle)
Deserves Higher Profile - By: John Winterson Richards, 19 Mar 2004 
This excellent adaptation of Ellis Peters' novels was unfairly overlooked by audiences when first broadcast, but stands the test of time very well. This first series was probably the best, getting off to a flying start with "One Corpse Too Many", which cleverly sets a relatively intimate murder off against the historical tragedy of the massacre of the garrison of Shrewsbury Castle. Other episodes bring different aspects of Middle Ages culture - such a the merchant classin "The Sanctuary Sparrow" - brilliantly to life, showing how, asin any time & place, it had its horrors & its joys. The production values are, at least by standards of British television, excellent. Sir Derek Jacobi emphasises the humanity of Brother Cadfael - where others whose names came upin the original casting, notably Sir Anthony Hopkins & Sir Ian Holm, might have made more of the darker side. In the end, the choice of the versatile Jacobi was probably the right option - his Cadfael is easy company, the sort of holy but humane counsellor from whom most of us would benefit. The supporting cast is also fine, much of the fun coming from spotting now familiar facesin early roles, including Sean Pertwee as the first - & possibly best - Hugh Berengar, & Hugh Bonneville, billed here as Richard. Extras include filmographies of the principal stars & entertaining audio interviews with Sir Derek. Overall, this adaptation is, unusually, superior to the original books - which did tend to telegraph the villain - & its tolerant but moral sense of values raises it head & shoulders above the vast heap of contemporary crime dramas & thrillers that all seem so much the same these days.
