All thirteen episodes of the drama series starring Derek Jacobi
as the medieval sleuth. In the opening episode 'One Corpse Too
Many', Cadfael, once a man of the world, has become a man of the
cloth. However, this by no means qualifies him as a saint. He
discovers a murder, and sets out in pursuit of the perpertrator,
assisted by a lovely young fugitive. 'The Sanctuary Sparrow' sees
Brother Cadfael investigating the murder of the local goldsmith.
In 'The Leper of St Giles' a great wedding is to take place in
the Abbey of Shrewsbury between Baron Huon (Norman Eshley) and
Iveta De Massard (Tara Fitzgerald). Iveta is a beautiful, kind
soul and on the day she and her betrothed ride into the town she
throws money to the lepers, but her brutish Baron beats them. On
the eve of the wedding he rides off into the night never to
return. Cadfael sets out to find out what is going on. In 'Monk's
Hood', a landowner cuts his son-in-law out of his will, leaving
his inheritance to the church. However, before the transaction is
finished, Gervase Gurney (Bernard Gallagher) is poisoned whilst
staying at the Abbey of Shrewsbury. Cadfael finds someone from
his past as he looks into the poisoning. In 'The Virgin in the
Ice' Cadfael has to prove the innocence of his novice, Oswin
(Mark Charnock), who is accused of murdering a nun after he is
found wandering deliriously. In 'The Devil's Novice', Cadfael is
suspicious when a young man, Meriet (Christien Anholt), arrives
at Shrewsbury Abbey wishing to become a Novice. Canon Eluard (Ian
McNeice) shares Cadfael's doubts as to Meriet's intentions, and
when the half-burned body of a colleague is discovered, Meriet is
accused of murder. In 'A Morbid Taste For s', Cadfael
reluctantly accompanies an expedition to dig up the grave of St
Winifred, after one of the Shrewsbury monks has a vision. He soon
finds himself investigating a murder, when Lord Rhysart (John
Hallam) is found dead on a forest track with an arrow in his
chest. Robert (Michael Culver) believes the culprit to be Godwin,
who was having an affair with Rhysart's daughter, Sioned (Anna
Friel). However, Cadfael has other ideas. In 'The Rose Rent', the
recently-widowed of a rich merchant becomes an attraction for the
men of Shrewsbury, until one of her suitors and a monk are
murdered. In 'St Peter's Fair', conflict arises between the
townspeople of Shrewsbury and visitors to the annual fair. In
'The Raven in the Foregate', Cadfael has a double murder to solve
when a pregnant girl and a priest who refused to hear her
confession are both killed. In 'The Holy Thief', Cadfael is on
the hunt for a beautiful slave girl and the s of St Winifred,
both of which have mysteriously disappeared from the Abbey. In
'The Potter's Field', Cadfael uncovers a terrible web of
jealousy, adultery and suicide pacts when he examines the past of
a potter who has entered the monastery under suspicious
circumstances. Finally, in 'The Pilgrim of Hate', an old man's
corpse is found in a sack in the Abbey, and Cadfael must find his
killer.
From .co.uk
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Brother Cadfael, the medieval mystery-solving monk, is a
fascinating detective, at once a man of God, of science, and even
of action. Derek Jacobi stars as the former "soldier, sailor,
sinner, and Crusader" who has his faith tested by crimes of royal
intrigue and baffling murders that seem to plague 12th-century
Shrewsbury. You'll find few Benedictine monks so skilled at using
a quarterstaff, but beware never to tell him your theory of how a
crime "must" have been committed. "We must always be wary of
'must'," he states. "Nothing is certain." And so attest these
divine mysteries based on the books by Ellis Peters. Each
feature-length episode is self-contained but plays against the
backdrop of England's civil war between forces loyal to King
Stephen and those to Empress Maud. Eoin McCarthy costars as local
Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who relies on Cadfael when murder
subverts his efforts to keep the peace. --Donald Liebenson