Cadfael (TV series)

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Cadfael
Starring Derek Jacobi
Michael Culver
Peter Copley
Sean Pertwee
Julian Firth
Mark Charnock
Terrence Hardiman
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 13
Production
Producer(s) ITV Central
Running time 75 minutes
Release
Original network ITV
Original release 29 May 1994 –
28 December 1998
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Cadfael is the name given to the TV series adapted from The Cadfael Chronicles novels written by Ellis Peters. It was produced by the ITV Central between 1994 and 1998. The series was broadcast on the ITV network in the UK, and starred Derek Jacobi as the medieval detective. They were aired in the US as part of the Mystery! series.

Cast

Episodes

There were a total of thirteen episodes in the series.

Episode list

Series Episode Title Book Original airdate Director Writer(s)
1 101 One Corpse Too Many 2 29 May 1994 Graham Theakston Russell Lewis
1 102 The Sanctuary Sparrow 7 5 June 1994 Graham Theakston Russell Lewis
1 103 The Leper of Saint Giles 5 12 June 1994 Graham Theakston Paul Pender
1 104 Monk's Hood 3 19 June 1994 Graham Theakston Russell Lewis
2 201 The Virgin in the Ice 6 26 December 1995 Malcolm Mowbray Russell Lewis
2 202 The Devil's Novice 8 18 August 1996 Herbert Wise Christopher Russell
2 203 A Morbid Taste for Bones 1 25 August 1996 Richard Stroud Christopher Russell
3 301 The Rose Rent 13 12 August 1997 Richard Stroud Christopher Russell
3 302 Saint Peter's Fair 4 19 August 1997 Herbert Wise Russell Lewis
3 303 The Raven in the Foregate 12 26 August 1997 Ken Grieve Simon Burke
4 401 The Holy Thief 19 23 June 1998 Ken Grieve Ben Rostul
4 402 The Potter's Field 17 23 December 1998 Mary McMurray Christopher Russell
4 403 The Pilgrim of Hate 10 28 December 1998 Ken Grieve Richard Stoneman

Episode descriptions

Series I (1994)

  • One Corpse Too Many was the first Cadfael book to be adapted for television. It was directed by Graham Theakston, the screenplay was by Russell Lewis, and the cast featured Sean Pertwee as Hugh Beringar, Christian Burgess as Adam Courcelle, and Michael Grandage as King Stephen. The series was filmed mostly in Hungary. The adaptation for One Corpse Too Many stuck closely to the original novel, with only minor plot or script deviations to cater to the different medium.
  • The Sanctuary Sparrow was the second Cadfael story to be adapted for television. It was mostly filmed on location in Hungary. It featured Steven Mackintosh as Liliwin, and Sara Stephens as Rannilt.
  • The Leper of Saint Giles was the third Cadfael book. It was slightly out of sequence as two earlier books in the series were filmed as later episodes. The adaptation stuck fairly closely to the original novel. The part of Joscelin Lucy was played by Jonathan Firth. Iveta de Massard was played by Tara FitzGerald, Sarah Badel played Avice of Thornbury, Jamie Glover played Simon, Jonathan Hyde played Godfrid Picard, and John Bennett played Lazarus. In Series I, Heribert is the abbot, played by Peter Copley, while in the novel of this title, Radulfus has been the Abbot for nearly a year.
  • Monk's Hood was the fourth episode. It was out of sequence as two later books in the series preceded it on the screen. The television adaptation for Monk's Hood stuck fairly closely to the original novel.

Series II (1995–1996)

  • The Virgin in the Ice The plot of the episode differed more than most from the original novel. The action was moved from Ludlow to Cadfael's "home" abbey of Shrewsbury; Brother Elyas's part was replaced by that of Cadfael's young and callow assistant in the herb gardens, Brother Oswin, and extra plot elements were introduced to explain the presence of the brigands led by le Gaucher (Ronan Vibert), and the final unmasking of the murderer.
  • The Devil's Novice featured Christien Anholt as Meriet, Julian Glover as Leoric, and Louisa Millwood-Haigh as Isouda/Isobel. The TV adaptation is largely faithful to the book. There is an extended prologue showing Clemence's (Ian Reddington) overnight stay at Aspley, where he alienates everyone with his arrogant and patronizing manner, except Rosanna, who flirts with him shamelessly. Brother Mark's role in the novel is fulfilled by Cadfael's earnest assistant, Brother Oswin (Mark Charnock). Hugh Beringar (Eoin McCarthy) travels out of Shrewsbury, leaving his less-subtle deputy, Sergeant Warden (Albie Woodington), in charge, who repeatedly clashes with Cadfael over the solution to Clemence's murder. Under pressure from Canon Eluard (Ian McNeice), Warden is all too eager to condemn first Harald (John Dallimore), and then Meriet, for the crime. Janyn (Daniel Betts) is caught as he is trying to flee the Abbey, confesses, and is last seen being marched to gaol, to await execution.
  • A Morbid Taste for Bones This episode featured Michael Culver as Prior Robert, and Anna Friel as Sioned. The television episode makes some changes, including secondary characters and proper names. Brother John and Annest are not included, leaving only one set of young lovers for the viewer to follow. The tension between the Welsh villagers and the English monastics is played up considerably, and the acquisition of St. Winifrede is made more dangerous thereby. To that end, the naive and charming Father Huw is recharacterised as the suspicious and rather grubby Father Ianto, who opposes the saint's removal and castigates the monks for haggling over her bones as if she were a bone at a butcher's stall. Bened the smith, while retaining his name, also loses much of his openhearted good nature, being both a suspicious rival of Rhisiart's and a vehement accuser of the monks themselves. In the climax of the adaptation, Brother Columbanus' confession is drawn out by less supernatural means than in the novel. Instead of being hoodwinked by Sioned in the dark, Columbanus confesses to a fevered figure of his own imagination. He is egged on to this by Cadfael, who pretends to see a figure of light bearing down upon them as they keep their vigil in Saint Winifrede's church. Sioned's part is to stay hidden as a witness, but when Columbanus relates with what joy he struck down her father in the saint's name, Sioned loses control and flies at him, with disastrous consequences as Columbanus realizes that he has been tricked. Sioned's lover, renamed from Engelard to Godwin, appears to defend Sioned, and Colombanus's accidental death occurs as in the novel. However, Columbanus' own motives are a good deal more ambiguous in the television adaptation. He innocently denies any ambition on his own part to be "the youngest head under a mitre," and his actions appear to stem from religious fervor and criminal insanity, rather than from a cold, calculated pass at fame. Otherwise, the episode remains primarily faithful to the text, with the necessary exception of being well into Abbott Radulfus' tenure at the abbey, instead of introducing the series.

Series III (1997)

  • The Rose Rent stars Kitty Aldridge as Judith, and Tom Mannion as Niall Bronzesmith.[1][2] The adaptation makes some changes from the book. The most significant change is that Miles (Crispin Bonham-Carter) is motivated not by greed, but by secret love for his cousin, and first attacks the rose bush to convince her to let go of her devotion to her deceased husband. Another change is that Cadfael gives the young wife a potion to ease her terminally ill husband's pain, warning her that too much will kill him; in the next scene, the man is dead, implying a mercy killing. In the book, there is no such implication. The husband dies of his illness three years before the novel opens, with no suggestion that Cadfael or the widow acted to hasten his end.
  • Saint Peter's Fair is an adaptation that contains a shocking twist near the end, different from the novel. It pits Cadfael and Hugh Beringar against each other, with Hugh's loyalty to King Stephen and Cadfael's sense of true justice making them enemies. In the series of novels, the two men are friends.
  • The Raven in the Foregate focuses on Cadfael's efforts to prove that Eleanor (called Eluned in the novel) was murdered rather than a suicide (the character having committed suicide in both the novel and TV adaptation) and his own guilt at having sent her to Father Ailnoth for confession. Other differences include name changes: "Saran" becomes "Mary" and "Benet" becomes "Edward"; Edward takes over the role played in the novel by Torold Blund (from One Corpse Too Many); the addition of Eleanor's blind sister Catherine (played by Catherine Cusack) and deletion of the characters Torold, Father Ailnoth's housekeeper Diota and Torold's fellow squire Ninian.

Series IV (1998)

  • The Holy Thief features George Irving as Prior Herluin, Benedict Sandiford as Tutilo, Louise Delamere as Daalny, Natasha Pyne as Lady Donata and Jonathan Tafler (who played Hugh Beringar in the BBC Radio adaptation of Dead Man's Ransom) as a money lender. Prior Herluin and Brother Tutilo, a novice, arrive at Shrewsbury unexpectedly from Ramsey Abbey, which has just been destroyed in the civil war. Tutilo has had a vision of St. Winifred. Herluin seizes on this as an excuse to extract the saint's lucrative relics from Shrewsbury, which since acquiring the relics has been receiving hefty sums in donations from pilgrims praying for intercession from St. Winifred. Shrewsbury's Abbot Radulfus has reluctantly agreed to loan out his saint when a bequest arrives for Tutilo: Lady Donata has left him a necklace so valuable that they can afford to rebuilt Ramsey Abbey (though that does not seem to have been her intent). While he no longer needs St. Winifred, Prior Herluin isn't ready to give her up. When the relics and the necklace disappear, along with Daalny, a singer enslaved to a minstrel and a friend of Tutilo, the Abbot sends Cadfael after them. Daalny turns out to have been abducted and Cadfael finds her and the relics, but the necklace is gone and shortly the hireling who grabbed Daalny and the valuables is found dead almost on Cadfael's doorstep, his head bashed in with a rock. This version follows the main plot of the novel, but omits the subplot of Prior Herluin's efforts to reclaim Sulien Blount, a former novice at Ramsey Abbey; changes the name of the murder victim from "Aldhelm" to "Alfred"; changes the identity of the murderer; alters the gift from Lady Donata to Tutilo from a psaltery to a jeweled necklace, and her motive for giving it to him; and makes the character of Lord Beaumont (played by Richard Lintern) far more arrogant, cynical and cruel than the character in the novel.
  • The Potter's Field features Gregor Truter as Brother Ruald, a potter who left his wife to join Shrewsbury Abbey a year before the story begins. A local nobleman donates a field to the Abbey. While working in the field, which is near Ruald's former home, the brothers discover the bones of a woman who they suspect is Ruald's abandoned wife Generys (Sioned Jones).
  • The Pilgrim of Hate This episode varies widely from the novel. In this version, a well-aged corpse is found in the baggage of the pilgrims on Saint Winifred's day, and its identity, not the murder of a faraway knight, becomes the subject of the mystery. Matthew and Ciaran are brothers, pointing fingers as to who is responsible for their father's death. In this adaptation Matthew is the villain. Crippled Rhun, far from being one of Cadfael's most promising future novices, confirms Father Abbot's suspicions that he fakes his condition to earn the charity of those around him; his sister Melangell has been forced by guilt to wait on him hand and foot, even stealing to support their needs. It aired on 28 December 1998, and was the last of Ellis Peters' novels to be adapted for the screen.[3]

Home media

All 13 episodes have been released on DVD.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ "The Cadfael Collection DVD". http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=34627&name=The+Cadfael+Collection+DVD Retrieved 7 August 2000.

External links

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