CADFAEL
UK / ITV-Central-Carlton / 13x90 minute episodes / Broadcast 29 May 1994 - 28 December 1998
Creator: Ellis Peters / Music: Colin Towns / Producer: Stephen Smallwood
An atmospheric period crime drama series set in the 12th century Shrewsbury but actually filmed in Hungary. Derek Jacobi starred as brother Cadfael, a monk who had once been a soldier and killed in the crusades. Cadfael worked in the herbarium of the monastery and was an expert in the limited medicine of the time.
Cadfael lived during an era where life was cheap and murder was easy to get away with but Cadfael was also something of an expert in the art of murder solving, although he was often at loggerheads with Abbot Radulfus and Prior Robert who felt that Cadfael spent too much time away from his duties, his main ally was Sgt Hugh Berringer the town sheriff.
This entertaining and atmospheric series was made up of feature length 90 minute episodes with each season being pretty short, often only three or four per year. The show (which attracted big name guest stars among the likes of Tara Fitzgerald, Norman Eshley and so on) looked very realistic but in the end suffered at the hands of the schedulers who left long gaps between seasons and showed episodes at different times and so on.
cast
DEREK JACOBI as Brother Cadfael
TERENCE HARDIMAN as Abbot Radulfus
MICHAEL CULVER as Prior Robert
JULIAN FIRTH as Brother Jerome
SEAN PERTWEE as Hugh Beringer(94)
EOIN McCARTHY as Hugh Beringer(95)
MARK CHARNOCK as Brother Oswin(94-95)
FURTHER READING
DVD Review Series 1 - 3
Derek Jacobi Interview about The Long Firm
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