Year Released: 1994-1998
Starring: Derek Jacobi, Michael Culver, Julian Firth, Mark Carnock
(4 seasons, 4 50-minute episodes each)

Think Father Brown time warped back about 8 centuries. Cadfael’s not a priest but a 12th century monk who solves medieval mysteries.

No, he does not have a cadre of worldly friends helping him, but Brother Cadfael has his own worldly past to assist him.

He has been a crusader for 8 years, a man who loved and was loved before retiring to a Benedictine Abbey in western England as their resident herbalist, which in the 12th century made him into a combination doctor, medical examiner, and sometime detective.

Things are seldom what they seem, at least not what his prim and unsmiling Prior (Michael Culver) decides most often prematurely, always opting for conventional wisdom and ready to condemn the innocent so as not to make any waves. Not to mention the prior’s obsequious toady Brother Jerome (Julian Firth), all “dogma, doctrine, and religious hocus pocus,” who does all he can to deter Cadfael’s search for the unconventional truth.

It’s often Cadfael’s understanding of herbs – a thistle showing a murder occurred far away from where the body was found, for instance – or his keen understanding of human nature that guides him.

***

We are as surprised as Cadfael when his past confronts him – his long ago betrothed who waited 7 years for him to return from the Holy Lands before marrying – or even someone who might be a relation he never suspected to exist.

But always young lovers true of heart earn Cadfael’s sympathy, his rebellious support, and sometimes a gateway to freedom. Like Father Brown, Brother Cadfael is more interested in redeeming souls, and offering redemption instead of retribution.

Cadfael has seen too much death, much at his own hand, during those 8 years in the Holy Lands. He will go to great lengths to make the correct moral judgment, even if it means using a little deceit along the way, such as in “A Morbid Taste for Bones,” where he must take sides as his native Wales and his English Abbey vie over a saint’s skeleton.

He must also contend with the same appalling deaths that we see in Midsomer Murders and Brokenwood Mysteries. For instance:

• A young nun buried in ice, her stunning beauty clearly visible beneath its surface

• A body left in the warming room on Cripples day, which Cadfael has to boil down to the bare bones to find the likely murderer

• A woman they unearth while plowing a potter’s field, casting suspicion on the husband who has left her to become a monk

A cruel baron found strangled in the woods, a ring cutting into his throat, the town lepers he has so cruelly treated holding a key to his murder

***

Derek Jacoby, leaner, younger, and not as rough as Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) portrayed him in her immensely popular Cadfael Chronicles, is nevertheless the definitive Cadfael, and legions of her fans have not only accepted him but made the classically trained National Theatre actor their icon. They still go on Brother Cadfael tours and mystery weekends in historic Shrewsbury. “Jacobi owns the role the way Jeremy Brett came to own the role of Sherlock Holmes,” according to one astute viewer.

Enjoy with Medieval Roasted Partridge, but don’t dose it with Cadfaels rubbing liniment as someone did in Series 4, episode 4 “Monk’s Hood.” You might lose you taste for it, or more importantly, your taste for remaining a living creature.