Cadfael - The Complete Collection - Series 1 To 4 [1994]

Amazon.co.uk Review

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

Customer Reviews:

12th Century Sleuthing.......2007-10-10

This is a wonderful boxed set that features the whole Brother Cadfael series (1 to 4). Picture and sound quality are excellent. These stories about a 12th century monk who is a bit of a detective are really entertaining. Beautifully filmed with Derek Jacobi splendid in the lead role. All this comes at a bargain price too!

Brilliant.......2007-09-25

Gentle BBC period drama at its best. The acting quality is fabulous, and the plot lines, which by today's standards can hardly be called fast moving, manage to involve the viewer and retain your attention throughout.
A must buy for period drama/who dunnit fans and at the current Amazon price this series is a bargain.

Good, but with reservations.......2007-02-18

Having read all the the Cadfael books several times, and visited the ruins and reconstruction of parts of the Abbey, I was interested to see how they would come across in a film. For the most part it was excellent in terms of acting, costumes, sets, unfolding of plots. My reservation is in the casting of Sir Derek Jacobi in the title role. He is undoubtedly a fine actor (that goes without saying) but in my opinion is far too polished and sophisticated for the down-to-earth and practical Cadfael. Other casting was excellent, especially Prior Robert and his side-kick Brother Jerome, but that of the main character,I am sorry to say,diminished my enjoyment.

Disappointing.......2006-10-30

After reading so many recommendations for this DVDs I bought the box set. Maybe it is I love the novels by Elis Peters so much or I just expected too much. I really got disappointed by the movies. They have three points that are brilliant: D. Jacoby as Brother Cadfael, the sets and the costumes. Besides that I found a lot of things very disturbing. It starts with most of the cast, who doesn't look a single bit like the persons Elis Peters discribed so wonderful in her books. Take only Hugh Beringar... he has nothing in common with the guy in the novel and it is more than annoying that over all the epsiodes he is played by 3 different actors! Besides that the caracter of the sheriff was also changed a lot, he is no smart and experienced friend to Cadfael he looks more like a foolish jýoung student who needs the monks help for even the smallest things. The storylines were also changed sometimes completely, guys who did wrong out of good reasons become nothing more than lunatics or bad guys. Also characters are sometimes replaced by others (Virgin in the ice to give an example). Well, I think for fans of the middle ages and historic movies, this will make a wonderful addition to there collections, but for anyone, who really is in love with the novels, this movies are a waste of time.

A medieval treat.......2006-05-22

This Cadfael complete collection is great, a huge improvement from the Region 1 (Canada/USA) release. The picture is crisp and clear, the sound is good (why no 5.1 Dolby or dts ;) and the English captioning is done well and easy to read.
3 episodes per dvd, for a total of 5 dvds instead of the 13 individual dvds.
The only down side is the special features are a bit on the thin side, one audio only interview with the star is segmented in 13 parts, one for each story. These stories beg to have a complete actor and/or director audio commentaries for each episode.

On side by side examination the American (R1) dvd's picture looks foggy, sometimes burly. The captioning for most or the stories was poorly done.
These were re-mastered for dvd, and look good. All of the hard work shows in the product. Kudos!
Compared to the American release, there is no comparison. I heartily recommend this Cadfael dvd collection.
If you're a Cadfael fan or only just heard of him, these dvds are too great a treat miss.

UK DVD:

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