"Cadfael" One Corpse Too Many (1994)

Director:

Graham Theakston

Writers:

Russell Lewis (screenplay)
Edith Pargeter (novel)

TV Series:

"Cadfael" (1994)

Original Air Date:

29 May 1994 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Assigned by King Stephen to dispose of 94 hanged rebels, Cadfael discovers the body of a murdered man among the corpses and given just four days to solve the crime.

Plot Keywords:

Brother Cadfael | Torture | War Comrade | Herbalist | Crusader

Cast

Derek Jacobi	...	Brother Cadfael
Sean Pertwee	...	Hugh Beringar
Peter Copley	...	Abbot Herribert
Michael Culver	...	Prior Robert
Julian Firth	...	Brother Jerome
Christian Burgess	...	Adam Courcelle
Michael Grandage	...	King Stephen
Richard Henders	...	Torold Blund
Juliette Caton	...	Godith / Godric
Jeremy Young	...	Arnulf of Hesdin
David Garfield	...	Sergeant Rhys
Maggie O'Neill	...	Aline Siward
Geoffrey Leesley	...	Sheriff Prestcote
Bill Neville	...	Nicholas Faintree
Nigel Hastings	...	Giles Siward

Company:

Carlton Media

Trivia:

The first entry in the popular series.

Goofs:

Continuity: There is an aerial shot that shows the corpses of the garrison hanged by King Stephen, followed by Brother Cadfael's counting them by tens: "seventy... eighty... ninety... five?" In the aerial shot, there are only eighty-five corpses.

Quotes:

[Cadfael and Hugh return to Cadfael's workshop]
Brother Cadfael: Would you like to taste my wine?
Hugh Beringar: Oh, gladly! And I'll drink to your better success, against all opponents but Hugh Beringar.
Brother Cadfael: [finding his wine] This at least the mercenaries missed...
[Hugh opens the treasure sack, and finds nothing inside except stones]
Hugh Beringar: And I've been commiserating with you all this time, when you had this in store for me! What a fool I was to think I could out-trick you...
Brother Cadfael: [handing him wine] Now I'll drink to your better success, against all opponents but Cadfael.

Mass, not Vespers

I watched the first four episodes of the first season in reverse order, taking this one last. As the first in the series, I should have done it first. Clearly four times the effort went into it and it has twice the runtime. This allows them to follow something of the structure of the better written versions. In that form, one discovery leads to another and another. It isn't a matter of one mystery and a side story as we have in the following episodes (and 99% of all TeeVee).

So I think I will recommend this. Its still pretty thin on the detective side, but good enough to give an excuse for the costumes and slightly different culture. The gimmick is to provide some historical context. Mainstream TeeVee mystery has evolved in a manner that does not allow the primary mechanism of the detective novel — where you try and outwit the writer. Instead, our minds have to be captured other ways, more simple because the attention has to span those cursed commercials.

The girls in their costumers are lovely.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.