Ellis Peters' 12th-century monk who finds time in his daily devotionals to ferret out crime comes alive in this made-for-TV drama. A young man named Meriet (Christian Anholt) arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey eager to become a novice, but Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) somehow doubts the boy's good intentions, and a Senior Cleric decides to take a look into his past. When the Cleric turns up dead, Meriet confesses to the murder, but once Cadfael learns more about the young man's troubled history, he wonders if Meriet might be ...
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Ellis Peters' 12th-century monk who finds time in his daily devotionals to ferret out crime comes alive in this made-for-TV drama. A young man named Meriet (Christian Anholt) arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey eager to become a novice, but Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) somehow doubts the boy's good intentions, and a Senior Cleric decides to take a look into his past. When the Cleric turns up dead, Meriet confesses to the murder, but once Cadfael learns more about the young man's troubled history, he wonders if Meriet might be offering himself as a sacrifice to cover someone else's tracks. Brother Cadfael: The Devil's Novice also features Terence Hardiman and Mark Charnock; the drama was originally shown in the U.S. as part of the PBS series Mystery! Mark Deming, Rovi
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Seller's Description:
Derek Jacobi, Terence Hardiman, Michael Culver, Julian Firth, Julian Glover. Run time: 90 mins. Originally released: 1996. Language: English. Factory Sealed Brand New DVD Derek Jacobi's Brother Cadfael is a different kind of detective: a 12th-century monk, a healer and herbalist, and former soldier of fortune. His résumé gives him an interesting perspective on the puzzling murders that seem to plague the rural county of Shrewsbury. In "The Devil's Novice, " from the second season of the television series, Cadfael defends the order's newest novice, an intense young man who harbors a haunting secret, against a murder charge. Once again he fights dogmatic superstition in the monastery's ranks and even battles the church hierarchy willing to sacrifice an innocent man to bring closure to the murder of a cleric. The generic mystery relies on familiar family melodramatics and romantic complications and even echoes elements of the more compelling Cadfael mystery "The Virgin in the Ice, " but the backdrop of cloak-and-dagger intrigue and church politics infiltrating provincial Shrewsbury is compelling. Cadfael's mix of spiritual wisdom and worldly experience makes him a riveting character, and Jacobi invests him with empathy, passion, and a perceptive, clear-eyed vision of the secular world. The DVD also features a short audio-only interview with Derek Jacobi, a biography of author Ellis Peters (a pseudonym for Edith Pargeter), and a small stills gallery of production photos. --Sean Axmaker