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The setting of the story is 12th Century England, a period of particular turmoil. Henry I had died without a legitimate male heir, and he had designated his daughter Matilda as his successor, binding his nobles by oath to support her. Although many of them did, including her very able half brother, an illegitimate son of Henry made an Earl by his father, many of them threw their support behind her cousin, Steven. Matilda, or Maud as she is referred to, was a granddaughter of William the Conqueror and no push over herself. She fought her cousin from a base in coastal France, where the family held land in fief of the King of France and where marriage alliances had placed her as wife of Geoffery, the Duke of Anjou. With her Norman support in France and her loyal factions in England, she made enough of a threat to Steven's rule to ultimately obtain a guarantee of succession to the English throne for her son Henry, ultimately Henry II. Until that time, warfare turned most of England into a battle ground and life for everyone a matter of ceaseless uncertainty. Added to this was the rancour still apparent in the social divisions between the largely Saxon population and their Norman rulers. The fall of the Saxon monarchy was only a hundred years previous and hostility still existed.

Cadfael, the central character of the series, is a Dominican monk and herbalist, and Dereck Jacobi is the perfect personification of him. He has a presence which suggests strength, wisdom, and compassion. Unlike most of the other brothers, Cadfael had spent most of his life in the secular world where he participated in the crusades, had adventures, fell in and out of love, and took his order after finding the ways of the world wanting. He comes from a different culture, that of Wales, and sees that of England through an outsiders more objective eyes. His experience with life and the motives of men and his keen awareness of detail makes him the perfect sleuth, and when murder is committed, the civil authorities, often personified by Hugh Beringer (Eorin McCarthy), are more than willing to have him clear things up for them.

In A Morbid Taste for Bones, a young priest begins having ecstatic seizures in which he believes he is being directed by a Welsh saint, the martyred St. Winifred, to go to Wales to obtain her bones for the Abbey of Shrewsbury. The people of the town are loath to give up their saint, and in the process of convincing them of the divine direction of their mission, the monks end up suspected of the murder of a townsman. Cadfael, a Welshman himself, begins the process of sleuthing out the culprit before they and their mission become victims themselves.

A thoroughly real and well researched visit to the Middle Ages.

Not a really faithful adaptation
This review is geared toward considering the episode in terms of its quality as an adaptation of the original story, rather than as an independent entity, so if that doesn't interest you, shoo. :)

The basic plot and some of the major subplots of the original novel have been adapted faithfully, but in moving the story several years forward in time (several years after Heribert's abbacy ended), several of the characters have been replaced or altered greatly.

_A Morbid Taste for Bones_ is the first book in the series, which follows a linear chronology (i.e., each book happens some time after its predecessor, so the characters change accordingly, and the events in the world around them track what actually happened in history). Revising the scripts to change the order of the stories consequently has inherent problems.

Rather than Abbot Heribert, Radulfus is in charge, which results in a different interpretation of several other characters. Unlike Radulfus, who's in his prime, Heribert at this point was elderly, and nearing the end of his tenure. Prior Robert took it for granted that he would be the next abbot, while others had motives to try to displace Robert so they could step into the abbot's shoes later. Removing those possible motives changes the balance of the story.

The visionary Columbanus has been reinterpreted. His visionary fits here are bluntly interpreted as near-insanity, rather than offering any possible interpretation as a calculated pose. When Brother Cadfael considers that Columbanus might be trying to build a reputation for holiness as a lever into the abbot's mitre, he questions Columbanus openly about it rather than entertaining it as a private theory early on. Consequently, the stage for Columbanus' last vigil and vision in Gwytherin is arranged somewhat differently than in the original.

Brother John, Cadfael's first assistant, who entered the order after his girl dumped him, has been eliminated, along with the subplot concerning his vocation; instead, we have Brother Oswin, as usual in the adaptations (who is portrayed as an amalgam of Brother Mark and the original Oswin, without the wisdom of the former or the heartiness of the latter).

For the supporting players: the Welsh villagers look far more downtrodden than I would have expected (everyone except Rhysiart and his daughter is wearing an institutional shade of blue); the Shrewsbury villagers don't get that treatment when the monks are on their home turf. Cadfael's role as translator is eliminated, as everyone magically speaks English (OK, I'll grant that one for the sake of translation to film.) But to give him an equivalent role as a buffer between the monks and the villagers, Cadfael is presented as the only member of the monastic party with common sense - and if you think Prior Robert was politically naive in the books, think again. In fact, Robert's original problem was that he was *too* worldly-wise, and underestimated local affection for Saint Winifred.

85 Minutes Doesn't Do Brother Cadfael Justice
I'll readily admit, my expectations were rediculously high. As a fan of both the Brother Cadfael chronicles and actor Derek Jacobi, I assumed that like the actor, this DVD would be a perfect combination of style and substance. I wonder if this might be one of the TV series' weaker episodes.

Jacobi is perfectly cast as Cadfael and carries the role very well. While there are other good performances, some are a bit overdone, and some are a bit wooden. Author Ellis Peters did a wonderful job of interweaving multi-leveled storylines together in her books, but that sense was impossible to capture in this episode's condensed 85 minutes. Though the show moves swiftly and conveys all the key points, it ended up feeling a little flat.

On a technical note, the DVD picture is remarkably clear. The "extras", however, left me wanting. There are only 10 - 15 production stills, and not much background on either the making of the episode, characters, or actors. There is one very nice touch: an audio track of Derek Jacobi speaking candidly about his portrayal of Brother Cadfael.