Cheap Cadfael - Monk's Hood (DVD) (Richard Stroud, Herbert Wise, Sebastian Graham Jones, Ken Grieve, Graham Theakston, Mary McMurray, Malcolm Mowbray) Price

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This film is part of Brother Cadfael Series 1 Box Set: The Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse Too Many, Monk's Hood and The Leper of St. Giles (1995)

From the back cover:

When a wealthy landowner decides to cut his stepson out of his will and leave his inheritance to the church, it is Shrewsbury Abby which looks like the beneficiary. But before Geravase Gurney is able to complete the transaction, he is poisoned while staying at the abbey.

When Cadfael is called in to identify the poison, he is shocked to discover that Gervase's wife Richildis is his own childhood sweetheart, who he has not seen for 40 years. He last saw her before leaving for the Crusades, promising he would be back to marry her...

This is the time that Abbot Herribert (Peter Copley) is replaced by Abbot Radulfus (Terrence Hardiman) see him in a different light as Walter Fane in "Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder" ASIN: 6303111599

Well adapted
This is a very good adaptation of Ellis Peter's Monks Hood.If you have read the book, then you will not be disappointed. The acting was brilliant, Derek Jacobi as cadfael and Mary Miller as Richildis were wonderful. Julian Firth as brother Jerome is brilliantly sycophantic, and also quite funny. The plot is well crafted, Gervase Bonel in a fit of pique disinheirits his stepson Eedwin Gurney, and gifts his land to the Abbey. Bonel then dies violently, and his stepson appears to be the only one with the motive and oppertunity to kill, or was he? Cadfael is drawn in to this because his medicine has been the cause of death.Bonel's wife just happens to be Cadfael's former fiancee...

Past Passion + Poison = Problems
Brother Cadfael, having fought in the Crusades and seen the world, now lives contentedly in the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. He takes pleasure in healing the sick with his herbs and tending his garden. But life becomes thorny when Richildis, whom Cadfael loved as a teenager, comes to dwell within the abbey's confines. Her second husband Gervase Bonel deeds his property to the Benedictines and soon afterward is murdered. Edmund Gurney, Richildis' son, may very well be the killer as he and his step-father fought bitterly. The boy prefers the company of commonfolk and tradespeople, disdaining the lord's more leisurely life. Gervase has disinherited Edmund, leaving Mannerly manor and its lands to the Benedictines in Shrewsbury.

There are others who may have used Cadfael's curative unction Monk's Hood to kill Master Bonel. For Richildis' sake, Cadfael untangles the web in which Edmund has been caught. The boy's guilt or innocence must be proven or Cadfael will again have abandoned Richildis. Also, more than one man's freedom is at stake. With diligence and care Cadfael manages to separate truth from lies.

Sir Derek Jacob is brilliantly convincing. Wistful best describes the look on Cadfael's face when he learns that Richildis, whom he left for the Holy Land but promised to wed when he came back, has returned. There is a gentle innocence in the scenes between the two, pulling not only at their heartstrings but the viewer's as well. The one-time bold crusader must meekly accept his superior's bidding when ordered to discontinue the investigation. Cadfael is still as strong-willed as he was in his youth, but he is a principled man and having taken vows, one of which is obedience, he acquiesces. Sir Derek's wide palette of emotions paints a portrait of Cadfael which is clearly defined, brightly hued, and of great depth and insight. He is, indeed, a master.

Sean Pertwee (Hugh Beringar) is solid as the shire's undersheriff. Michael Culver (Prior Robert) may be dislikeable but that's only his character; Culver is a skilled actor. The same can be said of Julian Firth whose Brother Jerome is perhaps the most irritating and exasperating a man to ever walk the face of the earth. He is the bane of Cadfael's life and Cadfael deserves instant sainthood for putting up with Jerome without resorting to some old crusader's cure for pests - say, thwacking the heck out of the twitty little monk!

Mary Miller (Richildis) is exactly the kind of woman with whom Cadfael would have fallen in love as a youth. She is warm, caring, faithful, down to earth. Ms. Miller's beauty and strength comes from within, yet it is also visible.

Jonny Lee Miller (Edmund) plays his role of the disinherited youth well. Huw Garmon (Meurig) and Thomas Craig (Aelfric) give performances which are to be respected for their clarity.

Russell Lewis adapted Ellis Peters' book for the screen. Graham Theakston directed and Stephen Smallwood produced. This is an early Cadfael chronicle, as the series of books is called. It is also one of the early episodes filmed in the PBS-shown series. Later Cadfaels are more cryptic and perhaps more exciting than this episode, but it is well worth watching more than once. The Medieval monk is a mystery himself. "Monk's Hood" provides clues that answer how Cadfael came to be an Benedictine in the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul.