Brother Cadfael, Set 2 (The Virgin in the Ice, The Devil's Novice, St. Peter's Fair)
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List Price: $49.99
Our Price: $29.33
Your Save: $ 20.66 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Starring: Sir Derek Jacobi
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781569384367
Format: Box set
ISBN: 1569384363
Label: Acorn Media
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Acorn Media
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-07-10
Running Time: 228
Studio: Acorn Media
Theatrical Release Date: 1997-01-01
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing is certain
Comment: If you are a fan of the film " The Name of the Rose", you will love Brother Cadfael
The monk is part Father Brown with Sherlock Holmes. He solves crimes the medievel way and the way he does it will intrigue mystery lovers everywhere.
Derek Jacobi bring an aire of class to Cadfael. He brings the character off the page of the Peter's novels with ease
I recieved this as a very early Christmas gift from a friend going to Europe for a few months, thanks Dan for the gift..it is a great addition to my DVD Mystery library and it will fit in any of yours.
Also all disks have Jacobi audio commaries on all three shows in this collection..worth it for that alone
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sir Derek and the Chronicles of a Truly Rare Benedictine.
Comment: When the decision was made to produce for TV several episodes from her mystery series about Brother Cadfael, that 12th century crusader turned monk turned detective who has been, ever since his creation, one of the most compassionate and unusual sleuths of literary history, novelist Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was not entirely happy. In fact, as the series' star, Sir Derek Jacobi, explains in the extra footage provided on the now-released DVDs, Ms. Peters had very mixed feelings about giving up her brain child and entrusting it to other people who went about cutting and adjusting everything, from the storylines themselves to the way the protagonists speak and even the Chronicles' sequence, to the necessities and limitations set by the new medium. But she eventually acquiesced and at one point promised that "the next one I write, I'll make sure it's easier for you all to film."
While the thirteen episodes that were eventually produced are, thus, not entirely true to the individual Chronicles they are based on, they are closer than many other movie or TV versions of famous works of literature. Most importantly, they maintain not only the core story lines but also the historical authenticity, atmosphere and spirit set by Ms. Peters's books in a marvelous fashion. And Sir Derek Jacobi brings both the wealth of his experience and skill and all of his own shrewdness, intelligence, sense of humor and empathy to the role of the medieval Benedictine sleuth and thus truly becomes Cadfael -- for the thousands of new fans who are discovering the series through its enactment for TV just as much as for us who loved the books before they were ever transposed to a visual medium. A tremendous cast of supporting actors rounds out an overall excellent production; to mention just a few, Julian Firth as the ambitious and narrow-minded Brother Jerome, Terrence Hardiman as Abbot Radolfus and Sean Pertwee (and later Eoin McCarthy) as Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who joins Cadfael in his investigations whenever, as is so often the case, these transcend the world of monastic life and require the administration of secular justice as well as clerical insight. Several episodes also feature noted guest stars.
The episodes are not entirely in the same order as the books; however, as most of the cross-references between the books have been eliminated in the screen versions, this is no great harm (although the lacking cross-references are probably one of the things avid readers of the books will find missing). The DVDs also provide background information on Ellis Peters, Sir Derek Jacobi and a number of the individual episodes' other actors.
Summary of the episodes contained in this set:
"St. Peter's Fair" (the fourth Chronicle): While traders arrive from near and far, townsfolk claim a share of the Abbey's dues from the annual fair. Then a merchant is found murdered -- but there's more to this than meets the eye!
"The Virgin in the Ice" (the sixth Chronicle): After the sack of Worcester by Empress Maud, a nun, a young nobleman and his sister get lost in the Marshes. Cadfael rushes to the rescue ... and meets a messenger from his own past.
"The Devil's Novice" (the eighth Chronicle): The Abbey accepts a novice with a troubling zeal for monastic life (but not its virtues), who may or may not be connected to the death of a cleric traveling through his home village.
Episodes contained in other sets:
First set:
"One Corpse Too Many" (the second Chronicle).
"Monk's Hood" (the third Chronicle).
"The Leper of St. Giles" (the fifth Chronicle).
"The Sanctuary Sparrow" (the seventh Chronicle).
Third Set:
"A Morbid Taste for Bones" (the first Chronicle);
"The Raven in the Foregate" (the twelfth Chronicle);
"The Rose Rent" (the thirteenth Chronicle).
Fourth Set:
"The Pilgrim of Hate" (the tenth Chronicle);
"The Potter's Field" (the seventeenth Chronicle);
"The Holy Thief" (the nineteenth Chronicle).
Also recommended:
A Rare Benedictine
A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
One Corpse Too Many: The Second Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Monk's Hood: The Third Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Leper of Saint Giles (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Virgin in the Ice (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
Brother Cadfael's Penance (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Cadfael Collection
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cadfael my Son
Comment: This is one of the best sets in the series. Although I think Sean Pertwee in the first set was a better sheriff, this group of stories is incredible. We see consoling, love, intrigue, lechery, murder, highway bandits, rape, kidnapping, and a host of other acts of love and violence. Some true chivalry, an evil monk but not the one that is accused, and mysterious disappearances of people make this set great to watch. The set contains many sub stories in each story that makes them all the more interesting. We find out a piece of the puzzle in Cadfael's love life while he was on the Crusades. The set does not contain much as far as extra's but the series alone is well worth the price. The quality is comparable with the rest in the series and quite adequate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun, but some bad decisions here
Comment: This set has gone a bit downhill from the first series. These are still enjoyable, but not nearly as close to the world of the books. The first big problem is the very unfortunate decision to merge the characters of the two sheriffs. The actor in the first series was a great Hugh Berringer and this one is a great Sheriff Prestcote, but the two were such totally different personalities that their lines can't be combined into a coherent role. Which raises the question, why weren't the books done in the order they were written so that the two characters could be handled properly? Secondly, Cadfael loves the world and its creatures, but has a certain detachment, befitting a monk, viewing worldly folly more with sorrow and compassion than anger. He seems here to be sliding more towards the Last Angry Man with a contempt for the fools around him. He isn't set so far apart from the rest of the cast in the books. The quality of costuming varies wildly, with some of the women looking more like attendees at a late 20th century prom than medieval women. Some of the other supporting characters, notably Brother Jerome and Prior Roberts and the two abbotts are great!
Customer Rating:
Summary: So what if this Hugh isn't the *real* Hugh (Sean Pertwee)?
Comment: ... Brother Cadfael is *still* the most unique, complex, fascinating detective out there. Add to that the endlessly treacherous and intriguing setting, and you've found a winner.
The production standard is incredible; visually, it's an impressive effort and very realistic. It manages to be grand and gritty at once.
The acting is likewise superb. I could never have pictured a better Cadfael than the sterling Sir Derek Jacobi.
The only reason I gave this set four stars rather than five is that this particular Cadfael series is not my favorite of the four. All of them are worth owning, however.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing is certain
Comment: If you are a fan of the film " The Name of the Rose", you will love Brother Cadfael
The monk is part Father Brown with Sherlock Holmes. He solves crimes the medievel way and the way he does it will intrigue mystery lovers everywhere.
Derek Jacobi bring an aire of class to Cadfael. He brings the character off the page of the Peter's novels with ease
I recieved this as a very early Christmas gift from a friend going to Europe for a few months, thanks Dan for the gift..it is a great addition to my DVD Mystery library and it will fit in any of yours.
Also all disks have Jacobi audio commaries on all three shows in this collection..worth it for that alone
Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sir Derek and the Chronicles of a Truly Rare Benedictine.
Comment: When the decision was made to produce for TV several episodes from her mystery series about Brother Cadfael, that 12th century crusader turned monk turned detective who has been, ever since his creation, one of the most compassionate and unusual sleuths of literary history, novelist Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was not entirely happy. In fact, as the series' star, Sir Derek Jacobi, explains in the extra footage provided on the now-released DVDs, Ms. Peters had very mixed feelings about giving up her brain child and entrusting it to other people who went about cutting and adjusting everything, from the storylines themselves to the way the protagonists speak and even the Chronicles' sequence, to the necessities and limitations set by the new medium. But she eventually acquiesced and at one point promised that "the next one I write, I'll make sure it's easier for you all to film."
While the thirteen episodes that were eventually produced are, thus, not entirely true to the individual Chronicles they are based on, they are closer than many other movie or TV versions of famous works of literature. Most importantly, they maintain not only the core story lines but also the historical authenticity, atmosphere and spirit set by Ms. Peters's books in a marvelous fashion. And Sir Derek Jacobi brings both the wealth of his experience and skill and all of his own shrewdness, intelligence, sense of humor and empathy to the role of the medieval Benedictine sleuth and thus truly becomes Cadfael -- for the thousands of new fans who are discovering the series through its enactment for TV just as much as for us who loved the books before they were ever transposed to a visual medium. A tremendous cast of supporting actors rounds out an overall excellent production; to mention just a few, Julian Firth as the ambitious and narrow-minded Brother Jerome, Terrence Hardiman as Abbot Radolfus and Sean Pertwee (and later Eoin McCarthy) as Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who joins Cadfael in his investigations whenever, as is so often the case, these transcend the world of monastic life and require the administration of secular justice as well as clerical insight. Several episodes also feature noted guest stars.
The episodes are not entirely in the same order as the books; however, as most of the cross-references between the books have been eliminated in the screen versions, this is no great harm (although the lacking cross-references are probably one of the things avid readers of the books will find missing). The DVDs also provide background information on Ellis Peters, Sir Derek Jacobi and a number of the individual episodes' other actors.
Summary of the episodes contained in this set:
"St. Peter's Fair" (the fourth Chronicle): While traders arrive from near and far, townsfolk claim a share of the Abbey's dues from the annual fair. Then a merchant is found murdered -- but there's more to this than meets the eye!
"The Virgin in the Ice" (the sixth Chronicle): After the sack of Worcester by Empress Maud, a nun, a young nobleman and his sister get lost in the Marshes. Cadfael rushes to the rescue ... and meets a messenger from his own past.
"The Devil's Novice" (the eighth Chronicle): The Abbey accepts a novice with a troubling zeal for monastic life (but not its virtues), who may or may not be connected to the death of a cleric traveling through his home village.
Episodes contained in other sets:
First set:
"One Corpse Too Many" (the second Chronicle).
"Monk's Hood" (the third Chronicle).
"The Leper of St. Giles" (the fifth Chronicle).
"The Sanctuary Sparrow" (the seventh Chronicle).
Third Set:
"A Morbid Taste for Bones" (the first Chronicle);
"The Raven in the Foregate" (the twelfth Chronicle);
"The Rose Rent" (the thirteenth Chronicle).
Fourth Set:
"The Pilgrim of Hate" (the tenth Chronicle);
"The Potter's Field" (the seventeenth Chronicle);
"The Holy Thief" (the nineteenth Chronicle).
Also recommended:
A Rare Benedictine
A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
One Corpse Too Many: The Second Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Monk's Hood: The Third Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Leper of Saint Giles (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Virgin in the Ice (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
Brother Cadfael's Penance (Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Cadfael Collection
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cadfael my Son
Comment: This is one of the best sets in the series. Although I think Sean Pertwee in the first set was a better sheriff, this group of stories is incredible. We see consoling, love, intrigue, lechery, murder, highway bandits, rape, kidnapping, and a host of other acts of love and violence. Some true chivalry, an evil monk but not the one that is accused, and mysterious disappearances of people make this set great to watch. The set contains many sub stories in each story that makes them all the more interesting. We find out a piece of the puzzle in Cadfael's love life while he was on the Crusades. The set does not contain much as far as extra's but the series alone is well worth the price. The quality is comparable with the rest in the series and quite adequate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun, but some bad decisions here
Comment: This set has gone a bit downhill from the first series. These are still enjoyable, but not nearly as close to the world of the books. The first big problem is the very unfortunate decision to merge the characters of the two sheriffs. The actor in the first series was a great Hugh Berringer and this one is a great Sheriff Prestcote, but the two were such totally different personalities that their lines can't be combined into a coherent role. Which raises the question, why weren't the books done in the order they were written so that the two characters could be handled properly? Secondly, Cadfael loves the world and its creatures, but has a certain detachment, befitting a monk, viewing worldly folly more with sorrow and compassion than anger. He seems here to be sliding more towards the Last Angry Man with a contempt for the fools around him. He isn't set so far apart from the rest of the cast in the books. The quality of costuming varies wildly, with some of the women looking more like attendees at a late 20th century prom than medieval women. Some of the other supporting characters, notably Brother Jerome and Prior Roberts and the two abbotts are great!
Customer Rating:
Summary: So what if this Hugh isn't the *real* Hugh (Sean Pertwee)?
Comment: ... Brother Cadfael is *still* the most unique, complex, fascinating detective out there. Add to that the endlessly treacherous and intriguing setting, and you've found a winner.
The production standard is incredible; visually, it's an impressive effort and very realistic. It manages to be grand and gritty at once.
The acting is likewise superb. I could never have pictured a better Cadfael than the sterling Sir Derek Jacobi.
The only reason I gave this set four stars rather than five is that this particular Cadfael series is not my favorite of the four. All of them are worth owning, however.
Never tell Brother Cadfael, the medieval mystery-solving monk, 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 three divine mysteries based on the books by Ellis Peters and originally broadcast in the U.S. on the PBS series Mystery! Each feature-length episode in this boxed set is self-contained but plays against the backdrop of England's civil war between forces loyal to King Stephen and those to Empress Maud. Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius, Gladiator) stars as Cadfael, who at one point is aptly described as "an odd kind of monk." The former "soldier, sailor, sinner, and Crusader" has his faith tested by crimes of royal intrigue and baffling murders that seem to plague the neutral ground of 12th-century Shrewsbury. The best of the three, "The Virgin in the Ice," is a good introduction for Cadfael initiates. This story of "violence and cruelty" involves the near-fatal beating of a young monk, the murder of a nun, and the disappearance of two children. Viewers' advisory: one of the chapters in the scene selection menu on the DVD contains a major spoiler. The "strange difficulties" continue in "The Devil's Novice," in which Cadfael's suspicions about a recently arrived novice are heightened by the murder of the bishop's chaplain. Finally, the local merchants are revolting, and the murder of two tradesmen further mar the festivities in "St. Peter's Fair." All three episodes costar Eoin McCarthy as local undersheriff Hugh Beringar, who relies on Cadfael when murder subverts his efforts to keep the peace. A tense standoff between these two friends heightens the climax of "St. Peter's Fair." Americans have never seen a sleuth such as Cadfael, a fascinating character who is at once a man of God, of science, and even of action. You'll find few Benedictine monks so skilled at using a quarterstaff. --Donald Liebenson
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