# Cadfael (1994)

> A former crusader turned herbalist monk in twelfth-century Shrewsbury uses his compassion to solve murders in the English border country.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/33053

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Edith Pargeter
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: Derek Jacobi, Sean Pertwee, Terrence Hardiman, Peter Copley, Michael Culver, Julian Firth, Mark Charnock, Eoin McCarthy
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108717/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: gentle, contemplative, cosy, melancholic, wistful

## Synopsis

Cadfael (1994-1998) is a British period drama crime series created by Edith Pargeter for ITV1. Derek Jacobi plays Brother Cadfael, a twelfth-century Anglo-Welsh monk and former crusader who now tends the herb gardens of Shrewsbury Abbey. Sean Pertwee and other actors portray Hugh Beringar, a sheriff who works alongside him, while the abbey's abbot and prior form the community around the monk. Each episode is a self-contained case of the week in which a murder or crime erupts in the Shropshire countryside, and Cadfael draws on his knowledge of herbs, his worldly past, and his patient reading of human nature to uncover the truth. The engine is the tension between the monastic vow of humility and his instinct to see justice done, as he moves between the abbey, village roads, and the border country where England meets Wales. The show runs across four seasons of thirteen episodes, a gentle, cosy mystery with a contemplative pace, warm candlelit interiors, and rural medieval texture. Fans of Father Brown, Midsomer Murders and Inspector Morse will find resonance in its quiet detective work and period atmosphere.

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