St. Peter's Fair

There is to be the annual St. Peter's Fair in which vendors from all over come to hawk their wares. The town merchants are required by law to close for this time. Not satisfied with this law the merchants threaten Abbot Radulfus (Terrence Hardiman) and get told that he has no choice in the matter.

This leads to a scuffle between the merchants and the visiting vendors. In the morning a wine merchant's body seems to be watered down with a hole and no tongue. Abbot Radulfus charges Cadfael to find out if it was the Abbot's fault for refusing to share with the townspeople.

Naturally, things get complex. There are crosses and double-crosses, beautiful girls and suspicious sheriffs. This may even lead to a rift between the Sheriff Hugh Beringar and Cadfael (old friends.) Cadfael uses forensics, intuition, and logic to help solve the mystery.

This time a well to do merchant who is attending the fair at Shrewsbury is found murdered.

The suspect is a local. A young rabble rouser. The local tradesmen aired their grievances to Abbot Radulfus that the church were making money out of the fair and not the locals. They were angry at the visiting merchants.

The merchant's niece arouses interest, it looks like someone has an ulterior motive regarding her welfare.

The motive for the murder turns out to be a letter that the merchant was carrying which contained names.

I thought this was a rather dull episode with too much talking. It was pretty easy to figure out who was behind the killings, especially after a man was shot by a crossbow in a crowd which looked reckless to me.

Cadfael and Hugh Beringar also turn on each other which was strange as they usually have mutual respect. This was a weak adaption of the story.

I must look up the name of the screenwriter who adapted this classic Cadfael chronicle and send them a flaming bag of dog poop. The liberties taken with this story are criminal, the worst being the adversarial attitude of the Hugh Beringar character toward Cadfael. Never in a million years would Hugh treat Cadfael in this aggressive and dismissive way. As a tv episode, "St. Peter's Fair" was fine, but as an adaptation of a fine piece of writing, it blows chunks. Thanks be that Edith Pargeter never had to see what happened to her creation. The only thing saving this is a brilliant performance by Jacobi-as always. Recommendation: Read the book; it's much more satisfying.

I loved this series when it first aired and sought out and obtained all the DVD copies of these episodes though I've never been an avid fan of the mystery genre. I even went so far as to track down the other books in the Cadfael series that had never been adapted to TV I enjoy re-watching the episodes regularly.

Recently I started reading the books that covered the adapted episodes and for the most part the books are even richer, more complex and more enjoyable than the TV episode. The skillful adaptations for the most part do justice to the books though characters and sub-plots have been eliminated for simplicity's sake and to fit within the TV time constraints.Several of the written characters been consolidated and the ensemble of actors kept busy by the more frequent re-use of characters that play more minor roles in the books.

This episode however takes liberties with the storyline that I can't understand. Berringer and Cadfael are brought into conflict when they worked amiably together in the book. The two work much better as friends. The character of Emma, the wine merchant's niece was kind of gutted for TV consumption. She's a much more likable and winning (and believable) character in the book. As I said the changes are mystery to me but the episode works for folks that don't know the real story and I'll continue to enjoy both the books and the episodes but I'd recommend the books to anyone who really enjoys the series. The omitted details of the stories are just as enjoyable as what made it to the screen and, in the case of this episode, really make the read superior to the show.

Another of the fine Brother Cadfael series about a medieval monk who solves the murders that crop up continually around his monastery -- amazing that anyone is still alive in the neighborhood.

But I write this review not to bury this series, but to praise Derek Jacobi, who, like the late Alec Guinness, has the uncanny ability to disappear into his roles and still remain utterly entertaining. Whether playing the emperor Claudius, Cyrano de Bergerac or the worldly wise monk of this series, he vanishes into his roles so completely that when one asks who plays Brother Cadfael, my immediate reaction is to say "Why.... Cadfael, of course." Then I do a double take and head to the records.

Guinness was something of the same way. I can't think of any other actor of whom that could be said. Even the greats of British acting who rose to prominence in the 1920s were always clearly themselves: Gielgud, Richardson, Olivier..... a myriad of Hamlets, all true and each clearly a collaboration between the playwright and the actor.

I never have that feeling about Jacobi. Maybe it prevents him from being at the top of his profession; other actors will get the roles, but Jacobi will keep on performing.... and I will keep on looking for his performances. I suggest you do the same.