Cadfael: The Devil's Novice

Cadfael: The Devil's Novice
ITV
18 August 1996
Mystery, Historical Drama
DVD
C-

Derek Jacobi plays the monk sleuth in this series based on the Ellis Peters novels.  It's the time period of King Stephen and his rival Empress Matilda but this is set in rural Shrewsbury, so that long civil war is peripheral.  This episode, or at least the 20 minutes of it I watched, has a seemingly guilty young man become the title character, although I suspect his father did it, or he's otherwise covering for the real murderer.  Starting out with a peasant skinning a rabbit was definitely off-putting for me but I don't think I'd have been that into it anyway.

Herbert Wise, who'd been directing since the '50s, would do The 10th Kingdom a few years later.