Brother Cadfael: Monk's Hook, the Leper of St. Giles, the Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse Too Many [Audio Cassette]

Ellis Peters (Author), Derek Jacobi (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

Acorn Media, the U.S. distributor of the "Brother Cadfael" teleplays, has adapted the TV broadcasts into what they call an Enhanced AudioTrack. This includes the entire TV sound track and additional narration to help hold the story line together in the absence of the visual image. Even more than Derek Jacobi's loving portrayal of Cadfael, Stephen Flynn's terse and straightforward connecting narration helps the Enhanced AudioTrack succeed where the TV broadcasts so often failed, as it covers up many of the more egregious changes from the original novels. Furthermore, the listener isn't forced to confront the considerable physical overacting of many of the actors. The four titles in this set are: ONE CORPSE TOO MANY, MONK'S HOOD, THE LEPER OF ST. GILES and THE SANCTUARY SPARROW. S.F. ( (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Acorn Media Publishi (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569382646
• ISBN-13: 978-1569382646
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 3.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,082,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BROTHER CADFAEL ....heard but not seen, and heard well!, August 16, 2005

By 

Anthony Scheinman (Forest Hills, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother Cadfael: Monk's Hook, the Leper of St. Giles, the Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse Too Many (Audio Cassette)

I have always believed that the BBC made the finest adaptations for radio and television, and indeed the BROTHER CADFAEL series is no exception; Bert Coules (who most recently adapted Sherlock Holmes for BBC radio) and the fine actor Philip Madoc brought Cadfael to life in three adaptations which are well worth listening to if you can: MONKS HOOD, THE VIRGIN INN THE ICE and DEAD MAN'S RANSOM. However, Sir Derek Jacobi was an excellent Cadfael for television ... even if some of the teleplays didn't quite follow the plot of the original novels. Acorn Audio did something quite extraordinary when they turned the audio tracks of the four teleplays of the first Cadfael TV series into an audio series, adding a narrator to fill in the gaps and adding some slight commentary on the action which could not be seen on an audiotape; in doing so, they tightened up the narrative to keep the stories moving at a good clip so that the listener would not lose interest, and Stephen Flynn's narrations are well-read and well-written. I am sorry that Acorn Audio hasn't adapted the rest of the televised Cadfael stories into this format, and the only grievance I have is that the cast of characters is not read out at the end of each story (all we get to know is that Sir Derek Jacobi plays Brother Cadfael, when there are some fine actors in each of the stories). This is something entirely new, coming somewhere in between actual radio drama and books-on-tape, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the Brother Cadfael series. The listener will not lose anything by not seeing the action on a TV screen, and the acting you will HEAR combined with the narration will definitely provide an ejoyable listening experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cadfael, August 21, 2000

By 

Affaire de Coeur - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brother Cadfael: Monk's Hook, the Leper of St. Giles, the Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse Too Many (Audio Cassette)

-Derek Jacobi takes the lead in the role of Brother Cadfael. In the Cadfael box set, four television episodes are soundtrack recorded with a narrator. Vocally, these four stories are wonderful pieces of fiction. However, even with a narrator, it sounds as if we are missing something. The production values are excellent, since these are the Brother Cadfael TV series which ran on PBS . . . But on audio, it sounds hollow . . .