Mystery!: Cadfael (TV Series) The Sanctuary Sparrow (1994) User Reviews

Fiona Gillies steals the show

[jglillis-1 · 7/10 · 4 January 2009]

This is one of the better in the Cadfael series. There's not a weak acting job in the lot. Prior Robert and Brother Jerome are their usual slimy selves. Abbot Heribert displays some vigor when it's called for. Cadfael, of course, goes about his sleuthing business with his usual thoroughness and perspicacity. Hugh Beringar shows his usual resolve, courage and sensitivity. The new Aurifaber wife is unlikable but determined and courageous. Iestyn, Daniel, and John are convincing both as suspects and in their actual roles. It's also neat to see a quiet but effective bit performance by Madoc the boatman. But the master performance is that given by Fiona Gillies as Susanna. You can see her also as Beryl Stapleton in the Jeremy Brett version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. A good job there too.

I do find these a little hard to follow at first - who are all these characters, anyway? I think the writer, already knowing all the characters, doesn't quite realize that the viewers don't already know who these people are. Watching it a second time made it much more enjoyable and understandable.

Decent, though a few times it seemed as if folks were just lucky guessers!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 18 November 2013]

This is the second Cadfael episode shown on "Mystery" here in the United States. As usual, the show has a lovely medieval look--everything is brown and dingy--just as it should be. And, the show also has a very nice location shoot look with lots of exterior scenes--not just those shot on a sound stage. And, it sure didn't hurt that once again Derek Jacobi plays the title character. However, I did feel that in spite of all this quality, this was only a relatively fair episode.

The show begins at a wedding celebration. The minstrel is being treated abominably by the hosts--and since they have money and he's just a poor wandering musician, when he protests their abuse, they toss him out--unpaid and mad. Soon after this, some unseen person bashes the man of the house over the noggin and steals their silver. Folks at the wedding used Middle Ages logic (sort of like from the witch scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"), they decide that it MUST be the disgruntled musician and they chase him through town--vowing to kill him. Smartly, he heads into the church where the brothers grant him sanctuary. Now it's up to Mr. Know-it-all, Cadfael, to solve the robbery. However, before he can do this, one of the villagers assumes room temperature. Will there be others? And, of course, who did it?

My only problem with this episode is that a couple times it seemed like Cadfael was making lucky guesses and came up with solutions amazingly quickly--like he had peeked at the script! Still, engaging and interesting.

A sober mystery, buy entertaining enough.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 25 April 2022]

The Brothers offer sanctuary to a young man accused of committing a brutal attack, an an angry mob hunt him, Cadfael attempts to learn the truth.

Great start wine very dramatic opening sequences, designed to grab your attention. I found the core of this one a little hard to follow at times. Pacing was fair, it did lull a little in the middle, the ending did make up for it however.

I did like the twist, the revelation of the killer did come as a real surprise to me.

What was done, was done very well, wonderful production values, it looks amazing. Some wonderful acting, Fiona Gillies was great, once again I enjoyed the more nature cast members, really enjoyed Roy Barraclough and Rosalie Crutchley, a young Steven Mackintosh was very good.

A little slow, but well made and watchable, 7/10.

"Under the certainty of Heaven, nothing is certain."

[Bernie4444 · 10/10 · 15 October 2023]

When the town's goldsmith is robbed and left for dead, falls on a young juggler who was performing at the wedding feast of the goldsmith's son.

Pursued by the mob, the young entertainer stumbles through the town to the Abby where he seeks the sanctuary of the Alter. Cadfael is given the job of keeping an eye on the youngster while the authorities investigate. But his discrete inquiries are cut short when the goldsmith's neighbor is found dead floating in the river.

There is complexity or beauty in the film as father Cadfael along with my favorite Hugh Beringar (Sean Pertwee) search for truth and justice using forensics, intuition, and logic.

The Sanctuary Sparrow

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 25 January 2020]

What Cadfael does well in the early episode is having a hissable villain. You hope they get murdered or be revealed as the bad guy.

Here the groom to be at a wedding banquet pushes the minstrel Liliwin while he is doing his party tricks and the minstrel forfeits his fees and slung out of the castle.

The groom's wealthy father Walter Aurifaber is lated found bludgeoned and presumed dead. The town folk conclude Liliwin is to blame and go after him;

A fearful Liliwin seeks sanctuary from the monks. Cadfael is willing to give him the benefit of doubt.

Walter actually survives his attack but someone else later dies and the townsfolk are still after Liliwin.

This was a good dramatisation, well shot in Budapest and some rising actors in the cast. Hugh Bonneville and Toby Jones. I just did not think the adaptation held together well regarding the actual reveal and the rather melodramatic ending.

A Couple

[tedg · 3 July 2008]

I'm amazed at how uninteresting these Cadfael episodes are.

But in this one, I found two remarkable things. The first is how bluntly and exclusively it features copulation. I think there are five or six couplings; it is as if the author though he missed it in previous volumes and wanted to make up all in a hurry. Its pretty much the whole story — sexual urge.

The second thing, far more interesting, is watching two actors who appear in minor roles. Toby Stephens and Natascha McElhone. Both of these seem more intense than those surrounding. Both have gone on to careers as effective but uncelebrated screen actors — a rare thing. I have counted them both as valued guides into obscure places.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.