One Corpse Too Many
Encyclopedia
One Corpse Too Many is a medieval mystery novel set in the summer of 1138 by Ellis Peters, first published in 1979
. It was adapted for television in 1994
by Central
for ITV
. Although it was the first novel in the Brother Cadfael series to be written, it was the second to be published, as the events of A Morbid Taste for Bones take place first, chronologically.
by King Stephen
during the English civil war
of 1135-1154. After Stephen's forces overran the castle, all the defenders of the castle were hanged. In the novel, the body of a murdered man is slipped in among the bodies of the executed defenders; hence, there is one corpse too many.
is besieging rebels loyal to Empress Matilda
in Shrewsbury Castle
. Across the river from the castle, Brother Cadfael is toiling alone in the vegetable and herb gardens belonging to Shrewsbury Abbey
, the war having robbed him of his usual helpers. He welcomes the assistance of a young man called Godric, who has been brought to the Abbey by his "aunt" as a lay servant and potential novice. Cadfael is a practical man, a former soldier and sailor who became a monk only in middle age, and soon recognises that "Godric" is actually a girl. Chagrined at being discovered so soon, she admits that she is actually Godith Adeney, daughter of Fulke Adeney, one of the rebel ringleaders inside the castle. Cadfael agrees to keep her secret, and allows her to sleep inside his workshop, away from the other novices.
The day before Stephen launches his final assault on the castle, two people enter his camp to pledge their loyalty. The lady Aline Siward is welcomed, even though her elder brother, Giles, last heard of in France, has declared for the Empress. The young nobleman Hugh Beringar is treated with more reserve, as he was formerly an associate of the rebel ringleaders, and was even betrothed as a child to Godith. As a token of his loyalty, he is instructed to find Godith and deliver her to the King. Beringar has an eye for Aline, but she accepts one of Stephen's officers, Adam Courcelle, as her escort to shelter in the Abbey.
The King storms the castle, but the ringleaders FitzAlan and Adeney escape. Infuriated, King Stephen orders the ninety-four survivors of the garrison to be hanged, at the urging of Courcelle. Abbot
Heribert of Shrewsbury Abbey is appalled at the spectacle and asks the King that the executed men be given Christian burial. Stephen assents, and Heribert delegates the task to Cadfael.
The next morning, Cadfael and his helpers collect and lay out the bodies. Counting them, Cadfael realises that there are not ninety-four bodies, but ninety-five, the titular one corpse too many. The extra body is a man who was not hanged, but strangled from behind with a garrotte. Cadfael reports the discrepancy to Stephen's newly appointed Sheriff
Gilbert Prescote, who reluctantly announces it to the town, asking if anyone can identify the unknown man. Aline views the body but does not recognise him, but is horrified to find the body of her brother Giles among the other dead. Courcelle seems equally horrified. As she gathers Giles's possessions, Aline notes that a dagger, a family heirloom, has been stolen from Giles's body.
The King summons Heribert and Cadfael. He is impatient to move on, but he is stung by Cadfael's suggestion that a common murderer used his crude act of justice for cover, and allows Cadfael four days to uncover the truth.
Godith identifies the murdered man as Nicholas Faintree, a squire of the rebel leader FitzAlan. At her suggestion, Cadfael visits her old nurse, Petronella Flesher, and her husband Edric, the town butcher, to reassure them of Godith's safety. They tell him that just before the castle fell, FitzAlan ordered Faintree and another squire named Torold Blund to slip out of the castle and get his treasury to safety. Flesher led them to the treasury's hiding place in a barn in the suburb of Frankwell. The Fleshers believe that the apparently personable Blund must have murdered Faintree to steal the treasure. They warn Cadfael that Beringar has been asking after Godith, and has also probably learned of the treasury's disappearance through eavesdropping.
Cadfael goes to the barn in Frankwell and discovers the jewelled pommel of a dagger, broken off in a struggle and trampled into the floor. Aline identifies it as belonging to the dagger stolen from Giles.
The next day, while Godith is working in the fields with the other novices, she discovers a wounded man hiding in an old mill near the river. Cadfael treats his injuries, and the man admits that he is Torold Blund. As Cadfael and Godith walk back to the Abbey, they are joined by Beringar, who drops alarming hints that he knows who "Godric" is, while seemingly making casual conversation. At Vespers
, however, he seems to lose interest while paying attention to Aline Siward.
Cadfael sends Godith with food and medicine to Torold, who is much recovered and tests his strength in a wrestling match with Godith, thus discovering that she is a girl. By the time Cadfael reaches them, they are in each others' confidence. Torold relates how he and Faintree tried to escape with Fitzalan's treasure but Faintree's horse was lamed by a caltrop
, planted on a track by someone who knew in advance the route they would take. Faintree waited at the barn in Frankwell while Blund found a fresh horse. When Blund returned, he found Faintree, dead, and was attacked from behind by an unknown strangler. Blund fought off his attacker and fled. He hid the treasure under the bridge near the castle but was then pursued by the King's men and forced to jump into the river. Cadfael is neutral in the quarrel between King and Empress, but agrees to help Godith and Torold escape to Wales
with the treasure.
Knowing that the King is about to commandeer horses for his army, Beringar asks Cadfael if there is a hiding place where he can conceal his two most valuable mounts. Cadfael decides to take advantage of the offer and takes the horses to a grange belonging to the Abbey, south of Shrewsbury. The next night, he recovers the treasure from the river and carries it to the grange, aware that Beringar is watching him.
To Cadfael's alarm, Sheriff Prescote raids the Abbey earlier than he had expected, to confiscate horses and to search for Godith. Cadfael's workshop is empty, to Cadfael's bewilderment, but Aline Siward tells him that Godith hid in her quarters at the first sign of trouble. (Though she is formally on Stephen's side, Aline has no interest in helping his men catch a young girl). Torold has also been forced to flee from the mill. He is convinced that Beringar saw him, but merely observed and did not raise the alarm.
That night, Cadfael meets Torold and Godith at the grange, to depart for Wales on Beringar's horses with the treasure, but Beringar appears with a pair of archer
s and tells them to surrender. However, Beringar's intentions are honourable; he has planned all along to let Godith escape to safety while securing the treasure, which he considers fair game, for the King. With his blessing, Godith and Torold depart for Wales on his horses. Hugh wryly comments that "she won't come to her father a virgin." Cadfael rejoins that she will likely come to her father a wife.
Cadfael and Beringar walk good-naturedly back to the Abbey, with Beringar carrying the saddlebags with FitzAlan's treasure. On reaching Cadfael's workshop, he is stunned to find them filled with stones; with a little sleight of hand, Cadfael had retrieved the treasure out of Beringar's sight, and left it in a convenient spot for Godith and Torold to pick up on their way. Beringar laughs at himself for being fooled, but is mystified that the saddlebags also contain Faintree's old clothes and the dagger pommel. It was a trap, but Cadfael is now satisfied that Beringar had no part in Faintree's murder. The two decide to cooperate to determine the truth.
While Beringar searches among King Stephen's soldiers for Giles Siward's dagger, Cadfael goes into Shrewsbury and encounters a beggar, Lame Osbern, who is wearing Giles Siward's cloak, a charitable gift from Aline. Osbern relates that on the night before the final assault on the castle, a man wearing the same cloak slipped into the Royal encampment and asked to see the King. Instead, he was taken to the officer of the watch, and returned to the castle, much relieved. Beringar, meanwhile, has not found the dagger, but has heard that when the garrison were hanged, a young officer was deliberately selected to die first, and was dragged to his death screaming that he had been promised his life.
Cadfael and Beringer are certain that the night before the castle fell, Giles Siward slipped into the siege camp and betrayed FitzAlan's plan to remove his treasury, to the officer of the watch - Courcelle - in exchange for his life. Courcelle, rather than reporting the matter to the King, arranged for Giles to be hanged first, and then laid a trap for Faintree and Blund, hoping to take the treasure for himself. It was also Courcelle who robbed the dagger from Giles's corpse, and was wearing it when he fought with Blund in the barn, where it was broken. When he realised that the man he had betrayed was Aline's brother, he presumably discarded the dagger rather than let her see it.
Cadfael's and Hugh's last chance to present their evidence against Courcelle is during the banquet at the castle on the King's final night in Shrewsbury, even though they lack Giles's dagger. Cadfael attends the feast, to wait on Heribert. He goes into the kitchens to fetch wine, and finds a boy cutting vegetables with a fine dagger missing its pommel.
While Cadfael is in the kitchens, Beringar accuses Courcelle in front of the King of the murder of Faintree and the theft of the dagger. Courcelle is scornful and defiant but Cadfael produces the kitchen boy, who unhesitatingly points out Courcelle as the man who threw the dagger into the river. The King himself determines that it matches the pommel stone, and Aline identifies it as belonging to Giles. The King is impatient to move on and cannot spare the time for a proper trial. He and Courcelle accept Beringar's suggestion that the matter be settled by trial by combat
.
Beringar and Courcelle fight outside the town the next day, watched by a large crowd, including Aline who has realised that Hugh Beringar is the worthier suitor. They are evenly matched and the contest lasts for some hours. Towards the end of the day, Courcelle's sword breaks, but Hugh chivalrously discards his own and the two fight on with daggers. At the last minute, Courcelle throws his dagger aside and snatches up Hugh's sword to make the kill, but Hugh throws himself at him in a desperate attack. Courcelle lands on his own dagger blade and dies, proving to all witnesses that Hugh has justice upon his side.
With Beringar clearly vindicated by fate, King Stephen appoints him Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire in Courcelle's place. He and Aline are betrothed. Cadfael, who by now is also his firm friend, gives him Giles's dagger, which has been restored by craftsmen at the Abbey, and urges that he never let Aline know the truth of her brother's betrayal and death.
Cadfael concludes by resolving to pray both for Nicholas Faintree, "a clean young man of mind and life", and for Adam Courcelle, "dead in his guilt", because "every untimely death, every man cut down in his vigour and strength without time for repentance and reparation, is one corpse too many."
as the sleuthing monk. The series was filmed mostly in Hungary. The adaptation for One Corpse Too Many stuck closely to the original novel, with only minor plot or script deviations to cater for the different medium.
The book was also adapted for BBC Radio 4, starring Glyn Houston
as Brother Cadfael. It has several times been rebroadcast on BBC Radio 7.
1979 in literature
The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C...
. It was adapted for television in 1994
1994 in television
The year 1994 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1994.For the American TV schedule, see: 1994-95 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
by Central
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. Although it was the first novel in the Brother Cadfael series to be written, it was the second to be published, as the events of A Morbid Taste for Bones take place first, chronologically.
Explanation of the title
The story is set during an actual historical event - the siege of Shrewsbury CastleShrewsbury Castle
Shrewsbury Castle is a red sandstone castle in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It stands on a hill in the neck of the meander of the River Severn on which the town originally developed. The castle is situated directly above Shrewsbury railway station....
by King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
during the English civil war
The Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
of 1135-1154. After Stephen's forces overran the castle, all the defenders of the castle were hanged. In the novel, the body of a murdered man is slipped in among the bodies of the executed defenders; hence, there is one corpse too many.
Plot summary
In the summer of 1138, King StephenStephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
is besieging rebels loyal to Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
in Shrewsbury Castle
Shrewsbury Castle
Shrewsbury Castle is a red sandstone castle in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It stands on a hill in the neck of the meander of the River Severn on which the town originally developed. The castle is situated directly above Shrewsbury railway station....
. Across the river from the castle, Brother Cadfael is toiling alone in the vegetable and herb gardens belonging to Shrewsbury Abbey
Shrewsbury Abbey
The Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey, was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1083 by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England.-Background:...
, the war having robbed him of his usual helpers. He welcomes the assistance of a young man called Godric, who has been brought to the Abbey by his "aunt" as a lay servant and potential novice. Cadfael is a practical man, a former soldier and sailor who became a monk only in middle age, and soon recognises that "Godric" is actually a girl. Chagrined at being discovered so soon, she admits that she is actually Godith Adeney, daughter of Fulke Adeney, one of the rebel ringleaders inside the castle. Cadfael agrees to keep her secret, and allows her to sleep inside his workshop, away from the other novices.
The day before Stephen launches his final assault on the castle, two people enter his camp to pledge their loyalty. The lady Aline Siward is welcomed, even though her elder brother, Giles, last heard of in France, has declared for the Empress. The young nobleman Hugh Beringar is treated with more reserve, as he was formerly an associate of the rebel ringleaders, and was even betrothed as a child to Godith. As a token of his loyalty, he is instructed to find Godith and deliver her to the King. Beringar has an eye for Aline, but she accepts one of Stephen's officers, Adam Courcelle, as her escort to shelter in the Abbey.
The King storms the castle, but the ringleaders FitzAlan and Adeney escape. Infuriated, King Stephen orders the ninety-four survivors of the garrison to be hanged, at the urging of Courcelle. Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
Heribert of Shrewsbury Abbey is appalled at the spectacle and asks the King that the executed men be given Christian burial. Stephen assents, and Heribert delegates the task to Cadfael.
The next morning, Cadfael and his helpers collect and lay out the bodies. Counting them, Cadfael realises that there are not ninety-four bodies, but ninety-five, the titular one corpse too many. The extra body is a man who was not hanged, but strangled from behind with a garrotte. Cadfael reports the discrepancy to Stephen's newly appointed Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Gilbert Prescote, who reluctantly announces it to the town, asking if anyone can identify the unknown man. Aline views the body but does not recognise him, but is horrified to find the body of her brother Giles among the other dead. Courcelle seems equally horrified. As she gathers Giles's possessions, Aline notes that a dagger, a family heirloom, has been stolen from Giles's body.
The King summons Heribert and Cadfael. He is impatient to move on, but he is stung by Cadfael's suggestion that a common murderer used his crude act of justice for cover, and allows Cadfael four days to uncover the truth.
Godith identifies the murdered man as Nicholas Faintree, a squire of the rebel leader FitzAlan. At her suggestion, Cadfael visits her old nurse, Petronella Flesher, and her husband Edric, the town butcher, to reassure them of Godith's safety. They tell him that just before the castle fell, FitzAlan ordered Faintree and another squire named Torold Blund to slip out of the castle and get his treasury to safety. Flesher led them to the treasury's hiding place in a barn in the suburb of Frankwell. The Fleshers believe that the apparently personable Blund must have murdered Faintree to steal the treasure. They warn Cadfael that Beringar has been asking after Godith, and has also probably learned of the treasury's disappearance through eavesdropping.
Cadfael goes to the barn in Frankwell and discovers the jewelled pommel of a dagger, broken off in a struggle and trampled into the floor. Aline identifies it as belonging to the dagger stolen from Giles.
The next day, while Godith is working in the fields with the other novices, she discovers a wounded man hiding in an old mill near the river. Cadfael treats his injuries, and the man admits that he is Torold Blund. As Cadfael and Godith walk back to the Abbey, they are joined by Beringar, who drops alarming hints that he knows who "Godric" is, while seemingly making casual conversation. At Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
, however, he seems to lose interest while paying attention to Aline Siward.
Cadfael sends Godith with food and medicine to Torold, who is much recovered and tests his strength in a wrestling match with Godith, thus discovering that she is a girl. By the time Cadfael reaches them, they are in each others' confidence. Torold relates how he and Faintree tried to escape with Fitzalan's treasure but Faintree's horse was lamed by a caltrop
Caltrop
A caltrop is an antipersonnel weapon made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base...
, planted on a track by someone who knew in advance the route they would take. Faintree waited at the barn in Frankwell while Blund found a fresh horse. When Blund returned, he found Faintree, dead, and was attacked from behind by an unknown strangler. Blund fought off his attacker and fled. He hid the treasure under the bridge near the castle but was then pursued by the King's men and forced to jump into the river. Cadfael is neutral in the quarrel between King and Empress, but agrees to help Godith and Torold escape to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
with the treasure.
Knowing that the King is about to commandeer horses for his army, Beringar asks Cadfael if there is a hiding place where he can conceal his two most valuable mounts. Cadfael decides to take advantage of the offer and takes the horses to a grange belonging to the Abbey, south of Shrewsbury. The next night, he recovers the treasure from the river and carries it to the grange, aware that Beringar is watching him.
To Cadfael's alarm, Sheriff Prescote raids the Abbey earlier than he had expected, to confiscate horses and to search for Godith. Cadfael's workshop is empty, to Cadfael's bewilderment, but Aline Siward tells him that Godith hid in her quarters at the first sign of trouble. (Though she is formally on Stephen's side, Aline has no interest in helping his men catch a young girl). Torold has also been forced to flee from the mill. He is convinced that Beringar saw him, but merely observed and did not raise the alarm.
That night, Cadfael meets Torold and Godith at the grange, to depart for Wales on Beringar's horses with the treasure, but Beringar appears with a pair of archer
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
s and tells them to surrender. However, Beringar's intentions are honourable; he has planned all along to let Godith escape to safety while securing the treasure, which he considers fair game, for the King. With his blessing, Godith and Torold depart for Wales on his horses. Hugh wryly comments that "she won't come to her father a virgin." Cadfael rejoins that she will likely come to her father a wife.
Cadfael and Beringar walk good-naturedly back to the Abbey, with Beringar carrying the saddlebags with FitzAlan's treasure. On reaching Cadfael's workshop, he is stunned to find them filled with stones; with a little sleight of hand, Cadfael had retrieved the treasure out of Beringar's sight, and left it in a convenient spot for Godith and Torold to pick up on their way. Beringar laughs at himself for being fooled, but is mystified that the saddlebags also contain Faintree's old clothes and the dagger pommel. It was a trap, but Cadfael is now satisfied that Beringar had no part in Faintree's murder. The two decide to cooperate to determine the truth.
While Beringar searches among King Stephen's soldiers for Giles Siward's dagger, Cadfael goes into Shrewsbury and encounters a beggar, Lame Osbern, who is wearing Giles Siward's cloak, a charitable gift from Aline. Osbern relates that on the night before the final assault on the castle, a man wearing the same cloak slipped into the Royal encampment and asked to see the King. Instead, he was taken to the officer of the watch, and returned to the castle, much relieved. Beringar, meanwhile, has not found the dagger, but has heard that when the garrison were hanged, a young officer was deliberately selected to die first, and was dragged to his death screaming that he had been promised his life.
Cadfael and Beringer are certain that the night before the castle fell, Giles Siward slipped into the siege camp and betrayed FitzAlan's plan to remove his treasury, to the officer of the watch - Courcelle - in exchange for his life. Courcelle, rather than reporting the matter to the King, arranged for Giles to be hanged first, and then laid a trap for Faintree and Blund, hoping to take the treasure for himself. It was also Courcelle who robbed the dagger from Giles's corpse, and was wearing it when he fought with Blund in the barn, where it was broken. When he realised that the man he had betrayed was Aline's brother, he presumably discarded the dagger rather than let her see it.
Cadfael's and Hugh's last chance to present their evidence against Courcelle is during the banquet at the castle on the King's final night in Shrewsbury, even though they lack Giles's dagger. Cadfael attends the feast, to wait on Heribert. He goes into the kitchens to fetch wine, and finds a boy cutting vegetables with a fine dagger missing its pommel.
While Cadfael is in the kitchens, Beringar accuses Courcelle in front of the King of the murder of Faintree and the theft of the dagger. Courcelle is scornful and defiant but Cadfael produces the kitchen boy, who unhesitatingly points out Courcelle as the man who threw the dagger into the river. The King himself determines that it matches the pommel stone, and Aline identifies it as belonging to Giles. The King is impatient to move on and cannot spare the time for a proper trial. He and Courcelle accept Beringar's suggestion that the matter be settled by trial by combat
Trial by combat
Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
.
Beringar and Courcelle fight outside the town the next day, watched by a large crowd, including Aline who has realised that Hugh Beringar is the worthier suitor. They are evenly matched and the contest lasts for some hours. Towards the end of the day, Courcelle's sword breaks, but Hugh chivalrously discards his own and the two fight on with daggers. At the last minute, Courcelle throws his dagger aside and snatches up Hugh's sword to make the kill, but Hugh throws himself at him in a desperate attack. Courcelle lands on his own dagger blade and dies, proving to all witnesses that Hugh has justice upon his side.
With Beringar clearly vindicated by fate, King Stephen appoints him Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire in Courcelle's place. He and Aline are betrothed. Cadfael, who by now is also his firm friend, gives him Giles's dagger, which has been restored by craftsmen at the Abbey, and urges that he never let Aline know the truth of her brother's betrayal and death.
Cadfael concludes by resolving to pray both for Nicholas Faintree, "a clean young man of mind and life", and for Adam Courcelle, "dead in his guilt", because "every untimely death, every man cut down in his vigour and strength without time for repentance and reparation, is one corpse too many."
Historical references
King Stephen, William Fitz-Alan, Abbot Heribert, and Prior Robert Pennant are all real people. Although he was King Stephen's sheriff, Fitz-Alan did go over the Empress Matilda and held Shrewsbury Castle in her name, and as noted above, Stephen hanged all the defenders of the castle after taking it.Television and radio adaptation
One Corpse Too Many was the first Cadfael book to be adapted for television by Carlton Media for distribution world wide, in 1994. The "Cadfael" series eventually extended to thirteen episodes, all of which starred Sir Derek JacobiDerek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
as the sleuthing monk. The series was filmed mostly in Hungary. The adaptation for One Corpse Too Many stuck closely to the original novel, with only minor plot or script deviations to cater for the different medium.
The book was also adapted for BBC Radio 4, starring Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston
Glyn Houston , is an actor best known for his television work. He is the brother of the late film actor Donald Houston.-Early life:...
as Brother Cadfael. It has several times been rebroadcast on BBC Radio 7.