PhilPaine.com

The 1994–1996 tele­vi­sion movies based on Ellis Peters’ medieval mur­der mys­ter­ies are very well done. The pro­duc­tion val­ues are mod­est, but do their job. What makes it all work is the act­ing skill of Derek Jaco­bi, who becomes the char­ac­ter so thor­ough­ly that that when I read one of the nov­els I could­n’t help but hear his voice and see his face. He has cre­at­ed one of the most lik­able char­ac­ters on tele­vi­sion. Monk’s Hood has all the ele­ments that Ellis Peters likes to play with: the inter­play of local and king­dom pol­i­tics, the ambi­gu­i­ty of the Church being both inside and out­side the soci­ety, the no-man’s-land between the Welsh and Eng­lish, and, of course, flow­ers and herbs. The monk’s hood, by the way is a par­tic­u­lar­ly pret­ty flower.