Blood on Their Hands, and Sex on Their Minds

“The Pillars of the Earth” is a mini-series in the grand manner. That doesn’t mean it’s actually grand in any way. It just means that a lot of people do a lot of things, over a long period of time, on large sets built in Europe.

Starz did not buy the American rights to “Pillars” — a German-Canadian production shot last year in Austria and Hungary with a mostly British cast — until this spring, after its series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” became a hit. That gleefully smutty show extended pay cable’s run of frequently-removed-costume dramas, following “Rome” on HBO and “The Tudors” on Showtime.

There’s plenty of sex in the eight hours of “Pillars,” which begins on Friday night, but what’s most striking is how old-fashioned the project is. A tale of tumultuous events as they play out in the lives of the mighty and the humble — who keep crossing paths, no matter how implausibly — it harks back to “Roots” and “The Winds of War” in style, if not substance.

The tumultuous events in question take place in 12th-century England during a period of civil war and church-and-state intrigue known as the Anarchy. “Pillars,” based on a thousand-page novel by Ken Follett, uses the building of the fictitious Kingsbridge Cathedral (modeled on the cathedrals of Wells and Salisbury) to tie together a story involving murdered royals, scheming clerics, master builders and shrewd businesswomen.

That may sound high-toned, but rest assured that as boiled down for television, much of what’s left are the good bits: incest, matricide, bloody self-flagellation, a weeping Madonna, sex in a dungeon, childbirth in a collapsing church and, in a particularly jaw-dropping moment, urination on a bishop.

The conduct of sex is, as always, a handy indicator of moral standing. The virtuous Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell), designer of the cathedral, engages in straightforward rolls in the hay with his proto-Wiccan soulmate, Ellen (Natalia Wörner); the evil Regan (Sarah Parish), a combination Lady Macbeth-Humbert Humbert whose disfigured face mirrors her twisted soul, spends much of the show feeling up her own son.

As befits a production involving the Scott brothers, Ridley and Tony (they helped out the Germans and Canadians), there is also a healthy portion of medieval slaughter, including several blood-spraying beheadings. Special attention seems to have been paid to the squishy sound made by a broadsword passing through entrails.

Also in classic mini-series style, “Pillars” is at pains to presage the liberal-humanist future (and not just in the resolutely modern acting styles). It seems unlikely that women and artists drove the 12th-century action to quite the extent that they do here.

As the story lines play out over several decades, it can be a little hard to keep track of who is on which side of the battle for the English throne and who we’re supposed to be rooting for at any given moment. But over all, “The Pillars of the Earth” will go down painlessly for the fan of this sort of epic; while it’s predictable and never exactly sweeping, it’s certainly eventful, and the production values are above average.

The large cast includes Donald Sutherland (who doesn’t hang around long) as an upright earl, Matthew Macfadyen as an earnest monk, and Eddie Redmayne, a Tony winner this year for “Red,” as the stonemason who sees the cathedral through to completion. As usual, though, it’s the bad guys who stand out, particularly Ian McShane as the main villain, a heartless bishop, and Ms. Parish as the lubricious Lady Regan.

Toward the end of the eight hours, as events turn against Mr. McShane’s bishop, he tells the good people of Kingsbridge, “You harbor liars, witches, sodomites and thieves!” To which the viewer can only reply: Exactly!

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH

Starz, Friday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan; written by John Pielmeier, based on a novel by Ken Follett; Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Rola Bauer, David W. Zucker, Michael Prupas, Tim Halkin, Jonas Bauer and David Rosemont, executive producers; John Ryan, producer. Produced by Tandem Communications, Muse Entertainment and Scott Free.

WITH: Ian McShane (Waleran Bigod), Donald Sutherland (Bartholomew), Rufus Sewell (Tom Builder), Eddie Redmayne (Jack Jackson), Matthew Macfadyen (Prior Philip), Alison Pill (Queen Maud), Natalia Wörner (Ellen), Sarah Parish (Regan Hamleigh), David Oakes (William Hamleigh), Hayley Atwell (Aliena), Tony Curran (King Stephen) and Sam Claflin (Richard).