In this household, we watch a lot of mystery series: U.S. (such as CSI: Miami and Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Canadian (Murdoch Mysteries and Intelligence are but two that come to mind), and U.K. (the main fare of our watching with such stellar series as Midsomer Murders and Whitechapel) alike. What we don’t generally watch are the older series done in the Sixties and Seventies, as both production and acting usually leave a lot to be desired. So I was more than a bit surprised at just how bloody good Van der Valk was!
Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the now bankrupt ITV network. (I note that because we just watched the first season of Whitechapel. The second and apparently final season is on hold because of the ITV bankruptcy.) It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris “Piet” (real name Simon) van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere (but not the plots) of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series, which I am reviewing here, was shown in 1972 which suggests it was filmed a year or so earlier.
Van der Valk is set in and around Amsterdam, where Commissaris van der Valk is a senior detective with a wife and children who are literally heard but not seen. Drugs, sex, WWII collaborators, political scandals, and, of course, murder are the primary themes of the series. But just as important to the feel of the series are the Amsterdam locations where all the exterior shots were done. (Like the various Law & Order series, a studio was used for interior shots.)
Oh, and let’s not forget the neo-trad, slightly classical theme music, which also is used for bridging the acts of each of the six 50-minute episodes in this first series – very, very tasty! This tune, ‘Eye Level’, was composed by Jack Trombey and played by the Simon Park Orchestra, and would reach number one in the UK singles charts in 1973.
There are three other primary characters – Inspecteur Johnny Kroon who is his subordinate, his superior, Hoofd-commissaris Samson, who deals with the political fallout of the cases, and Susan Travers as his wife, Arlette van der Valk.
Being set in Amsterdam gives it a very different feel from most BBC series. And consider this episode as described on the tv.com site:
A body dredged up from a canal is tentatively identified as the son of a British MP, but when she views the body she says it is not her son. Van der Valk refuses to believe this and calls on his British colleagues to help prove the boy’s identity. The boy’s face is well known in Amsterdam’s transvestite and transsexual scene and van der Valk’s inquiries there lead him deeper and deeper into a dark world of sexual depravity and exploitation involving some of the most prominent public figures in Europe. Samson of course desperately advises him to proceed with extreme caution. In the face of the mother’s refusal to co-operate van der Valk finds his best hope is to look elsewhere in the family for help.
Watch carefully and you’ll see scenes of (in that pre-AIDS time) the infamous Red Light district that defined – and still to an extent does – the Old City of Amsterdam. Likewise three episodes bear directly or indirectly upon the experience of the Dutch in the Second World War
Other than a feeling that the odd scene transitions could have been edited, I have no quibbles at all with the first series of Van der Valk, as everything including the characters, the mysteries, and the quality of the filming itself is excellent, so I am looking forward to seeing the later series as Acorn releases them.
(Thames Television, 1972; Acorn, 2009)
