Van der Valk

The unofficial headquarters of the Van der Valk team is Cliff Palache's bar, the 118-year-old Café Scheltema. Once a home to generations of Dutch journalists — in an era when it was known as the Fleet Street of the Netherlands — it is one of Amsterdam's famous 'bruin cafés' and can be found at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 242.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Spartacus, Van der Valk's former fishing trawler home, is in reality available for rent.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Production on the second series was delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Filming, originally planned to begin in May 2020, did not start until June 2021. COVID travel restrictions left many cast and crew members stranded in Amsterdam, where most of the guesthouses were still closed; as a result, they socialised far more than on an ordinary shoot.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Van der Valk is seen wearing G-Star jeans, a brand founded in Amsterdam in 1989.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

In the first two series, each episode ran about 90 minutes, but in the third series each episode ran two hours. In addition, many stations in America broadcast the third series as six episodes of roughly 45 minutes each.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Uniformed police officers are mostly played as extras by real policemen and women. They are not paid and must bring their own uniforms and equipment. This is considered an honour.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Marc Warren (Piet Van der Valk) and Emma Fielding (Julia Dahlman) both appeared in Poirot (1989): Warren played Meredith Blake in Five Little Pigs (2003) and Fielding played Ruth Chevenix in Dead Man's Mirror (1993).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Series creator Chris Murray described the fourth series as "the best 'Van der Valk' we've made so far… Three strong, contrasting, resolving films, packed with our unique team dynamic, but this time with the added complication of Piet's feisty ex-girlfriend turning up just as one of our team has to face their own mortality."

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

Peter van Heeringen's semi-regular character Homeless Frank does not appear in the fourth series.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Trojan is Julia Dahlman's much-loved retired detection dog, whom Piet is very fond of.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED