R2OK!

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 6791

Van Der Valk is back!

I used to watch the original so will be tuning in to watch this new version with Marc Warren as Van Der Valk.

Think I heard on the radio that Eye Level by Simon Park won't be the theme music to this new series, which is a shame really.

This three-episode reboot of the adored Dutch-cop show (on ITV for 20 years from 1972) should at least guarantee an audience of the curious. Will the theme tune be the same (no, but there’s a little piano-tinkle of the melody, just as a reminder) and does Marc Warren measure up to Barry Foster? Well… hard to say as yet.

The problem, at least with this first feature-length story, is that 21st-century Van der Valk feels generic. He works in lovely Amsterdam, but he could really be anywhere: New Malden, Hartlepool, Slough…

And Piet Van der Valk is your typical maverick – no truck with authority, a complicated personal life, too prone to flings with age-inappropriate women, lives on a boat.

In this first case, with his scruffy band of hipster sidekicks (they have team briefings in a bar!), he investigates the murders of two young left-wing political activists.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/k8zmys/van-der-valk--s1-e1-love-in-amsterdam/

The original is being shown on Talking Pictures. I recorded one the other day.

Ian Robinson · Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 12:33 pm Post subject:

I think Eye Level is used, but not in a way you'd recognise. Which is a shame - sometimes people in charge don't realise the effect famous themes can have on how people feel about a show. Russell T Davies had to fight and go over budget to get Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme on his 2005 revival but it was absolutely essential to the success. You know every comment about this Van Der Valk is going to be "where's the music?"

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 6791