Who Is Van Der Valk? Meet Masterpiece's Newest Detective

After the final season of Poldark last year, Masterpiece's fall season again kicks off with a reboot of a 1970s era series. Based on the Nicolas Freeling novels, Van Der Valk is a mystery series set in present-day Amsterdam, following the adventures of Dutch Detective Commissaris Piet Van der Valk. The new series, starring Marc Warren (Beecham House), begins a three-episode run on Sunday, Sept. 13, and airs through to the end of the month.

PBS viewers have almost certainly heard of Van Der Valk. The series was one of the more popular mysteries produced by Thames Television, and the theme song at the time became a Top of the Pops hit. It shot actor Barry Foster, who played the titular detective, to fame. But it also has sort of an awkward history. The original program, which ran two seasons from 1972-1973, starred Foster alongside Michael Latimer as his secondary, Inspecteur Johnny Kroon, and Susan Travers as his glamorous wife, Arlette. The mysteries followed the novels in starting with Piet and Arlette happy at home until duty called, and a new case was afoot.

But it was only booked for the two runs of episodes, about six or seven installments apiece. When the show proved so popular, Thames wanted to revive it, but only Foster was willing to return, forcing the show to recast just about everyone else for a single run of 12 episodes in 1977. The show then disappeared for nearly 20 years, before it was revived once more, in 1991. Once again, Foster was the only original actor to return to the series, causing the show to recast just about the entire thing from top to bottom for the final two, much shorter, seasons.

Considering this on-again-off-again, one might argue this is technically Van Der Valk's fourth revival in forty years. It's also the show's first run on Masterpiece; though the Van Der Valk series has been available on DVD via Acorn since the 1990s revival, it never aired on PBS' flagship program until now.