This is a feature length version of Van der Valk. Just signalling to y’all that I’ll now get some brunch going, plus Sunday lunch set up. If you’re looking for some Sunday watching or listening, don’t forget the Paul Temple Gilbert Affair at UHC-WP. Cunning plan is to get back to the politics after this, then jazz … am gradually gathering snippets, kicking off with Torquaymada. But first brunch.

My “sort of review” of this episode is below the video.

Some comments on this episode and the series:

The making of a series in a continental setting reminds me of the Gambon Maigret, usually compared to the early Davies series. I also watched the Cremer in French. To my mind, the Gambon Maigret stood up well, even though it was less popular … I don’t fully understand which reason put Brit audiences off, if at all … not filmed in Paris but in Budapest, it was quite British in outlook, though it followed the Simenon books.

The cast was first rate, esp. Geoffrey Hutchings as Lucas, so what was the issue? Not exotic enough? Not authentic? With the Van der Valk, Barry Foster did well but he was hardly Dutch, naturally, the cast was right up there, esp. in this episode above. Some call it drawn out … maybe … the real baddy OTT for mine … the children’s rhyme was ok to use, there were some nice establishment shots.

Afterthoughts at 44 mins and at the end:

The print is too dark but ho hum. The plot … two plots mixed in, main and sub, both good, the theme of adopted daughter dear (Van der Valk’s), with her own daughter, hubby away on biz … the really crotchetty mother, quite offputting mother actually, VderV telling daughter we learn from out chn about life … all good, ties in with what I know is coming about nadty chn’s rhymes and how chn are not lovable darlings in the least … they just look sweet, plus the blood tie is strong.

Apart from daughter dear, the women in this episode are not nice people. The men? A mixed bunch.

Last thoughts … much better than I remember, the episode, except for the dark screen. Another theme was mother daughter aggravation, revolving around Hoffman’s children’s story of 1848, ultraviolent for children in those days. The grandmother had already muscled in on the daughter’s bringing up of the g’daughter and the daughter-mother had gone off at the g’mother.

Turns out it was related to the mainplot … it helped VderV solve the case. /END.