Mark, you first tip a British police series that takes place in Amsterdam.
‘That’s right, a modern version of the British police series has been made Van der Valk, which revolves around detective Piet van der Valk. The series is based on a series of 1960s novels by Nicolas Freeling. This British writer was a chef before he started writing. After stealing veal from an Amsterdam restaurant kitchen, he is said to have spent a night in an Amsterdam police cell, and came into contact with a certain Amsterdam detective. This is how the stories around the figure Piet van der Valk arose.
‘After previous Van der Valkseries in the seventies and nineties, NPO Plus is now broadcasting the second season of the latest remake. Like the previous series, it is set in Amsterdam. The main roles are played by British actors, but supporting roles are played by well-known Dutch faces, such as Hadewych Minis and Marcel Hensema.
‘It is especially nice for Dutch viewers to see how Amsterdam is portrayed from an international perspective. Compared to the series from the seventies, the city has become a lot more cosmopolitan; the canals, the red light district and the Westertoren have been exchanged for the urban area around the IJ, with a view of the A’dam tower, the water and the ferry to Noord.
‘What is funny about such international series: someone runs into a bicycle tunnel and ends up in a completely different neighbourhood. That makes little difference to most viewers. Although in the plots of the episodes the image that the foreigners have of Amsterdam but does not want to wear off – we see a wealthy family of diamond traders or a hippie-like commune on the outskirts of the city – I think this is a pleasant series that is well made .’
Which series still stands out?
†The Gilded Agefrom the man who also Downton Abbey wrote, Julian Fellowes. This series will appear on HBO Max next Tuesday, on the day this new streaming platform is rolled out in the Netherlands. ‘The Gilded Age’ refers to a period in the late 19th century when families with ‘new money’, earned from oil and railroads, for example, arrived in New York and encountered the disapproval of age-old families with ‘old’, chic money.
We mainly follow ‘new money’ wife Bertha Russell, played by the great actress Carrie Coon. She desperately wants to join New York high society, but within that high society there is so much disdain for little as there is for the new money—for families seen as vulgar and with no family tree to command respect.
‘This contrast is magnified in the decor: the houses of families with old money are often smaller and are full of art, while the new families build palatial, emptier houses. There is also a big role for Christine Baranski, along with Coon one of the best actresses of recent years. She plays a proud and stubborn lady with old money. I can really look forward to such a high-quality actor fight.’