Van der Valk's tragic past and death of wife as new romance blossoms in series 4
The Dutch detective has found love again
Van Der Valk returns to our screens with series 4 and, this time, Piet is forced to confront the tragedy of his wife’s death as a face from the past turns up.
In episode 1 of the latest series, Dutch detective Piet van der Valk is called to investigate when a man-turned-whistleblower is murdered ahead of an important trial. It’s a tough situation, made worse by the fact that the police officer who was supposed to be protecting the key witness is an old flame of Piet’s.
And it’s safe to say that there’s no love lost between Piet and former fling Kalie Tenkers. In fact, the pair are positively hostile towards each other. As they bicker, Kalie questions why Piet finds it so difficult to trust anyone…
But anyone who knows Piet Van der Valk’s history will know the man has a tragic backstory. The widower is still grieving his dead wife. But what happened to her?
***Warning: possible spoilers from Van Der Valk series 1 to 3 ahead***
What happened to Piet Van der Valk’s wife?
Dutch detective Piet Van der Valk is a widower whose tragic past is always in the background of his present. His wife Arlette DID feature in the original series, which ran from 1972 to 1992, and starred Barry Foster. In fact, three different actresses played her across the long-running series. The writers of the current reboot decided not to include the character apart from in flashbacks, portrayed by Wendy Vrijenhoek.
However, series 1 began shortly after the tragedy that befell the couple. Piet’s wife, Arlette, died during a high-speed car chase when their vehicle was rammed by corrupt former police chief Theunis Visser, Van der Valk’s old boss and mentor. Her shocking death was revealed through flashbacks at the end of the first season.
Viewers discovered that Piet Van der Valk and wife Arlette were caught in a high-speed car chase in which their car was rammed off the road. The vehicle subsequently flipped over, with Arlette drowning after being thrown into the water. The same accident left Chief Julia Dahlman injured.
Arlette’s fate was a major departure from the original novels by Nicolas Freeling, where Piet was actually killed off first and Arlette went on to star as the main character in subsequent books.
The first two seasons of Van der Valk focused on solving Arlette’s death. Now a widower, Piet has led a solitary life for years, living alone on a vintage sloop boat docked in the Amsterdam harbour. That was until series 2, when Loes Haverkort was introduced as new love interest Lena.
Who is Piet’s new girlfriend Lena?
After their initial attraction, Lena decided to leave Piet to marry someone else. However, she returned in series 3, revealing she never actually went through with the marriage.
At the end of series 3, after facing a life-threatening crisis together, both Lena and Piet agree to give their relationship a second chance. Series 4 sees the couple quite settled together.
Talking about his character’s relationship, Marc Warren told us: “Loes Haverkort plays my girlfriend, Lena. I’ve always loved every scene I’ve done with her. She’s such a fantastic actress, and she’s fun. They are all always lovely scenes to do, and shooting on Spartacus, Piet’s boat, is always nice.”
He added: “The only thing is we’re settled and happy so there’s not so much drama. The drama obviously comes when things are going wrong or when she was leaving me to marry somebody else. This series we do have one of my old flames who turns up, Kalie Tenkers, played by Kim Riedle, which is interesting. Because there’s a lot of animosity between their characters.”
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