FIVE MINUTES WITH... MARC WARREN

AMSTERDAM detective Piet Van Der Valk is back for a second series of gruesome murders and intriguing mysteries in ITV crime drama Van Der Valk.

Rebooted from the 1970s original back in 2020, the gripping first series hooked old fans and new into the life and work of Piet with Marc Warren, 55, playing the titular detective. So what was it like to come back to the role, and what’s in store for Van Der Valk this series?

MARC, WHERE DO WE FIND PIET THIS SERIES?

Well, he’s single, but his opening scene sees him suddenly getting a bit of love in his life. He’s getting hit on by a couple of women, and then gets rescued by another woman. This turns out to be a character, Lena, that will run throughout the next three episodes, and possibly more... I think he’s quite closed, so he’s a bit impenetrable.

I think Lucienne (played by Maimie McCoy) is always trying to open him up. He has great respect for Lucienne. I think he regards her as his only friend, really.

WE ALSO SEE HIM BECOME A BIT MORE UNDERSTANDING OF HIS TEAM...

At the end of the last series, of course, Cloovers saved my life. So, at the start of this series, we have to see what the repercussions are for him. I was cold to him in the first series, so there’s definitely a warming up in this series.

(Cloover’s actor) Elliot Barnes-Worrell and I have a couple of really lovely scenes - when you’re doing something that’s more procedural like a detective show, to then do something a bit more human and emotional is really lovely.

YOU FILMED ON LOCATION IN AMSTERDAM DURING THE PANDEMIC - HOW WAS THAT?

We all came straight from lockdown in the UK, so our first experience was getting over there, which is trickier, and all the protocol you have to go through.

And then we had to do five days’ isolation at a hotel, where we couldn’t see each other. And when we came out of that, we all met like long-lost friends.

I think we were all quite fragile, really, as everybody has been when they’ve been through that much isolation. I certainly was, and we all helped each other through it. But one of the things that was striking

DID ANYTHING CRAZY HAPPEN ON SET? RUNNING AROUND THE CITY WITH GUNS AND SIRENS MUST BE EXCITING.

We don’t really get to fire them, although Maimie and I both do fire them this series...

In the last episode, Maimie and I had to drive through Dam Square at its most packed in the Cherokee, both wearing bulletproof vests - I don’t think we had our guns on us, but we had the flashing lights on. Somebody had not told the local police that we were doing that, and we got pulled over!

SO DOES IT FEEL LIKE A BIT OF A DEPARTURE FOR YOU, THIS MORE HEROIC ROLE?

It’s much more minimal - I tended to play quite largerthan-life characters who were a bit flash, and this is a very different proposition. You know, with the amount of screen time I have in this, if I employed the approach that I had for the other characters, it would wear very thin, I think, very rapidly.

I noticed the longer I do it, I seem to get moodier! I could just feel that.