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Van der Valk star Marc Warren teases "very moving" season 4 – along with "explosions" and "huge car chases"
The Van der Valk star talks Rembrandt, Robert Vaughan and turning up his performances to 11.
ITV
- James Rampton
Published: Monday, 27 July 2026 at 5:01 pm
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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
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Marc Warren, 59, has starred in dramas ranging from Oliver Twist and Hustle to State of Play and Mad Dogs, and this week returns as the streetwise detective Piet van der Valk in ITV’s Van der Valk to once again navigate canals, clogs and crooks in Amsterdam.
What do you still relish about playing Piet van der Valk?
I love the fact that they gave me the responsibility of being the leader because, deep down, you’re always just a little boy. You never feel like you’re grown up. However, I don’t think I’d be a good detective in real life. If I ever see a police car going by with its blues and twos on, I can only think how stressful that must be. If I turn up at a crime scene, there’s going to be a problem!
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How does the new fourth series differ from the previous seasons?
It feels like it’s bigger. Suddenly we have explosions and these huge car chases. But married with that, you have the intimacy of this family unit that fans have grown to love. There’s a problem within the unit because one of them is ill. It’s very moving.
The show is filmed entirely in Amsterdam. Do you have a favourite location in the city?
Filming a scene in the Rijksmuseum for series one was amazing. Being on my own, looking up at Rembrandt’s The Night Watch at midnight, I was just thinking, “How do these things happen?” Just before we shot that, they brought a guy in on a stretcher to give him a private view of the painting. It was his dying wish. An hour or two later, I was standing there alone with this masterpiece.
Why do you think we adore detective dramas so much?
Just to see what human beings are capable of. And then, of course, we like to play detective. If we’re watching one of these dramas, we immediately say, “He’s done it.” We think we’re very clever if we work it out.
Do you get approached by fans a lot?
I always assume that nobody watches my shows, so it’s a great surprise when fans approach me. I was in a café yesterday, and a young lad started talking to me. He remembered me having a fit as Monks in Oliver Twist.
He said, “I was a child when I saw that and it really stayed with me.” That was made nearly 30 years ago, and his comments really touched me. I realised that people are impacted by these dramas. Maybe I assume nobody watches my things as a safety valve. But the reality is you’re in people’s living rooms – and sometimes in their bedrooms. It’s a very strange job!
Marc Warren as Van Der Valk and Maimie McCoy as Lucienne Hassell. ITV
Do you ever get starstruck?
Definitely. Robert Vaughn, one of my co-stars on Hustle, was one of the Magnificent Seven and was also in The Man from UNCLE – how incredible is that? I called him “the Legend” on set. I absolutely loved the man. He was the most humble, quiet person and yet, if you asked him a question, he’d blow your mind. I got very close to him and his wife, and they invited me to their home in Connecticut. I went into his study there and it was like Aladdin’s cave. I’d be at his piano, and he’d say, “Judy Garland used to play on that.”
On another occasion, I was on set reading a biography of Harry Houdini. Robert saw what I was reading and said, “Oh, I bought Houdini’s house. I used to swim in the pool where he used to practise his escapology.”
Do you have any standout memories from your time on Hustle?
We shot an episode in the US with Robert Wagner as the guest star. I’ve got a picture of the artists’ chairs lined up on set. They read: Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Marc Warren. One day, we drove up to the Hollywood sign in a van. Robert Vaughn was sitting in the front, Robert Wagner was behind him, and I was behind the pair of them. I was listening to Bruce Springsteen and I just wept. I thought, “How did I end up here?” I just couldn’t get my head around it. I once said to Robert Vaughn’s wife, “I’m just a kid from Northampton.” And she replied, “We’re all just kids from somewhere.”
Have you found that the kind of roles you get offered have changed in recent years?
About 10 years ago, I cut my own showreel. If I made a showreel of the last 10 years, it would be very different. I was playing some very wacky stuff in my thirties, like Mr Jonathan Teatime in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather. I’m much more geared up to that kind of thing; it’s acting turned up to 11. I realise how fearless I was when I was younger, and there’s a lot more fear as you get older. I think it’s extraordinary to still be doing this as a job, although it’s a lot harder nowadays. A lot of great actors my age aren’t working. I know I’m very dispensable, but I’m also very grateful.
What do you hope audiences will take away from this series of Van der Valk?
I hope they’ll be gripped and moved by it. When I watch it, there are moments that genuinely touch me. There’s a little phrase of music that they often play in very poignant moments. When I hear that, as Bill Nighy said recently, the eyes freshen.
Maybe after this season, viewers will be like Oliver Twist, asking for more?
I hope so. Could you mention that to the powers that be?
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James Rampton
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