The Runt

The Runt takes a small puzzle and lets it grow teeth. A petty thief Van der Valk has known and rather liked suddenly comes into money, and not the modest sort. The man now moves in circles that reach into high society, which is precisely the kind of change that ought to have a dull explanation and rarely does.

The interest here is in how the detective goes about the work. He is not free to pull the thread as hard as he might. The thief's new friends are important people, and the wrong question in the wrong room would cause embarrassment that reaches further than the crime itself. So Van der Valk moves carefully, recovering plain facts while stepping around the reputations of those nearby. The episode lingers on that restraint, and it is the restraint that makes the case feel like proper detective work rather than a raid.

Barry Foster carries it as Van der Valk, with Joanna Dunham as Arlette and Nigel Stock as Samson. Richard Pasco is Albert de Vink and Helen Ryan plays Eva Maris. Madeleine Christie appears as Helene Webber and Ken Kitson as Jan Hoffman. Maurice O'Connell is Kurt, Wilfred Grove is Josef and Robert Gillespie plays Doop. Leslie Sands and Nicolas Freeling wrote the script; Mike Vardy directed.

What stays with you is the picture of a man undone not by malice but by luck of the wrong kind. A little theft, a useful connection, and a life tips onto a different track. It is a neat inversion of the usual form, where the victim matters more than the crime. Here the offence is almost beside the point; what counts is who gets hurt if the truth comes out. Van der Valk's gift in these stories is knowing which toes not to tread on, and this one gives him a fair field to show it.

And there is a quiet pleasure in watching Foster play the patience the case demands. The answer, when it comes, is less a shock than a relief, which is its own sort of satisfaction.