Face Value

Face Value sends Van der Valk into the art world, and the art world does not give up its secrets easily. A painter dies in suspicious circumstances, and a valuable collection of pictures draws the detective into a trade built on fakes. What begins as a look behind the scenes at forgery turns dangerous faster than he expects, and before long someone takes a direct run at his life.

The episode likes the idea that curiosity has a price. Van der Valk follows the thread because that is what he does, and the thread leads somewhere he would rather not have gone. The world of painted deception is small and jealous, and the people in it protect their business with more force than the subject suggests. The local knowledge he leans on matters here, because the crime is hidden inside a culture most bystanders never see. The dead painter is only the first question; everything after is a consequence of asking it.

Barry Foster is Van der Valk, with Joanna Dunham as Arlette and Nigel Stock as Samson. Denis Lill plays Roberts and Clifford Rose is De Groote. Michael Sheard appears as Ruytens, Gillian Barge as a woman and Ian Lowe as Piet Gobel. Kenton Moore is the customs officer and Anna Wing the concierge. Robert Wales and Nicolas Freeling wrote it; Mike Vardy directed.

What sets the hour apart is its subject. Art forgery is a narrow trade, but the episode gives it weight and a distinct flavour, and the attempt on Van der Valk's life raises the stakes from puzzle to survival. It is a step away from the usual Amsterdam street crime, and the change of air suits the series.

And the pleasure is in watching Foster play a man who walked into the gallery out of simple interest and found himself fighting for the door. The forgery is the mystery, but the threat is what makes him take it seriously.