Huge ITV1 drama’s cast attacked while filming in village that ‘hated’ them being there
MARC Warren and Maimie McCoy upset locals while filming the brand new series of Van Der Valk.
Many people would be excited to find a crew shooting an internationally renowned crime drama in their village, but that definitely wasn’t the case when the cast filmed scenes for the new series of Van Der Valk in a quiet region in the Netherlands.
Maimie McCoy, 44, who plays feisty detective Lucienne in the rebooted crime series spoke of the disruption with the locals.
The actress told The Sun’s TV Mag: “We filmed in this gorgeous little village with just one through road – and the villagers hated us being there!”
“They would be stuck in traffic trying to get through and beep their horns, so you’d be trying to do a scene and there’d be these consistent horns blaring, and shouting.
It would be like: ‘Get lost! Get out of our place.’
“One of the caravans we were staying in, which belonged to a location guy, got vandalised.
“Some woman was really annoyed that we were there, so they smashed in the back window overnight. Sometimes people get very excited about film crews but it was the opposite there.”
“They’re people in a small village,” says Marc Warren, 56, who stars as legendary cop Piet Van Der Valk.
“They just want to get to work and you’ve got a film crew there filming for four days. People just want to get on with their lives. Never let a crew film in your village – or in your house! I would never let a film crew in the house.”
Both Marc and Maimie had a much more straightforward time in Amsterdam, where the majority of the show’s cases are set – though Marc isn’t a huge fan of the bikes.
“Cycling along, there is a tremendous sense of freedom, but I do struggle on the bikes.
“They decided this year to give me one where you have to back-peddle to stop, and unless you’re used to that, it’s really hard to do,” he admits.
“They’re all bombing along on these bikes and I thought: ‘I’m going to end up in the river! You’ve got to get me some brakes because this is too dangerous.’”
So how did Marc unwind after the stress of that? Well, just like his character Piet does…
“I play chess every day,” he says. “I have done for a long time, over 10 years. I’m always playing chess – and I’m no good at all!”