Mark Warren says there is no indication Van der Valk will return for season 5, even after the crime drama came back to ITV1 on Sunday 2 August for its fourth outing. That leaves the series with a live audience question at the exact moment it has returned to the schedule.
More than three years passed between the previous instalment and this run, and Warren said the show has always had good viewing figures and has always been very well received. He added that he would love to do more of it because it is a treat, which is a sharper read on the situation than any routine renewal line.
Marc Warren on ITV1 return
“The show has always been a co-production. It has some money from America and Germany and the Netherlands and ITV, and each broadcaster broadcasts when they broadcast,” Warren said. That model helps explain why the fourth outing reached ITV1 only after the States had already had it 22 months earlier.
Warren also said, “I can't imagine another job like this coming along. So when it's gone, it's gone – and I'm not ready for it to go.” He described the latest season as “absolutely the best” and said it felt like “a bigger show, like a more expensive show.”
Chris Murray and season 4
Chris Murray described the latest episodes as the best they have done so far, while Warren said the production had “huge car scenes with incredible vehicles and explosions.” The scale is part of the appeal, but it also raises the stakes for the current run: if this is the strongest version yet, season 4 is carrying more weight than a standard return.
Warren pushed the same point further, saying, “And I think people, when they finish this series, will want to know what's going on because there is something quite obviously going on. They'll want a resolution to it, which is why we need to do season 5.” That is the practical problem for viewers now: the episodes are on air, the story is active, and the next chapter has not been mapped out.
Lucienne Hassell and Nettie Haak
Maimie McCoy, who plays Inspector Lucienne Hassell, said “the family unit is increasingly under threat” and that “there's a sense of time running out in the last episode.” She also said Maartje Van De Wetering “had this extraordinary presence” and described Nettie Haak as “kind of like a Bond villain.”
For now, that leaves Van der Valk in a familiar industry position: a returning series with good viewing figures, a strong response, and no path yet set out beyond season 4. If ITV and the co-production partners want to keep the momentum, the unresolved finish inside this run is where the answer will have to come from.
