S.o.t.D. - Eye Level – Simon Park Orchestra

Eye Level – Simon Park Orchestra

I discovered a DVD at the library of a TV series I had never heard of before. Van Der Valk, about a police detective in Amsterdam. (Odd to see British actors playing Dutch characters, but mercifully they don’t try to imitate Dutch people speaking English.) It’s more of a character study, very tame compared to similar shows today, and the endings are often untidy and ambiguous. Rather enjoyed the two DVDs (after watching the first, I checked and signed out the second), which were the 1972 and 1973 seasons. I enjoyed it partially because of the scenes of the city of my birth from the time I remember it.

Also amusing to see police smoking cigars, keeping bottles of beer in their offices, and saying things like “Hey we have 20 minutes. Let’s go next door and have a couple of drinks.” and stopping off at a cafe in the midst of their day to have a gin and a beer to wash it down with.

Anyway, this is the catchy theme song to the show, which I gather was a number 1 hit in England for a few weeks when the show came out.