Van Der Valk star opens up on filming challenge ‘I questioned whether it was doable’

Van der Valk: Maimie McCoy recalls struggle with travel restrictions

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Van Der Valk has been airing on ITV and the detective drama is set and filmed in picturesque Amsterdam. The second season was filmed in the midst of the pandemic and travel restrictions took their toll on the cast. Lucienne star Maimie McCoy spoke to Express.co.uk about the hardest part of filming.

Van Der Valk has seen Lucienne and the title character (played by Marc Warren) face more personal challenges this year.

Lucienne is haunted by some ghosts from her past and it brings out a different side to her personality.

Actress Maimie McCoy also faced some personal challenges whilst filming the second season during unprecedented times.

With many parts of the world still in some form of lockdown, she opened up about the fact she could not return to the UK to see her family.

At one stage she questioned whether being away from her family for so long was “doable”.

She told Express.co.uk: “When we turned up in Amsterdam it was last May, they weren’t in full lockdown but there were still an awful lot of restrictions.

“It was different in London at the time so we kind of went [a step] back in a way, a lot of the restaurants and bars and stuff in Amsterdam were shut.

“So you couldn’t really go anywhere, I realise now looking back we didn’t really have much of a social life outside of work.

“I ended up hosting dinners for people because there was nowhere to go and get together.”

Maimie would spend a day cooking whether guest actors came out to film their parts, which she loved doing.

But the biggest challenge was not being able to go to home to her children.

She added: “We couldn’t really embrace the city in a way we have done before.

“I guess the biggest challenge, which was very different for all six of us really, was the fact we couldn’t travel back to England.

“So for Emma [Fielding] and I, we both have kids, that was immensely tough, so much so that I kind of questioned whether it was doable, whether it was possible.

“I got through it but there were so many twists and turns with the travel restrictions that the job became totally secondary to the logistics of planning a four-month stint away.”

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Thankfully it did not take the star long to get back into the swing of filming in different conditions.

She explained: “I guess the upside, once we got back into our little rhythm after a couple of weeks filming, is because we had done that first series all of these relationships between the gang were just richer.

“They kind of developed and really just blossomed over that second season, it’s why you kind of need time for all of these relationships to just have a little bit of space to breathe.

“So we got to know each other more as friends and stuff, I think that comes out on screen and I think it finds its feet in season two.”

Viewers will be pleased to hear a third season has already been given the green light and production is underway.

“It feels like it’s growing as a show, certainly season two felt like the lid had come off in a way,” she said.

“The locations, the art department, I thought they were marvellous and I loved working with them.

“It felt like everybody had upped their game a lot and maybe it was just a sense of everyone knowing what they were doing more.

“I think the second season got even better, so that’s exciting to see what people make of it and I think the third season is even better than the second, it’s kind of how you want things to go.”

Van Der Valk airs on ITV on Sundays at 8pm.

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