A Sudden Silence

This mystery begins with rising politician Van Hoorn (Nicholas Le Prevost) going out for a jog, only to be faced by a motorcyclist with a machine gun who fires at him before riding off. However, what is intriguing is that when a neighbour inquires what's just taken place, Van Hoorn is quick to fob it off as the bike's engine backfiring. Why? Does he know his assailant? If not, why won't he admit that someone tried to kill him? Or is it just a warning?

As it turns out, it is anything but a warning. Van Hoorn sees a motorbike wherever he goes, such as after leaving a meeting on dealing with the rise of pickpockets with Van Der Valk (the ever excellent Barry Foster). And Van Hoorn himself is a politician with many secrets (what's new?), such as a secret meeting with a shady businessman called Stevin (Andrew Ray) that Van Hoorn is keen to keep under wraps. Later he pays a visit to a man called Raoul (Richard Rees) in a flat in order to collect new clothes and a passport on a journey he is planning. But outside the mysterious motorcyclist is waiting for him and this time he doesn't miss.

His murder sees Van Der Valk put onto the case, and he is helped in his investigations by Dirk Boutsen (Kenneth Cranham). They have to break the news to Van Hoorn's widow Melanie (Ciaran Madden), but despite her husband's death Van Der Valk is convinced she is keeping something back from him. And there are plenty of revelations that come out after her husband's death. Although one of the secrets is easy to guess early on, the added twist is somewhat shocking, in what was reflecting on what was a big issue at the time. Mrs Van Hoorn is more surprised to learn that her husband had a passport and a bank account in a different name. Van Der Valk also discovers that Van Hoorn was due to attend a meeting the day he was killed, but never turned up. Where was he during that time? And where was he planning on going the next day?

All this adds up at first to be a rather intriguing mystery. But as the investigations progress - and another murder is committed after a call is made to the police from a phone box (if only he'd had a phone in the home) - the mystery itself eventually begins to dwindle. It is hindered by a sub plot involving a spate of restaurant bombings that Van Der Valk's son Wim (Richard Huw) is investigating. But this proves to be completely unconnected to the murder of Van Hoorn and a somewhat dull distraction from the main case, seemingly only created to give Huw's character something to do. Another problem is that there are few suspects early on and who are given little screen time, while other characters appear much later in the episode and again are not given time to bed down to gain our interest. There are a host of familiar faces, such as Kenneth Cranham, Andrew Ray, Gary Olsen (2pont4 children), Abigail Cruttenden (Not Going Out), Jonathan Firth (brother of Colin) and Victoria Shalet (The Queen's Nose) in a blink and you miss it role as one of Ciaran Madden's annoying children. Indeed, the only one with a decent role is Ciaran Madden herself as the grieving widow (or is she?). Madden is good at keeping us guessing and I've rarely known her give a bad performance, as revelations just keep tumbling out about her husband, but whose own actions are just as suspicious - such as the note she puts into a bottle and throws into the swimming pool that has the word "Ariadne" written on it, which Van Der Valk later retrieves.

But the main issue with this mystery is that there are as much unanswered questions as there are answers. Halfway through the episode Andrew Ray's character Stevin meets up with a businessman called Luther. Later after Van Der Valk and Boutsen leaves Commissaris Sansom's office, Luther is then seen being called into Samson's office. Why? Little is really explained on that. Then there is the medical evidence that Van Der Valk confronts Melanie Van Hoorn with. It's never revealed whether it's just her or whether her children have been affected too? And then there is Van Hoorn's reaction after the first assassination attempt. Does he know who is trying to kill him or not? If not, why not report it? Or is he afraid of the scandal that may come out? If he knows, why doesn't he do something himself, or does this explain his actions with the passport? And while the main mystery of who shot Van Hoorn is eventually solved, there remains the mystery of who killed Raoul. Was it the widow? The businessmen who feared he may reveal Van Hoorn's dodgy dealings? The government fearing the revelations that would come out about Van Hoorn's private life? It's never explained and Samson is happy to let it remain unresolved, as much to the frustration of us as it is to Van Der Valk, who feels at the end as if he has been led to the original case conclusions a little too conveniently for his liking.

Foster is good as Van Der Valk, determined to find out the truth and not compromise his principles in a case where many would rather he did and are eager to cover their own misdeeds. And there are times when it shows the era it was filmed in (1991, to be exact), with Samson at one point bemoaning that "it's bad enough there is an element of perverse sexuality involved" as he is eager for Van Der Valk to move away from investigating Van Hoorn's government dealings. In another scene he asks Abigail Cruttenden's character "You and Michael aren't married, are you?" before inquiring that nevertheless her baby she is carrying is his. But the charm of Foster is that he isn't judgemental when asking it, it's just how it was back then. One thing that doesn't seem to of changed is when Boutsen describes that a bag lady witnessed the murder of Raoul, only for Van Der Valk's wife Arlette (Meg Davies) to waspishly state that it's "Person." It seems even back then the dogma of political correctness was apparent, but maybe this line was included by the makers as a form of criticism towards it. Although Arlette's character is not as bad as she was in the Dr Hoffman's Children episode, I still can't warm to Meg Davies' portrayal of Arlette.

Overall it's a mystery that started intriguingly, left up a lot of revelations and questions, but one where it failed to answer all of them satisfactory. Foster and Madden keep us watching, but it proved frustratingly inconclusive overall.