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TOOS: Netflix series about Toos van der Valk to premiere in 2026
A story from the history of the Van der Valk family will soon come to the screen. In the new Netflix series TOOS Toos van der Valk is central. Lies Visschedijk plays her role, while Frank Lammers can be seen as her husband Gerrit van der Valk.
The series is inspired by the kidnapping of Toos in 1982. A significant event that at the time not only had a great impact on the family but was also extensively covered by the Dutch media.
But who is Toos van der Valk really? And what story lies behind the event that, more than forty years later, forms the basis for a Netflix series?
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Toos van der Valk
For many Dutch people, the name Toos van der Valk is inextricably linked to the kidnapping that preoccupied the Netherlands for weeks in 1982. But her life story is much larger than that single significant event.
Toos was born as Anthonia van de Cappelle and married Gerrit van der Valk (1928–2009), son of Martinus and Rie van der Valk, and thus belonging to the second generation of the entrepreneurial family. Together, Toos and Gerrit had seven children.
It was a generation that would radically change Van der Valk in the decades after World War II. From Martinus and Rie's family business, their children continued to build on it. Gerrit played a prominent role in this and saw great possibilities in the American motel concept.
Mother and businesswoman
Even before Motel Nuland grew into an important base for further expansion, Gerrit and Toos made a success of the restaurant De Witte in Vught together. Toos also appears in later stories about the development of the company as an involved entrepreneur alongside Gerrit. She was one of the founding figures of Van der Valk Hotels & Restaurants and was one of the better-known businesswomen of her generation.
Together with Gerrit, she was in the midst of a period in which Van der Valk developed from a family of hospitality entrepreneurs into an increasingly large concern. Entrepreneurship and family life constantly overlapped. Their seven children grew up in that entrepreneurial environment and later became active themselves within the family's hotels and restaurants.
The kidnapping of Toos
In November 1982, Toos van der Valk was kidnapped.
What followed was a period of great uncertainty for Gerrit, their children, and the rest of the family. The case quickly gained national attention and was closely followed by the press and public.
More than four decades later, that event forms the inspiration for the Netflix series TOOS.
Netflix describes the series as a drama inspired by a true story. It is emphatically not a documentary or a literal reconstruction of what happened in 1982. The creators use the historical events as a basis for a dramatized story.
Lies Visschedijk as Toos
Actress Lies Visschedijk takes on the role of Toos. Frank Lammers plays Gerrit van der Valk.
Additionally, the cast includes Gijs Blom, Victor Löw, Juda Goslinga, Joy Verberk, and Jim Deddes. The direction is in the hands of Inti Calfat and Dirk Verheye.
The series follows not only Toos but also her family and the investigation that starts after her kidnapping.
Thus, TOOS uses an event that occurred within one family as a starting point for a larger story about family ties, uncertainty, and the enormous public interest surrounding the case.
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From family history to television drama
The fact that the story is now being retold, this time as an international Netflix production, is remarkable.
At the same time, there remains an important distinction between the history of the family and the series that is made from it.
TOOS is a drama production. Characters, dialogues, and events may have been altered or added by the creators to tell the story on television.
Therefore, those who watch the series do not see the literal history of Van der Valk, but an interpretation of it.