Charles Mesure plays DSS Kees Van Dam Detective Senior Sergeant Kees Van Dam sees himself as an honest cop relentlessly pursuing the course of justice..  And most of the time he is.  Bit he can also be uncompromising and single-minded to the exclusion of all else, including his love for Joni Collins.  Van Dam's commitment to his job has meant his private life has been on hold for a very long time, so his romance with Joni Collins initially came  as something of a shock.  Married and secure in his relationship, his world was rocked when another plainclothes he was working with - Sadie - was killed in an undercover operation.  It didn't help that Sadie was trying to break up his marriage and got him in an uncompromising position on camera. To make matters worse, David has seen the tape and of all the things Kees wrestles with in his life - it's the possibility that Joni & David will get back together. "Kees is a detective. He solves crimes for a living. He can tell when there’s a bad guy lurking and he knows that David loves Joni. He knows that David is on the fringe, is lurking, waiting. I think Kees’ take on life changes quite substantially. He goes from being a hard, staunch career cop to being someone who’s prepared to let that side of things go to try and have a life and a marriage. And then in the rudest possible way that illusion is rubbed in his face and it’s like the gods are saying to him ‘no you can’t have that. You’re a cop, that’s all you are’. It’s a very brutal awakening for Kees and he becomes quite cynical"

___________________ “Kees comes a bit of a cropper in this series.  Kees lost Sadie, his partner, who he was very close to and that impacted on him pretty badly.  He thinks he’s some kind of jinx. He’s like New Zealand’s version of Dirty Harry and when he gets a new partner, Ange Watson, he fears for her life. And he probably has a bit of a mental breakdown. .” -  Charles Mesure on Kees Van Dam ___________________

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