DALLAS got all the publicity but there are those who found its spin-off Knots Landing more to their taste. And now it’s coming back – not like Dallas in a new series, but re-runs of the original show.

Coincidentally, star Joan Van Ark has just made a guest appearance in the rebooted Dallas as her Knots Landing character Valene Ewing.

“I wanted to honour Valene. I wanted to be sure I was delivering Valene, and how she might look and how she might be 20 years later,” says the actress.

“And how she would react to people, and that includes with Charlene Tilton, who plays my daughter, and most importantly, with Val’s husband, Gary, played by Ted Shackelford.

“Val was difficult sometimes, she was tough to live with, tough to play, but I loved every golden moment.”

It’s 34 years since she first played Valene.

“Dallas always had the royalty, the spin, the iconic glow to it. Knots, for the first few episodes, took some time to establish its legs and its own identity,” she says.

“Pretty soon after Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy had done a few crossover episodes, the producers wanted it to stand on its own. They even asked me to drop my southern accent, because I started Valene as true Texas.

“I could see where Knots Landing was quieter than Dallas because I’d been on both shows, but it’s a wonderful thing when I encounter a true Knots Landing loyal fan – we value you.”

She had Alec Baldwin playing Val’s brother, one of a number of familiar faces in the cast. Guest stars included Ava Gardner, Howard Duff, Halle Berry and Desperate Housewives’ Marcia Cross.

Then there was award-winning stage and screen actress Julie Harris as Val’s grandmother. She had a big impact on Van Ark’s career. “She was my idol when I was growing up. The reason I went to the Yale Graduate School of Drama, the second female to go straight there from high school, was because of Julie Harris – who was the first,” she says.

“She wrote to the dean and asked him to meet me. Long story short, my parents drove me to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet the dean, who gave me a scholarship.

It was meant to be.”

She’s still in touch with her Knots Landing co-stars. “I have lunch with Ted every couple of weeks. We live close here in Studio City. I see Michele Lee and Donna Mills all the time. And I just did a production of Love Letters with Kevin Dobson,” she says.

“I loved that so much. I so want to come to London to do that with Ted Shackelford.

Imagine that, Gary and Val doing Love Letters. I wouldn’t care if I dropped dead the next day, that would make my life so complete.”

As well as the Knots Landing re-runs, Van Ark will be seen in an independent feature film coming out, Watercolour Postcards, playing a trailer-trash mom with terminal cancer. And on a lighter note, is a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race.